No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Virtual Reality in Tourism Promotion: A Research Agenda Based on A Bibliometric Approach
Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) has the capacity to increase tourists’ responses, compared with other marketing tools. In tourism, it can play a decisive role in its promotion, since it can generate impactful information that will increase the visit intention. However, there are few reviews that focus on VR as a promotional tool in tourism. To overcome this limitation, this work provides a bibliometric analysis of papers from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The analysis allows us to conclude that although its potential is recognized, the use of VR is infrequent in tourism. We also identified three main avenues for future research: presence and devices, promotional strategies, and segments to explore.
Free online copies - eprintlink: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZGASTKAZY4YCVICWUF5X/full?target=10.1080/1528008X.2022.2112807
... During the last few years, Sousa et al. Tourism Management Perspectives xxx (xxxx) 101235 empirical research on the potential of VR in the tourism industry has focused on demonstrating that the response to VR is significantly higher when compared to traditional marketing tools (Sousa, Alén, Losada, & Melo, 2022). Some authors have explored the benefits of VR in tourism (Tom Dieck, Tom Dieck, Jung, & Moorhouse, 2018), especially the role of VR in adding value to tourism experiences (Wei et al., 2023). ...
... Additionally, according to Li and Chen (2019), research aiming to identify the factors influencing tourists' behavioural intentions after VR experiences is still scarce, and there is still a need to explore the applicability of VR in activities like wine tourism (Alyahya & McLean, 2021;. Therefore, this exploratory research aims to understand whether the satisfaction felt during a VR wine tourism experience is capable of influencing (i) the intention to visit a winery in the region to which the experience refers, (ii) the intention to recommend the VR experience in a wine tourism context and (iii) the intention to recommend a real visit to the place experienced in VR, reinforcing the appeals to the research of Sousa et al. (2022) on the capability of VR to develop tourist intention towards the destination. ...
... According to the studies by Yung and Khoo-Lattimore (2019) and Sousa et al. (2022), research involving VR devices in the tourism context has been increasingly frequent, using setups for applying virtual experiences with different degrees of immersion. From a technological perspective, in tourism-related research, three types of setups are commonly observed, classified as non-immersive, semi-immersive, and immersive . ...
Virtual Reality (VR) has proven to be an important contribution to tourists' decision-making regarding a destination. This fact can be determinant, especially when tourists face some social limitation or restriction that conditions their participation in tourism activities. Therefore, we aim to understand whether the possibility of experiencing immersive wine tourism activities can encourage future visits, as well as the recommendation of the VR experience and the destination itself. To achieve our goal, we offered 405 participants an experimental VR experience with digital content about a wine tourism activity. The results showed that participants feel that the VR experience influences their behavioural intention towards the wine tourism destination. The satisfaction felt from the experience leads to a significant effect on the intention to visit and to recommend the destination and the VR activity. These findings suggest to wine tourism destination managers that VR can play an essential role in tourism management.
... Hanaa and Abdul (2023) also conducted a bibliometric analysis of AR research in tourism, showing a recent rise in AR studies within the tourism industry. Finally, the bibliometric study of VR in tourism promotion by Sousa et al. (2022) revealed an infrequent use of VR in tourism while acknowledging its potential as a promotional tool. Their study also briefly addressed some VR-related aspects in the hospitality sector, particularly its use in tourist experiences during their stays. ...
... Their study also briefly addressed some VR-related aspects in the hospitality sector, particularly its use in tourist experiences during their stays. Considering the focus by Sousa et al. (2022) on VR as a marketing tool in the broader tourism context, alongside AR studies in hospitality, other possible applications of VR in this industry besides marketing purposes, such as for training and educational purposes (Lui & Goel, 2022;Penfold, 2009), may have been overlooked. Based on this brief overview of previous reviews, it seems that there has not yet been a purposeful study investigating the state of VR and AR research in hospitality. ...
... First, similar to Kalia et al. (2022), we checked databases to ensure the exclusivity of our research topic (i.e., VR/AR in hospitality) before deciding to pursue it. As a result, we found previous literature reviews on VR and/or AR in the broader tourism or tourism and hospitality context (e.g., Jingen Liang & Elliot, 2021;Loureiro et al., 2020;Pestek & Sarvan, 2021;Yung & Khoo-Lattimore, 2019;Wei, 2019) and two bibliometric reviews that, however, focused on VR as a marketing tool in tourism (Sousa et al., 2022) or only on AR in tourism (Hanaa & Abdul, 2023). A brief overview of these reviews was provided in the previous section. ...
Purpose – Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies are evolving, with scholars highlighting important roles and potential advantages for their use, particularly in the hospitality sector. This bibliometric study examined VR/AR research in the hospitality industry to take stock of the literature in this field and consider potential future directions. Methodology/Design/Approach – Using the Web of Science database, 213 relevant articles were selected and analyzed. Descriptive analysis was conducted using RStudio to identify the most productive countries, journals, authors, and institutions. The most influential topics were identified using keyword co-occurrence analysis in VOSviewer. Findings – The results revealed that VR/AR research in the hospitality sector has recently gained prominence, with China leading in contributions. Three major clusters of themes emerged: (i) the impact of VR on hospitality, tourism, and destinations; (ii) technology enhancing satisfaction and performance in hotels ; and (iii) user acceptance of AR in travel. Originality of the research – This study offers an overview of VR/AR research trends in the hospitality industry based on a bibliometric analysis of literature data from the Web of Science database. It provides research mapping to identify current developments in the VR/ AR literature within this industry and sheds light on areas for future research.
... The objective of this paper, which consists of analyzing different empirical works that have been carried out in the scientific literature about tourism, economic development and environmental sustainability, is to demonstrate that tourism, accounting for certain environmental factors, can be considered as an instrument of economic development. For this, a methodological structure is followed, similar to that used by Sousa et al. (2022) in their bibliometric review [27]. ...
... The objective of this paper, which consists of analyzing different empirical works that have been carried out in the scientific literature about tourism, economic development and environmental sustainability, is to demonstrate that tourism, accounting for certain environmental factors, can be considered as an instrument of economic development. For this, a methodological structure is followed, similar to that used by Sousa et al. (2022) in their bibliometric review [27]. ...
... The articles that were selected in a first phase were then screened using the PRISMA method (Figure 1), which consists of a set of items based on obtaining evidence for the development of a systematic review through a list checklist and a flowchart [27]. This process resulted in a total of 6 valid articles, which were used as case studies in this review work. ...
In recent years, tourism has established itself as one of the most important economic sectors worldwide. Given the economic importance of this activity, different international organizations have decided to bet on tourism as a development tool. However, the expansion of tourism, on many occasions, can cause significant environmental deterioration, so it is necessary to analyze the costs and benefits generated by tourism in those territories that host this activity. To deepen our knowledge about the relationship between tourism, environmental sustainability and economic development, the objective of this work is to analyze the relationships that may exist between these three variables, which will allow us to determine if tourism influences economic development, and if there are factors pertaining to environmental sustainability that influence this relationship. In this paper, a comparative analysis of cases is used to analyze how environmental sustainability influences the relationship between tourism and economic development. The analysis carried out shows that tourism, although with some limitations, can be configured as an instrument of economic development.
... At the same time, the development of technology has not only significantly accelerated tourism development from smart scenic spot management, but also improved the tourism experience through the use of communication technology, big data (Chattopadhyay & Mitra, 2022) cloud computing, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, etc. Therefore, this paper establishes the index system of tourism economic subsystem and technological innovation subsystem to represent the coupling system between tourism and technological innovation.Then, through correlation analysis and qualitative analysis, key indicators are further selected, aiming to deeply understand the coupling relationship between tourism and technological innovation, and find out the interaction between these factors (Kokash et al., 2024;Sousa et al., 2024). 3) Number of regional technology market transaction contracts (Continued) Tourism ecological environment quality indicators: 1) Regional forest coverage; 2) Harmless treatment rate of household waste ...
