The Good, the bad, and the ugly: Tourist perceptions on interactions with personalised content

Personalisation is a critical factor in superior customer experience and retention. It is also observed to be a cause of user frustration. This paper challenges the assumption that accurate content personalisation always positively affects tourist perceptions on the usefulness and ease of use of the information systems. The study integrates the logic of technology acceptance and the process of human motivation to explain personalised recommender system acceptance. Indepth semi-structured interviews with tourists, industry practitioners, and academic experts were used in research. The findings illustrate that the characteristics of personalised content have double and, sometimes, ambivalent influence on tourist perceptions on system performance. A comprehensive strategy is required to optimise the potential of personalisation. This study expands the understanding of tourist interactions with personalised content and calls for further exploration of the effects of information system components on user experience.