CUSTOMER AI INVOLVEMENT AND TOURISM EXPERIENCE VALUE: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF CUSTOMER INTERACTION
Keywords:
Customer AI involvement, Customer interaction, Tourism experience value, Service-dominant logic, Smart tourismAbstract
The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is reshaping tourism service environments and transforming how tourists participate in tourism experiences. Drawing on the perspective of service-dominant logic, this study examines how Customer AI involvement influences tourism experience value in smart tourism contexts and explores the mediating role of customer interaction. Data were collected through an online survey of tourists with recent travel experiences, resulting in 264 valid responses. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that Customer AI involvement has a significant positive effect on tourism experience value. In addition, interpersonal interaction significantly mediates the relationship between Customer AI involvement and tourism experience value, whereas the mediating role of emotional interaction is not supported. These findings suggest that tourists’ engagement with AI technologies can enhance tourism experience value, partly through facilitating interpersonal communication and information exchange during tourism experiences. The study contributes to the literature by introducing the concept of Customer AI involvement into tourism experience research and by examining customer interaction as a multidimensional mechanism in AI-enabled tourism environments. The findings also provide practical implications for tourism enterprises seeking to enhance tourism experiences through the effective application of intelligent technologies.References
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