The study investigates the interplay between the tourism economy and technological innovation in China's coastal provinces and cities, uncovering the dynamics of regional and sub-regional coupling and coordination from 2014 to 2022. Empirical findings indicate that the overall degree of coupling coordination among 11 coastal provinces and cities exhibited a rising trend from significant imbalance to good coordination from 2014 to 2019, but underwent fluctuations due to the impact of COVID-19 from 2020 to 2022. Sub-regional analysis reveals dynamic changes in coastal provinces and cities such as the Yangtze River Delta, Bohai Rim, and Pearl River Delta, highlighting the coupling, coordination, and competition between tourism economy and technological innovation in these economic zones. The results suggest that regional alliances can be established to promote the integration of tourism economic development with technological innovation in China's coastal areas, while emphasizing active support measures by local and central governments for long-term development.
... Acknowledging tourists' demonstrated interest in virtual activities, companies started investing in VR programmers and equipment to provide immersive experiences at their tourism establishments (Kim et al., 2021). According to the study by Sousa et al. (2024), the way VR is implemented in tourism largely depends on the purpose companies have for its application. That is, whether they intend to use VR as a promotional tool, offering virtual content through their digital platforms to tourists, or alternatively, as a supplementary activity during physical visits to enhance the tourism experience. ...
Purpose-This study investigates the barriers to the adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) in the tourism industry. Although VR has great potential to enhance the tourist experience, the adoption of this technology is still limited in the tourism sector. Building on the fundamental principles of the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) theory and its contribution to perceptions of technology adoption, this study aims to fill the knowledge gap regarding the specific barriers to VR adoption by tourism enterprises. Methodology-To achieve this objective, interviews were conducted with managers of tourism companies, and the data was analysed using qualitative methodology through MAXQDA 20 software. Conclusions-The results reveal that the main barriers identified by managers mainly include lack of knowledge about VR, particularly in the tourism sector. The perceived lack of usefulness, limited experience with the technology, and reluctance to invest in technological equipment also emerge as barriers to VR adoption. Originality of research-This study can help companies in the tourism sector to develop more effective strategies to overcome these barriers, thereby improving the tourist experience and increasing their competitiveness in the market using VR equipment.
... Waltman, Van Eck, and Noyons (2010) discuss the clustering technique used by VOSviewer [67]. This technology requires an intelligent local traffic algorithm, which was introduced by Waltman and Van Eck (2013) [68]. ...
In the European Digital Decade 2030 Policy Program, the following guidelines for European digital transformation are named, which means that more than 90% of small- and medium-sized companies reach at least a basic level of digital intensity. In addition to that, the European Commission pays a lot of attention to implementing the “Green Deal” in order to achieve less environmental impact. ICT SMEs already play a key role in Europe’s green and digital transformation, creating technologies that promote sustainability and strengthen Europe’s position. The limited and fragmented application of today’s digital and sustainable technologies in SMEs is observed at the EU level. The bibliometric literature analytical results show that the number of papers on the digital direction is five times higher than on the sustainable direction topic. The paper seeks to identify directions that could help SMEs to speed up this twin transformation in each EU country. The authors proposed a two-stage methodology, which is used for researching twin transformations in SMEs. According to the methodology, first, the authors analysed the indicators of EU-27 SMEs, representing their activity towards the twin transformation, comparing them among other size classes. The results show that the SME’s numbers in the 16 indicators area are worse than the numbers characterizing EU-27 enterprises, having more than ten employees. In addition, a multi-criteria decision making-based assessment framework was constructed to show the progress towards the twin transition. The provided research shows which areas require more attention from SMEs and policy makers responding to the twin transformation objectives.
... According to Jorge et al. (2023) [86], both during the deployment and in the post-COVID-19 period, tourist resorts increasingly aspire to adopt digital tools that facilitate a stronger connection between tourist destinations and potential visitors [86]. This is the main reason why VR has been systematically considered in the strategies and business models of the tourism sector [87]. Carrança et al. (2023) [88] stated that the emergence and development of an augmented reality (AR) application suitable and appropriate for administration in the mentioned context requires careful consideration of human factors as key elements. ...
The proposed approach—geotourism, a new medium- and long-term post-pandemic recovery perspective—provides a theoretical foundation for future research regarding the interactions between tourism agencies and tourists, visitors and landforms, as well as cooperation and support between local residents and tourists, for Bucegi Natural Park. In the current context, the nature monuments and nature reserves within the park are located in rural and urban areas. These can be capitalized and included directly in the tourism agencies’ supply, and they can be used for zonal and regional development without degrading the surrounding environment. The “Babele and the Sphinx” landmarks with interesting shapes offer benefits for the development of geotourism in the Romanian landscape. In addition to those listed previously, this study proposes and analyses the image of the geotourism destination and a slogan for the international promotion of the park. Thus, the research presents two sources of data collection: (1) primary data, i.e., those obtained following a questionnaire and analysed with the help of the SPSS Statistics software, version 15.0, and (2) secondary statistical data from the database of the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) that are available and constantly updated. Another method used with a significant impact on tourism analysis was represented using the Geographic Information System (GIS). With its help, we mapped the tourist routes and the two elements, nature reserves and nature monuments within the park, that constitute the basis of the geotourism relaunch after COVID-19. The final objective of the paper is to strengthen the role of travel agencies in promoting geotourism by offering visits to tourist attractions in the park.
... The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the industry to change the conventional practices, requiring innovative practices for any kind of industry fields. For example, tourism (Sousa et al. [18] and Sousa et al. [19]), business management (Illiashenko et al. [20]), or education sector (Shen and Guo [21]) have searched for novel breakthroughs to overcome pandemic situations. For the case of supply chain management, Ali et al. [22] has thoroughly reviewed the main drivers for Internet of Things (IoT) adoption in the post-pandemic situations. ...
This paper presents a two-stage mathematical model aimed at enhancing supply chain efficiency by evaluating multiple sourcing strategies and optimizing extra procurement. In the first stage, the model minimizes the gap between Sales and Operation Planning (SOP) and maximum product quantity achievable with current inventory levels, setting the foundation for understanding resource requirements. The second stage focuses on extra procurement strategy optimization, considering lead times, cost-effectiveness. We analyze the trade-offs between multiple sourcing and single vendor approaches, providing valuable insights for supply chain decision-makers. This research offers a practical framework to improve supply chain efficiency, reduce gaps, and enhance customer satisfaction while strengthening supply chain resilience in the face of unforeseen challenges, as demonstrated by the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemics.
... Research into Virtual reality (VR) experiences in tourism has increased in recent years (González-Rodríguez et al. 2020a, b;Griffin, & Muldoon 2020;Nayyar, Mahapatra, Le, & Suseendran, 2018;Sousa, Alén, Losada, & Melo, 2022). Despite the growing interest in VR in tourism, most of the studies utilise survey methods (Elkhwesky, Abuelhassan, Elkhwesky, & Khreis, 2023), although questionnaires fail to capture the holistic salient features, namely the cognitive, affective, and conative aspects of an experience. ...
This research is based on the cognitive-affective-conative model applied to the online reviews posted by visitors of a tourist attraction titled “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” held in York (UK). The goals of the study specifically focus on the identification of the cognitive features triggered using the VR device and on the understanding of sentiments and emotions activated by the VR experience. To this end, Text mining and Sentiment analysis have been utilised. This work extends prior studies on VR based on surveys by providing a comprehensive hybrid view of how knowledge is derived from the posted online reviews. The findings offer practitioner insights into the cognitive and affective aspect of the VR experience, which requires special attention for its adaptation so that it continues meeting visitors’ expectations.
