A linkage between Internet use and tourism activities

The impact of Internet use on leisure activities is investigated theoretically and empirically beyond the extent to which the related literature has reached. This study illustrates theoretically a nonlinear linkage between Internet use and tourism activities in the context of a thought experiment relating to individual’s allocation of spare time among leisure activities. By means of a count data model, our empirical evidence suggests that time spent online has an inverted U-shaped impact on overnight trips and museum visits, indicating that the marginal impact of Internet use is decreasing. At the low points of time spent online, Internet use may stimulate tourism activities, whereas at the high points of Internet use, it could have just the opposite effect. This finding implies that problematic use of the Internet (or Internet addiction) is negatively associated with tourism activities. However, time spent online does not significantly affect leisure activities such as watching movies and TV, listening to the radio, or reading magazines and newspapers.