**Abstract**

Smartphones have revolutionized the tourism industry due to their ability to create and improve the tourist experience, mostly among young users, especially those belonging to the Generation Y (Gen Y). Millennials, as the Generation Y is often referred to, stand out for their ability to travel more frequently and for longer periods, as well as for their often-addictive use of smartphones. Despite nomophobia is not a recent phenomenon, there are few research works on information and communication technologies and tourism that address the effects of smartphone use on the tourist experience. The objective of this exploratory study is to describe the feelings Gen Y experiences as a result of use smartphones during their travels, their tourism functionality, and the relationship between the two. The study is based on the application of an online survey to a representative sample. The results confirm the problems associated with smartphone use, especially among young people (16–19) and the existence of a correlation between smartphone use for tourist purposes and a positive travel experience. It has confirmed that they experience negative feelings and emotions. The study presents crucial information that destination marketing organizations can use to successfully integrate smartphones into their digital marketing and communication strategies.

**Keywords:** generation Y, smartphone, nomophobia, tourism, tourist experience

### **1. Introduction**

The Generation Y (Gen Y) is a segment of great interest to the business sector in general [1–3] and to the tourism sector, in particular, due to its leading role in the last decade as consumers, prosumers and adprosumers [2–5] and its importance to achieve the goals of destinations [5, 6]. As Richards [7] points out, Gen Y (as this generation is often referred to) is a market segment of great value to tourist destinations due to the economic potential and availability of its members to travel more frequently and for longer periods. The professional and academic fields have shown great interest in this generation, which is reflected in the recent publication of a remarkable number of research works, both general in scope [2, 3, 8–13] and specific to the tourism sector [5, 14–18] The latter sector is particularly interested in this generation's use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for tourism purposes [19–24].

Within the diversity of ICTs, the boom and massive adoption of smartphones among Gen Y [20, 25–28] as well as the proven relevance of these mobile devices for the tourism sector highlight the need for more studies on this regard to contribute to the development of a still incipient and scarce line of research [18, 29–31]. Just like with any other ICTs, the integration of smartphones into the digital marketing and communication strategies of the tourism business should take into account the particularities of the different stakeholders of the destinations [5, 17, 18, 32–36] to ensure their use actually generates positive emotions and sensations [31, 37–39] that contribute to a different, original, and satisfying tourist experience [40–42].