... Over the years, the development on integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) brings practical applications for multi sector. Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging trend of technology development in related to fulfilling user's experience by connecting user between virtual and real world (Sousa et al., 2022). Users can get more immersive experiences in virtual reality. ...
It is experienced that the tourism and hospitality industry has been changing dramatically year by year, not only the crisis of the pandemic outbreak related to the restriction of travelling but also due to novel of technology evolution, including applications of virtual reality. In fact, applying virtual world into business operation to increase customer intention have been paid more attention from practitioners, scholars, and stakeholders. Yet, it is necessary to comprehend this field's trend and its impact on business strategies and the future perspective of applying virtual reality experiences in tourism and the hospitality industry. This study mainly aims to examine the current state of research and trends of virtual reality related-tourism and hospitality studies from the beginning to the outbreak of the pandemic and post-pandemic and discuss them over the period time towards the future perspective of this research. By proposing a bibliometric approach to analyse 1441 studies from Scopus data published over three last decades related to virtual reality experience in tourism and hospitality sector to generalize information associated with research opportunity for future in this area. This study uses a combination of RStudio 2022 and VOSViewer 1.6.18 software to analyse databases that were retrieved from reliable resources and the most signification impact so as to provide a whole picture of virtual reality connecting with the relevant context. With regard to offering information in terms of the volume document of studies, citations, authors, countries, authorship networks, keyword networks and keyword co-occurrences, the relevant research direction in this field as well as the top journals and conferences that have most published in this field by over years. By using bibliometric analysis, this study's result gives an understanding of value information and suggestions by visual overview for future virtual reality studies on the tourism and hospitality context.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of presence on users’ information processing in mediated visualizations using immersive virtual reality (VR) and websites, focusing on information understanding and cognitive load. The impact of user interfaces on users’ perception of presence is also tested.
Design/methodology/approach
A between-subjects laboratory experiment using two user interfaces – immersive VR and website – is carried out. It is complemented by a self-administered survey on the participants.
Findings
The current results indicate that an immersive VR interface improves tourists’ information processing by producing a heightened sense of presence. The results confirm that presence facilitates tourists’ information processing by increasing information understanding and decreasing cognitive load. Finally, a negative relationship between cognitive load and information understanding is obtained.
Practical implications
VR user interfaces are not only visually appealing but also cognitively optimized. Immersive VR devices can be introduced in the specific sale process of cruise trips through both offline channels (physical stores and travel agencies) and online channels to facilitate tourists’ information processing during the prepurchase phase.
Originality/value
The primary contribution lies in the integration of the theory of presence with two influential information processing frameworks, namely, cognitive load theory and cognitive fit theory. This integration provides a holistic perspective on how user interfaces influence consumer information processing in the unique context of cruise tourism, particularly during the stage of a prepurchase information search.
Virtual reality, which offers users an artificial universe via computers, creates value for the customer through innovative technology. In this regard, the study aims to guide future research in the field of virtual reality and marketing. 418 articles published in English between 2013 and 2023 were examined from the Scopus database. Performance analysis, science mapping and network analysis were performed through the Biblioshiny library in the RStudio software program. As a result of the study, there has been a significant increase in the number of articles in the field of virtual reality and marketing since 2019. The most used keywords in the articles were identified as virtual reality, augmented reality, metaverse, marketing and virtual reality (VR). From 2014 to 2023, an increase in digital themes such as virtual community and social network has been observed. In the studies in 2023, artificial intelligence and metaverse themes are dominant. When the dominant themes are examined, it is noted that there are human and commerce keywords in addition to virtual reality and marketing, which are the keywords of the study. Studies are mostly concentrated in the field of tourism. Analysis was done based on motor, basic, emerging or declining, and niche themes. It can be said that the keyword "human" was used commonly in motor themes between 2013 and 2023. It has been seen in the study that studies in the field of health have been intense in recent years and have emerged as a theme. As a result of bibliometric analysis, it was seen that the human element came to the fore in motor, basic and niche themes. The study may help researchers identify areas to be expanded in the literature on virtual reality and marketing and reveal frequently studied themes and methods. It is also anticipated that it will serve as a guide for those who want to contribute to virtual reality and marketing literature.
With the rise of globalisation and development of information technology, e-commerce, as an alternative buying and selling space to offline stores, gained on its importance. The e-commerce prevalence affected the way business is done by organisations, but also the consumer behaviours and their perceived value of retail space. E-commerce has been on the rise in most industries, especially followed by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The rising trend of digital shopping behaviour in terms of the increase in online payment methods, number of mobile transactions etc. has been also evident. The on-going growth of e-commerce on a global level may be argued as evidence of people’s acceptance of e-commerce. Nevertheless, some studies have found significant differences in the level of acceptance between the developed and developing countries, since the latter fall behind in terms of the digital transformation. Various theories of e-commerce acceptance have been formulated in literature to appoint to factors that drive the e-commerce acceptance. Furthermore, the user’s trust in terms of the online security, variety of products available online, the competitiveness of prices or the time saved compared to offline stores have shown to be some of the general factors influencing the e-commerce acceptance both from buyers’ and sellers’ point of view. This paper presents the findings of research conducted in cooperation with the E-Commerce Association Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2023 on a sample of 1,317 respondents who made purchases online. The findings of the research confirm some of the findings carried out in countries around the world, but there are also certain specificities that are reflected in the preference for the way of making purchases, the method of payment, the method of delivery, the selection of sellers, etc.
The definition of a tourism data space (TDS) in the Balearic Islands is a complex process that involves identifying the types of questions to be addressed, including analytical tools, and determining the type of information to be incorporated. This study delves into the functional requirements of a Balearic Islands’ TDS based on the study of scientific research carried out in the field of tourism in the Balearic Islands and drawing comparisons with international scientific research in the field of tourism information. Utilizing a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature, this study identifies the scientific requirements that should be met for the development of a robust, rigorous, and efficient TDS. The goal is to support excellent scientific research in tourism and facilitate the transfer of research results to the productive sector to maintain and improve the competitiveness of the Balearic Islands as a tourist destination. The results of the analysis provide a structured framework for the construction of the Balearic Islands’ TDS, outlining objectives, methods to be implemented, and information to be considered.
Bu çalışmanın amacı, sanal müzeler üzerine Türkiye'de hakemli bilimsel dergilerde yayınlanan mevcut araştırmaları incelemektir. Sanal müzeler, herhangi bir destinasyonda kültür turizminin en önemli bileşenlerinden birisi olan müzelerin, teknolojik yansımalarıdır. Bu çalışmada, Türkçe literatürde sanal müze araştırmalarının nasıl geliştiğinin; sanal müzelerin hangi yönlerinin incelendiğinin; ilgili araştırmaları yayınlayan yazarların akademik disiplinlerinin nasıl farklılık gösterdiğinin ve; hangi metodolojileri kullandıklarının keşfedilmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Mevcut çalışma bulgularının, sanal müzeler üzerine yürütülen ulusal araştırmaların aynı alandaki uluslararası araştırmalarla nasıl paralellik gösterdiğinin ortaya çıkarmasının yanı sıra, mevcut literatür boşluklarını belirtmesi ve gelecekte olası çalışmalar için öneriler sunması umulmaktadır.
Tourism business models have used several technologies in their development, such as Virtual Reality (VR). Previous studies show that VR allows tourism organizations to promote new types of relationships between tourists and destinations, to enhance the appeal and memorability of tourist experiences and to diversify consumption patterns, which could also be interesting for dealing with sustainability issues, such as seasonal demand of destinations or activities in wine tourism. Thus, we propose a conceptual model to analyze the inuence of memorable tourism experiences on wine tourists' future intentions after a VR experience, providing additional details on the research methodology to empirically test the conceptual model. Innovation in business models with VR to promote new relationships with destinations or activities and diversify tourists' consumption patterns could be interesting to address seasonal activities, such as the grape harvest or grape-treading, which are not continuously available for tourist observation/ participation, despite their high appeal. On the other hand, the results could contribute to wine and other kinds of tourism, conditioned by mobility issues such as restrictions on movements or personal interaction, due to health crises or personal constraints, increasing these tourism experiences' accessibility also in times of unavailability.
During the health crisis caused by COVID-19, virtual reality (VR) proved to be useful for the tourism industry, allowing this industry to continue working despite the restrictions imposed. However, it remains to be seen if the impact of this sanitary crisis in the tourism industry influenced managers' intention to adopt this technology in the post-pandemic period. To fill this gap, a qualitative methodological approach was adopted, using the MAXQDA20 software and interviews with managers of tourism enterprises. The results show that the willingness to invest in technology, the perception of VR as a business strategy, and the perception of the impact of the pandemic are factors that regulate the intention of companies to adopt VR. In addition, prior experience with VR and the perception of technical support are also important for its adoption. Thus, it was concluded that VR can be a valuable sustainable strategy for tourism companies to address the challenges imposed by the pandemic. However, adopting the technology depends on factors such as financial availability, business strategy, and previous experience with VR. Furthermore, tourism companies must also receive adequate technical support to ensure its correct implementation.
The purpose of this research is twofold: firstly, we aim to understand the role of virtual reality (VR) in influencing tourism consumers’ attitudes toward a tourist destination and, secondly, understand the influence of different levels of sensory information presented through VR experiences on the development of mental imagery, attitudes toward the destination, and visit intention. We tackle this through a multistudy experimental approach. First, in study 1, we demonstrate that VR plays a positive role in enhancing previously held consumer attitudes toward a tourist destination. Second, we affirm that VR has a greater positive effect on attitudes toward a destination in comparison to a less immersive technology (i.e., website). Third, in study 2, we find that different levels of sensory information in VR experiences result in significant differences with regard to the developed mental imagery, sense of presence in the experience, attitudes toward the destination and visit intentions.
One of the main problems in pricing products is the pricing policy for large hotels. This leads to a monopolization of prices. Despite the low quality of services in these hotels, the prices are very high. Groups are forced to go to larger public hotels because fewer private large hotels cannot accommodate a large influx of tourists. The hotel decides what services to provide, at what facility and at what price to sell them. In the context of market relations, pricing mechanisms are implemented through price and its dynamics. Price dynamics are formed under the influence of two important factors, strategic and tactical.
The present document has the objective to identify whether virtual reality can become a disruptive technology for the promotion of small touristic companies in times of pandemic or financial crisis by implementing the concept of organizational resilience in order to explain the success or failure of touristic Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) in La Fortuna, located around and within Arenal Volcano National park in the northern region of Costa Rica by exploring the application of virtual reality as disruptive tool for activities that promote SME’s in times of crisis, as the one we are experiencing due to the pandemic. We are taking into consideration literature related to the term resilience and compile information from local tour operators in order to demonstrate the crisis, the promotion means used, and the option to implement virtual reality in such promotion. Results show that the closure of borders directly affect this area since foreign visitors represent 95% of tourists, so meeting the 80 activities being offered, as well as the specialized culinary services, and the variety of hotels from big and small businesspeople, is affected. Confinement represents a barrier for the national tourist, but it becomes an opportunity for a personalized promotion. Going from the use of social networks, e-commerce, emails, the dependence on big companies operating online, to providing immersive and telepresence experiences, consolidates their brands from a closer relationship to the customer, impacts on emotional aspects, and leans the balance for future visitation intentions.
An experimental study was conducted to test the mediating effect of presence on the consumer response to tourism promotion using virtual reality (VR) technology. Hong Kong college students (N = 203) were assigned to three experimental groups in which they were exposed to a hotel advertorial on an online blog, a VR 360° video on a mobile phone, or a VR 360° video using Google Cardboard goggles. The results supported the hypothesis that presence plays a mediating role in the relationship between the use of VR in tourism advertising and consumer response. As one of the first studies in the tourism field to investigate the effects of a virtual depiction of a real-world environment on consumption intentions, the findings reveal how VR technology can be used to promote a hotel by generating a sense of presence. This study makes a further contribution to the VR literature by finding that the use of Cardboard goggles did not produce a significantly greater sense of presence in the experience of advertorial viewers. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings for the use of VR technology in branding and promotion are discussed.
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are widely used in low-cost photogrammetry. Even small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) can deliver valuable data for the inventory of inaccessible and dangerous areas or objects. The acquisition of data for 3D object modeling is a complicated, time-consuming, and cost-intensive process. It requires the use of expensive equipment and often manual work as well as professional software. These are major barriers limiting the development of modern tourist platforms that promote local attractions. Information technologies offer new opportunities for the development of the services market, including the development of smart tourism services, as an integral part of the smart city concept. 3D models are an important element of this process as they form the basis for the use of new visualization technologies, such as Virtual, Mixed, and Augmented Reality (VR/MR/AR). 3D modeling provides a new opportunity to use AR/MR technology to present information about objects, virtual tours of the historic buildings, and their promotion. It also creates an opportunity to preserve the architectural heritage and preventive maintenance of buildings. Despite the increasing use of new measuring platforms and computer modeling techniques, the implementation of 3D building models in smart tourism services is still limited, focusing more on the results of scientific projects rather than on the implementation of the new ones. The paper presents an universal methodology for the inventory of historical buildings using low-cost UAVs. It describes the most important aspects related to the process of planning UAV measurement missions and photogrammetric data acquisition. The construction of 3D models and the possibilities of their further use to build smart tourism services based on Web/AR/MR/VR technology was also presented.
To conduct a bibliometric analysis, several researchers retrieve publications from Scopus or/and Web of Science (WOS) databases. When these scholars consider both Scopus and WOS databases, they mostly make two bibliometric analysis: one from Scopus database and the other from WOS database. A few researchers merge the two databases to conduct a single analysis, but they do not specify how they did it. This paper aims to advance the bibliometric analysis by addressing two points. First, this research claims that making a bibliometric analysis that takes information from Scopus or/and separately from WOS cannot give a broader view of knowledge and tendencies in a field. To prove this claim, we retrieve papers from Scopus and WOS databases to make a bibliometric analysis of sales force literature that covers from 1912 to 2019. Results show that there are many disparities between WOS and merged database, and between this latter and WOS database regarding bibliometric analyses, especially among primary productive authors, the most influential papers, and keyword occurrences. Second, this research proposes a four-step procedure that merges these two databases to allow more reliable bibliometric analyses. This procedure was explicitly shown by using the bibliometric analysis of sales force literature during 1912–2019.
Promotional 360∘ videos are now widely used to promote touristic sites, giving consumers a more immersive glimpse of what they can expect from those places. However, these 360∘ videos often comprise so much information that it overloads the users, not allowing them to benefit from such a rich multimedia experience. To overcome this issue, we propose and evaluate a novel method that allows the experience of immersive 360∘ promotional videos to be more interactive and informative without overloading users. The evaluation study focuses on how the proposed interaction method performs versus the non-interactive method in terms of user satisfaction, presence, and cybersickness in both a low-immersive (computer monitor) setup and an immersive platform (head-mounted display (HMD)). Our sample (N = 50) was randomly divided into four groups: 360∘ (computer monitor without interaction), 360∘Interaction (computer monitor with interaction), IVR360∘ (HMD without interaction) and IVR360∘Interaction (HMD with interaction). The results show that the novel proposed method is preferred by users over the non-interactive approach regardless of the setup (low-immersive or immersive). For cybersickness, there were no differences across all the experimental scenarios. We conclude that our method has the potential to bring added value to touristic promotion when compared to conventional promotional approaches.
The religious motivation is one of the important reasons that drive tourists to travel with the intention of visiting the holy place. However, many obstacles still stand in the way of access to the holy places due to the religious privacy of some places where only non-followers are allowed to visit those places. This study reviews the hypothesis of setting up virtual museums of holy religious sites in Jordan to meet two goals; the first is to overcome the religious privacy of some Islamic or Christian holy places, and the second goal is to give an opportunity for all followers of religions to see the holy places of others. The results of the study showed that the idea of virtual museums represents the ideal solution for the tourist promotion of religious tourist places, and that virtual museums contribute to overcoming obstacles related to religious privacy, which provides an opportunity to see those places.
The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in tourism sector is gaining grounds across the globe. VR is an efficient persuasive marketing promotion tool for tourism stakeholders but its use in developing nations has raised some concerns especially in a ‘growing-tourism’ nation like Nigeria. Can VR replace the alluring, scenic and captivating tourist sites in Nigeria? What are the factors in favor and against the use of VR in Nigeria tourism sector? Possible answers to these questions necessitated this study. Secondary data were the principal means of data generation and the results were analyzed thematically. The study revealed that a developing nation like Nigeria’s adoption of VR into its tourism sector comes with gains and losses respectively. Tourism planning and promotion, preservative and conservative values, insecurity challenges and the tainted image of Nigeria favor the use of VR in the sector but economic losses via reduction in dwindling-poor-tourists traffic, decline in patronage of existing destinations stifle development of unidentified potential tourists site, discourage the application of VR in the nation’s tourism. VR application in Nigeria holds dual stand of which in-depth investigation is imperative before its application to Nigeria’s tourism sector. The need for Nigeria’s apex tourism organization (NTDC) and other state owned tourism ministries and parastatals to study VR pros and cons in tourism is a probable right path in the 21st Century. The study serves as a pointer to policy makers and academia of the vicissitudes of VR application in developing nations, with attendant value to neighboring countries and nations with interest in tourism due to the unpredictable future of VR which keeps evolving daily.
(PDF) Tourism and Virtual Reality (VR) in Developing Nations. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339570325_Tourism_and_Virtual_Reality_VR_in_Developing_Nations [accessed Mar 07 2020].
Mega-sporting events can bring diverse benefits to the hosting areas, such as job creation and image improvement. However, only a handful of studies have explored the antecedents of destination image—which plays a crucial role in eliciting certain tourist behaviors—and personal involvement. To fill this gap, this study evaluates the relationships among personal involvement, destination image, place attachment, and behavioral intentions in the context of sporting event tourism to provide destination managers useful information for sustainable sports tourism development. We gathered information from 374 international tourists at the FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation—International Swimming Federation) World Masters Championships Gwangju 2019 in South Korea. We used structural equation modeling was used along with maximum likelihood estimation to examine the predicted relationships. The findings show the positive impacts of (a) personal involvement on destination image, (b) destination image on place attachment, and (c) place attachment on behavioral intentions. Furthermore, (d) place attachment dictated the relationship between destination image and behavioral intentions. The findings confirm the significant role personal involvement plays in the improvement of a destination’s image. To ensure sustainable sports tourism, destination managers are advised to pay close attention to research findings on destination image in the development of their plans.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate theinfluence of satisfaction, involvement, and subjective norms on tourists 'behavioral intentions at a historic district at Yibin, China. This study also attempts to examine the mediating effect of involvement, and subjective norms on the paths from satisfaction to intentions. Data were collected via a nonsite survey and analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach. Results indicate that satisfaction, involvement, andsubjective norms directly contribute to the formation of tourists' intentions of the historic district. Tourists' involvement is positively associated with tourists' satisfaction. Both involvement and subjective norms fully mediates the relationship between satisfaction and intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications are elaborated.
This study examines articles related to tourist decision making, especially with respect to cognitive biases, published in the Journal of Travel Research, Annals of Tourism Research, and Tourism Management over the past 10 years (from January 2008 to September 2018). Tourists do not always make rational choices due to the influence of behavioral factors, such as dispositions and emotions. According to the study of judgment and decision making, cognitive biases are the main underlying causes of suboptimal decisions. Through a systematic analysis, this study reveals the prevalence and influence of common biases at different stages of travel, such as pre-trip, on-site, and post-trip. This study also summarizes implications for tourism management and proposes areas of potential research contributions.
Although technology acceptance and adoption have been intensively investigated using well-established theories called the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), this paper claims that Emerging Technology (ET) has particular characteristics that differentiate it from the adoption of traditional technology that has been used for a long time. Therefore, it argues that TAM and IDT are not sufficient to investigate the adoption of ET. Investigating the adoption of ET requires additional, unique, non-traditional factors (constructs). Therefore, this paper aims first to conceptually develop a model of ETs adoption (META). To achieve this objective, TAM and IDT will be reviewed. Then, this paper will use the characteristics of ET as the basis for developing the factors that influence the adoption of ET. Secondly, to validate the model, a case study of an ET (i.e. Virtual Reality) will be analysed in-depth to reveal the factors that influence on its adoption by applying META. A discussion of META applications and implications for future research are also provided.
The renewed interest, in the context of international museological studies, for historical installations such as museographic devices (able to give shape to a space duly dialoguing with the user), is due today to their communicative immediacy. In recent years the availability of libraries and tools for the use of augmented reality (AR) content has undergone an important increase. AR innovation represents a new method for enhancing the presence visitors into the museum industry despite its use leads to an increase in costs and instrumental investments. In this regard, in a wider work of valorisation and dissemination of archaeological heritage, we are working on the development of an app for tourism purposes. The aim of this paper is the application of some techniques (3D modelling, spectroscopy, virtual reality) to study, record and make available information about archaeological artefacts preserved in the Regional Museum of Lipari (clay masks) and in the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria (the statue Kouros and the Amphoras). The three-dimensional models produced are well suited to applications of augmented reality for the promotion and dissemination of information on the archaeological /architectural/cultural heritage.
Moreover, the integration of the information about characterization of materials are essential in order to identify both geographic area of provenience and manufacturing historic period. Some pigments or medium, and in general all materials, can be indeed connected to a determinate historic time or to a specific artist; to this particular purpose spectroscopic methods are valid approach for their non-destructive nature.
Purpose
Emerging technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), have been influencing both the tourism supply side and tourists alike. The purpose of this study is to analyse VR research in tourism and to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review. As the technological connotation of the term VR has been changing and encompasses various VR systems with different capabilities, this paper aims to provide a systematic and structured overview. The overall objective of this paper is to contribute to a thorough understanding of VR research in tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper comprehensively reviews and analyses existing literature on VR in tourism, published from 1994 to February 2018. Using a wide variety of sources, these papers were examined so as to give a state-of-the-art literature review and to deepen one’s understanding of the diverse applications of VR in a tourism context. This paper also presents a novel classification of different VR systems according to the level of immersion and depicts their respective technological capabilities.
Findings
The advent of new VR hardware necessitates a distinction for different VR systems applied in the tourism sector. Research conducted during the past three years has been focussing on the application of head-mounted displays, which reflects the temporal development of VR technology. Regardless of the VR system, most studies examine VR as a marketing tool for promotion and communication purposes during the pre-travel phase, focussing on behavioural aspects. Advances in technology will yield new opportunities and application possibilities for the tourism industry.
Originality/value
The key contribution of this paper lies in its structural approach, which differentiates between non-, semi- and fully immersive VR systems in tourism, as well as the proposition of respective definitions. The concluding part of the paper proposes practical implications for tourism businesses together with directions for future studies.
Developments in information and communication technology are increasingly transforming spatial relationships in tourism from a local into a global dimension. The virtual reality (VR) technology developed in this context is an important tool in this transformation. Virtual reality is an interactive environment generated by computers which enables participants to create countless real and unreal simulated experiences. The aim of this study is to describe virtual reality in the context of the tourism industry, to offer an evaluation by summarizing previous studies and conducting a situation analysis of virtual reality applications in terms of tourism via a SWOT analysis. The results of the situation analysis can be used to remark upon the place of VR technology in the tourism industry. In this framework, some suggestions for the tourism industry and future studies are given.
The ancient city of Nora was a Phoenician, Punic and Roman settlement rising on a peninsula in the south-western coast of Sardinia. Since 1990, the University of Padova has been carrying on an interdisciplinary research project of excavation, architectural analysis, historical reconstruction and cultural promotion of tourism in this site. The excavations allow us to increase our knowledge of Middle Imperial Roman urban planning and to get a better understanding of the whole city and its history; the restoration of excavated monuments using gravels with different colours helps more than 60,000 tourists every year to recognize the function of different areas. In spite of this, visitors experience difficulty in understanding a landscape of ruins with barely visible evidence. Thus, a complete virtual reconstruction of the ancient city has become essential. 3D models of the Phoenician and Roman settlement have been developed, reshaping archaeological plans produced in 25 years by Universities that work in the site. The main monuments of the Roman city and the major crossroads have been rendered in greater detail, using sample-based textures that give a photorealistic effect and implementing the models with furniture and decorations selected through reliable sources of information. 3D reconstructions are now available for tourist groups led by a guide in the Nora Virtual Tour: stereoscopic images have been rendered and uploaded in an app for mobile headsets that provides immersive virtual reality for the users. The guide controls the devices with a tablet using a Bluetooth connection: at the beginning of the visit, the tourists can view equirectangular panoramas of the ruins taken from a helicopter, then they are accompanied to hot-spots where the ancient monuments are shown in an evocative Roman reconstruction. © 2017 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. All rights reserved.
Despite the growing interest and discussions on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in tourism, we do not yet know systematically the knowledge that has been built from academic papers on VR and AR in tourism; if and how VR and AR research intersect, the methodologies used to research VR and AR in tourism, and the emerging contexts in which VR and AR have surfaced in tourism research. By conducting a systematic literature review on VR/AR research in tourism, this work seeks to answer five main research questions: (1) Which tourism sectors and contexts have VR and AR research emerged in?; (2) Which forms of VR and AR have garnered the most attention in tourism research?; (3 and 4) What methodologies/theories are being utilized to research VR and AR in tourism?; and (5) What are the research gaps in VR and AR tourism research? From a synthesis of 46 manuscripts, marketing and tourism education emerged as the most common contexts. However, issues with heterogeneity appeared in terminology usage alongside a lack of theory-based research in VR and AR. Also, gaps were identified where challenges identified revolved around awareness of the technology, usability, and time commitment.
The rapid development of virtual reality (VR) technology offers opportunities for a widespread consumption of VR tourism content. It also presents challenges to better understand the effectiveness of VR experience in inducing more favorable attitude toward tourism destinations and shaping visitation intention. Based on two studies, one conducted in Hong Kong with 202 participants and another in the United Kingdom with 724 participants, this research identified several positive consequences of the sense of presence in VR experiences. First, the feeling of being in the virtual environment increases enjoyment of VR experiences. Second, the heightened feeling of being there results in stronger liking and preference in the destination. Third, positive attitude change leads to a higher level of visitation intention. Therefore, this study provides empirical evidence to confirm the effectiveness of VR in shaping consumers’ attitude and behavior.
This study investigated how virtual reality affects the tourism image and flow experience compared with YouTube videos and Facebook and travel pages and examined the moderating effect of the acceptance of new technologies on the relationship between tourism marketing effects and different communication tools. The virtual reality group exhibited higher levels of advertisement effects, tourism image, and four flow factors (friendliness, telepresence, interactivity, and realness) compared with YouTube and Facebook groups. A two-way analysis of variance test revealed a significant interaction between the type of marketing tools and the acceptance of new technologies with respect to the tourism image, a flow-friendly experience, and a flow interactivity experience.
In the digital age, virtual reality (VR) has become a new tool for destination marketing. Building on flow theory and the stimuli-organism-response model, this study examined the psychological process through which the VR travel evokes flow and leads to satisfaction and visit intention. Two key attributes of VR travel, sense and information quality, were identified and found to positively influence tourists’ flow experience. Flow in VR travel consisted of multiple dimensions (telepresence, focused attention, and temporal distortion). Only telepresence and focused attention positively led to a high level of satisfaction. The former had a stronger effect than the latter. The effect of temporal distortion on satisfaction was not significant. Satisfaction with the VR tour experience also positively led to visits to the focal destination of the VR travel.
Applying the theory of embodied cognition as the research framework, the purpose of the current study was to explore the influence of virtual wine tours on young consumers' wine sensory experience and purchasing behaviors. A lab tasting experiment was conducted to compare the influence of a VR video with that of a traditional video featuring a vineyard and winery tour. Results indicated that the VR wine tour video evoked higher intentions to purchase and willingness to pay than the traditional video. Consumers with higher levels of wine knowledge appreciated the video presence and the tastes/aromas of the wine more than consumers with lower levels of wine knowledge. Combined with the taste/finish of the wine, video presence mediated the relationships between video types and consumers' purchase behaviors, revealing that the integration of offline and online embodiments makes a difference in consumers’ purchasing decisions. Recommendations were then provided based on these results.
Virtual Reality could be useful for heritage management and preservation by complementing or, even, by replacing the ‘real’ visitation to more threatened destinations. The objective of this study was to empirically test the level of similarity perceived by a group of students between VR experience and the ‘real’ visit in a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural attraction in order to assess the capacity of VR to act as a substitute of the ‘real’ visit. Ridit analysis was conducted in order to rank the level of agreement perceived by respondents concerning to similarity between the VR experience and the ‘real’ visit. Results revealed that VR experience could act as a complement, rather than a substitute of the ‘real’ visitation. This is, the feelings and emotions derived from the ‘real’ visit could not be replaced by the VR experience. VR could be an effective marketing tool to encourage sustainable tourism behaviors, rather than to substitute the ‘real’ visit.
Product involvement refers to consumers’ perceived relevance of the importance of a product category based on their inherent needs, values and interests. The literature has examined the mechanism of product involvement and tourist behaviour, but has paid less attention to the role of destination image in the effect of product involvement on tourist behaviour. In China, various cultural tourism destinations are favoured by consumers because of product involvement. However, no studies have focused on the influence of cultural product involvement on potential tourists’ intention to visit cultural destinations. This study proposes a model in the context of Chinese culture, to explore the relationships among wine product involvement, destination wine image, destination cognitive image, destination affective image and potential tourists’ willingness to travel. The partial least squares technique and multiple mediation analyses are used to analyse data from 378 potential tourists from China. The findings show that the influence of the potential tourists’ wine product involvement on travel intention involves a mixed process about their cognitive and affective image perceptions. Wine product involvement indirectly increases their travel intention by strengthening their perceived destination wine image, destination cognitive image and destination affective image.
This study empirically investigated a theoretical model predicting the direct and indirect effects of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) on behavioural intentions via destination image and tourists' satisfaction in yoga tourism. This research was conducted using data collected from 502 tourists visiting Rishikesh in India. Using confirmatory factor analysis and SPSS macro (PROCESS), findings confirmed that MTEs influenced behavioural intentions both directly and indirectly via destination image and tourists' satisfaction. MTEs were found as the strongest influencer of behavioural intentions in yoga tourism. This study opposes those researchers and practitioners who argued tourists' satisfaction alone as the most significant influencer of destination performance.
The objective of this paper is to contribute with a framework on the use of Virtual Reality in the enhancement, promotion and use of Cultural Heritage. After an introduction on the use of VR and its potential, the analysis moves to the application of this technology on the Doric Temple of Punta Stilo (RC); through the classical survey tools, photo ones, and digital modeling, the temple and its elements were returned, formulating an original reconstructive hypothesis that is consistent with documents and bibliographic sources. The temple comes to life, shape and color in the final project of a CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) that can play a part to fascinate and interest the user in the contents, in a sort of multimedia outfitting in the field of “edutaintment” and “learning by consuming”. In Virtual Reality applied to Cultural Heritage, the passage from the decomposition of reality to digital memory is observed; this passage represents an alternative and contingent transmission tool of knowledge. If a cultural asset does not communicate its history, it is reduced to a mere archival document; for this reason it is necessary to increase the classical idea of a cultural asset as a “container” and extend it to a “catalyst” of internal resources (intangible aspect).
Recent advances in technology and its applications have impacted fundamentally the tourism industry. Technological progress and innovations have for many years worked in facilitating the development of tourism [23, 31]. More recently, the emergence of new advanced technologies such as multimedia technologies, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have become key tools for tourism promotion and development. The use of these tools enhance travelers’ richness and interaction and provide them a simulated real visit and virtual experience before visiting the destination or the attraction [20].
The majority of virtual reality (VR) applications rely on audiovisual stimuli and do not exploit the addition of other sensory cues that could increase the potential of VR. This systematic review surveys the existing literature on multisensory VR and the impact of haptic, olfactory, and taste cues over audiovisual VR. The goal is to identify the extent to which multisensory stimuli affect the VR experience, which stimuli are used in multisensory VR, the type of VR setups used, and the application fields covered. An analysis of the 105 studies that met the eligibility criteria revealed that 84.8% of the studies show a positive impact of multisensory VR experiences. Haptics is the most commonly used stimulus in multisensory VR systems (86.6%). Non-immersive and immersive VR setups are preferred over semi-immersive setups. Regarding the application fields, a considerable part was adopted by health professionals and science and engineering professionals. We further conclude that smell and taste are still underexplored, and they can bring significant value to VR applications. More research is recommended on how to synthesize and deliver these stimuli, which still require complex and costly apparatus be integrated into the VR experience in a controlled and straightforward manner.
Destination branding is an important research area and a powerful instrument for building the positioning of tourist destinations. The main objective of this study is to analyze the state-of-the-art research of destination branding. A bibliometric and a fractional accounting network mapping analysis were conducted using the Web of Science and Scopus online databases. The research identifies trends focused along different lines: strategy, experience, customer-based brand equity, place attachment, destination loyalty, word-of mouth, and social media. Although there have been some research on destination branding, to date, there has been no in-depth analysis that addresses the trends in destination branding. This work therefore contributes to the existing research by showing the state-of- the-art of research on destination branding, identifying trends and proposing future research lines and topics.
In this study, we determined the causal relationship between some of the predictors and outcomes of sports tourists’ satisfaction using structural equation modeling. Motivation and involvement as predictors and behavioral intentions (WOM and intention to revisit) were considered as outcomes. The results indicated the significant mediating role of destination image in the relationship between involvement and satisfaction. So, Event organizers need to pay special attention to the psychological characteristics of tourists, such as their motivations and involvement. As a result, they can take some benefits in behavioral outcomes, such as word of mouths and intention to revisit.
Despite the increasing amount of attention paid to virtual reality (VR) tourism and the rising importance of VR tourism, a theoretically integrated model of behavior has not been
developed. To fill this void, we build and test a framework based on both innovation diffusion and uses and gratifications theories to explain why people participate in VR tourism. The moderating role of VR tourists’ technology readiness (optimism and innovativeness) between subjective well-being and behavioral intention is also examined. Results demonstrate that authentic experience and subjective well-being are affected by simplicity, benefit, compatibility (attributes of innovation diffusion), informativeness, social interactivity, and playfulness (uses and gratifications attributes). Behavioral intention is more positively influenced by subjective well-being than by authentic experience. The moderating role of technology readiness between subjective well-being and behavioral intention is stronger in individuals with high optimism and innovativeness than their counterparts with low optimism and innovativeness.
Widespread access to and heavy investment in the development of virtual reality underline the importance of understanding its acceptance by consumers and its possible implications in the promotion of tourist destinations. This study was carried out to evaluate the acceptance of virtual reality applied to tourism, and its capacity to change attitudes towards the viewed destination among 889 centennial virtual reality users. The results serve to highlight the validity of the proposed model, where personal innovation, the attitude towards virtual reality, and performance expectations are the main antecedents of intention to use. Furthermore, the influence of performance expectations as the main antecedent of the change in attitude towards the tourism destination is evident. The practical implications and future lines of research are discussed in detail.
Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have undergone technical evolutions over the last few decades including improvements in immersion and the feeling of telepresence. Several examples of the applications of such techniques can be found in stores, tourism, hotel, restaurants, and destinations. Yet, a comprehensive analysis of studies employing such techniques in tourism-related studies is difficult to find. The current study uses citation network analysis and text-mining techniques to conduct a full-text analysis of 56 journal papers and 325 conference proceedings related to VR and AR in the tourism context. This paper intends to (i) provide an overview of the VR and AR-related tourism studies network and discuss them over time, (ii) present the most important topics and studies emerging from this literature, (iii) suggest avenues for further research. Findings reveal 10 core topics in journal papers and 11 core topics in conference proceedings, which are presented together with an overview of the published studies and the main authors.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the main developments of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) research in hospitality and tourism. It also aims to pinpoint fruitful directions for tourism and hospitality research on VR and AR applications.
Design/methodology/approach
A selective literature review of full-length papers published in the period from 2000 to 2018 was conducted. A total of 60 journal papers were retrieved and thoroughly reviewed.
Findings
This paper first presents a summary of the distribution of published papers. Then, this paper synthesizes the stimuli, dimensions and consequences of VR/AR-related user behavior experience, upon which a theoretical framework is developed. Additionally, this paper provides a detailed report for the progress on the theories and research methodologies, offering a useful background concerning what remains to be achieved. Finally, this paper puts forward fruitful directions for advancing the current understanding of VR/AR and its management.
Practical implications
This research presents diverse positive outcomes of using VR/AR technologies, which encourage industry practitioners such as destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and marketing firms to incorporate recent technological developments into their strategic plans.
Originality/value
This paper represents one of the first endeavors that critically reviews research progress on VR/AR in tourism and hospitality from 2000 to 2018. Not only are information technology researchers provided with a comprehensive guide to the latest, influential VR/AR literature but also the proposals of wide-ranging directions for future research would stimulate further investigation of VR/AR.
Although virtual reality (VR) has been found to be more effective in tourism marketing compared to traditional methods, few scholars have explored whether VR has any negative effect on tourism marketing. Based on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation theory, tourists' perceptions of a VR device and VR content are distinguished to explore whether VR could be a double-edged sword. Using a scenario-based questionnaire survey and an experiment, the study found that perceived enjoyment of VR mediates the positive effects of tourists' perceived ease of use and the usefulness of VR on their travel intention. However, the positive relationship is moderated by tourists' expected enjoyment of the destination. When the expected enjoyment of destination is low, higher perceived enjoyment of VR actually leads to lower travel intention. The findings of this study provide evidence that VR will inhibit tourists’ travel intention under certain conditions and offer a new perspective for technology-related tourism studies.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the impact of the experience of a winery visit to the visitor’s emotions and the effect of these emotions on visitor’s intention to revisit and recommend a winery as consequences of visitor satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a multi approach of customer experience, suggesting that visitors base their experience perception on the servicescape attributes, other visitors’ suitable behaviours and their own yearn for cognitive learning and fun. Path analysis is adopted to measure the impact of these constructs on visitor’s emotions and the role of these emotions in predicting visitor’s satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Data are collected through a self-administered highly structured questionnaire, self-completed by respondents at each winery. A total of 615 usable responses are obtained from eight wineries.
Findings
The results indicate that emotions are arisen – in a context of wine tourism – as a result of visitor’s evaluation of winery environment (especially Atmospherics, Signage and Facilities), other visitors’ appropriate behaviour and visitor’s desire to learn something new and to have fun during the winery experience. Also, it is revealed that visitor’s emotions positively impact on his/her satisfaction, which in turn seems to be a significant predictor of his/her intention to revisit the winery and give positive word-of-mouth.
Research limitations/implications
The findings broaden the knowledge on visitor’s winery experience and its impact on visitor’s satisfaction and future behavioural intentions. However, because the study focuses only on winery visitors in Greece, the research results may lack generalizability. The application of the study to other wineries would allow for wider generalisations to be made from the results obtained.
Practical implications
The overall findings may have significant implications for wine tourism industries. Also, it might be beneficial for wineries in their effort to provide a more valuable experience to wine tourists and in increasing wine tourists’ loyalty.
Originality/value
The paper’s originality lies in providing information to clarify the relationships between the constructs of experience, visitor’s emotions, satisfaction and future behavioural intentions in a winery setting. Also, this study provides new and practical insights of winery experience in the Greek context, an area where very limited research has been conducted. Finally, this is one of the few studies that focus on more than two servicescape elements and their impact on visitor’s emotions.
Advances in virtual reality (VR) technology exert increasingly influential impacts on tourism. Drawn upon a presence perspective and a process theory, this research aims to explore how VR technology may help enhance theme park visitors' experience and behaviors. Data was collected from 396 theme park visitors who had experienced VR roller coaster over the past twelve months. Results of stepwise regression analysis suggest that users' sense of presence is predominantly driven by their feeling of control, followed by participation, effectiveness, curiosity, vividness, temporal association, and enjoyment provided by VR system. Results of simple linear regression analyses reveal positive impacts of sense of VR presence on visitors' overall theme park experience and intentions to revisit and recommend. Further sensitivity tests are performed using Hayes’ PROCESS model to accommodate the potential influence of two individual factors (i.e., personal innovativeness and VR familiarity) on the results. Theoretical and managerial implications are presented.
With the advent of 360-degree video technology, Virtual reality (VR) headsets can take users to locations in the real world. Despite the increasing number of virtual tourism opportunities using digital VR technology, little research has assessed the effective realism of 360-degree video tourism. This study took users on a guided audio tour of a state Capitol building. Users either took the tour via two-dimensional (2-D) video, immersive 360-degree video using a VR headset, or physically went to the location and walked around the grounds. Users were measured on spatial presence, emotional engagement with the tour, sponsor liking, and tour outreach intentions. Results indicate that users in the two-dimensional viewing condition scored low on all measures relative to the other conditions but that individuals in the physically present and 360-degree video condition had no differences between them. This suggests that 360-degree video tourism may be a strong analogue to a real-world experience.
The aim of the paper is to investigate the potentiality offered by a multidisciplinary methodology in order to create a simply usable digital database, which is always available and scientifically efficient that can be used for different purposes related to the cultural heritage (scientific research, maintenance work, restoration, cultural valorisation, tourism promotion). The database is made up of info-graphic models obtained by three-dimensional surveys which are metrically and chromatically reliable. Furthermore, they are the representation of a virtual reality ‘augmented’ of historical, iconographic-documentary and archival information related to the heritage. The case of study on which this methodological approach has been experimented is the archaeological area of Tuscolo, on the Alban Hills in the south of Rome. © 2017 University of L'Aquila, Department of Civil Construction, Building and Architecture, Environmental Engineering. All rights reserved.
This work presents VirtualCruiseTour, an AR/VR-based application dedicated to ship cruises’ guests for the promotion of organized shore excursions. It can be exploited also in travel agencies to showcase future customers the sites of interest that can be visited during the cruise. The AR module allows augmenting a map showing the cruise route, the ship current position and the ports in which the liner will stop. Tapping one of the port (or the ship), the user is shown more details about the shore excursions organized for that stop (or the ship facilities) and has the chance to experience the site of interests watching 360° pictures or videos either in an immersive (VR) or non-immersive mode. A pilot study to validate the application as a marketing tool is foreseen. The experiment evaluates the customers’ purchase intentions and their knowledge of the product in comparison to traditional marketing media (web sites and brochures). Preliminary results of the study conducted enrolling nine participants are presented and discussed.
Virtual reality (VR) transforms the way destinations market their tourism offerings. To fully understand the opportunities of a technology, initial research is required assessing user adoption. However, empirical research and particularly exploratory qualitative research on VR adoption in tourism context is limited. Therefore, this study uses an exploratory interview approach with 35 participants near Lake District National Park, UK. Using thematic analysis, this study explores factors that influence VR adoption as well as the influencing factors on tourists’ behavioural intentions. This study adds to academia by qualitatively exploring the adoption of a scarcely researched technology within the tourism context.
The present study aims to translate and validate the Temple Presence Inventory (TPI) for the Portuguese context, respecting the maintenance of an equivalent semantics as well as the validity of its contents and concepts. This study also aims to verify the psychometric properties of the instrument (factor validity and internal consistency). The sample consisted of 455 individuals (male = 271, female = 184). The fidelity of the factors varied between 0.5 and 0.84. The confirmatory factor analysis produced a theoretical model with 38 items distributed among eight factors. The covariance between some residual errors of instrument items was considered, and the following fit indices were observed: χ2/df = 2.073; GFI = 0.858; CFI = 0.887; RSMEA = 0.049; AIC = 1527. The results confirm the appropriateness of the version adapted to the Portuguese language of the TPI and that it can be used in research projects aiming to evaluate Presence in the Portuguese-speaking population (Europe).
This study aims to investigate the impact of virtual reality experiences created with the newest generation of wearable devices on the intention to visit sites and attractions in a destination. To this end, the paper investigated whether the perceived visual appeal (PVA) of virtual reality and the emotional involvement (EI) of users had a positive impact on the behavioral intentions to visit a cultural heritage site in a destination. Data was collected from visitors via a survey at a destination in Naples (Italy). Study results revealed that the PVA of the virtual reality experience with wearable devices had a positive and significant effect on behavioral intentions towards the site featured in the virtual experience. Moreover, PVA had a positive effect on EI. This study is among the first to empirically investigate the influence of virtual reality experiences, enabled by the latest wearable devices, on destination visit intentions. Study results are relevant for destination marketing organizations seeking to develop effective technology-based marketing strategies that address the pre-visit, on-site and post-visit phase of the visitors' journey. The paper offers specific theoretical and managerial implications.
Although the potential of virtual reality (VR) as a technology in tourism has been recognised for more than twenty years, (Horan, Hosp Inf Technol Assoc—Electron J 1:1–7, 1996; Williams and Hobson, Tourism Manage 16:423–427, 1995), we have witnessed a renewed interest in both academic and business circles recently (Jung et al., Information and communication technologies in tourism 621–635, 2016). From a marketing perspective, VR offers the potential to build a sensory experience of a tourism destination or attraction, and can be used in sales contexts to complement, or indeed, supplant traditional promotional tools such as brochures. The immersive nature of the experience offers a deeper and more emotional assessment of the tourist offering from the consumer’s perspective, and an opportunity to build imagery and influence the consumer decision-making process from the marketing communicator’s viewpoint. Research was conducted into consumers’ attitudes and experiences of 360-degree VR videos, which have been developed by Fáilte Ireland (Ireland’s domestic marketing and product development agency) to showcase a number of activities along the Wild Atlantic Way. Using a quantitative research approach constructed along the dimensions of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, MIS quarterly 319–335, 1989), 129 surveys were carried out at two consumer travel shows. Respondents’ VR experience was rated positively across all demographic cohorts and against the selected dimensions of the TAM model. Using VR to promote the Wild Atlantic Way was found to greatly increase the likelihood of visiting the destination itself in the future. This offers very encouraging prospects for destination marketers. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how VR can aid in destination marketing and promotion, and potential limitations to its wider deployment.
