Despite the spreading of virtual reality (VR) in tourism, little is known about the characteristics of different segments of tourists experiencing cultural tourism attractions through VR applications. This paper proposes to profile museum visitors based on their perceptions and attitudes towards VR applications and investigates whether they are significantly different in terms of socio‐demographic characteristics and emotional responses towards the VR‐mediated experience. With the use of exploratory factor‐cluster analysis of 287 visitors of a cultural attraction, three clusters were identified with significant differences in terms of attitudes and perceptions towards the VR‐mediated experience and emotional feelings. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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In recent years, cultural sustainability has attracted increasing attention within the discourse of sustainable development and sustainable cities. Notwithstanding some effort put on conceptualizing the relationship between culture and sustainability, research on the issue is still in a pre-paradigmatic stage and related empirical studies are scant. In particular, further knowledge is required to understand not only how cultural sustainability has been addressed strategically but also implemented in practice. In this direction, research has pointed out the role of social structures (e.g., partnerships, collaborations, etc.) for achieving cultural sustainability goals. However, focusing on smart cities, attention is limited to how collaborative arrangements can be leveraged within the development of new city services (e.g., smart open innovation) to sustain goals of environmental, economic and social sustainability, with cultural sustainability still playing a marginal role. This paper develops a new framework linking together the strategic level and the practice level in addressing cultural sustainability and conceptualizing the role of collaborative structures in the development of smart innovation. The framework is then used as a frame of reference for analyzing the case of MuseoTorino, a new city museum realized within the smart city strategy of Turin (Italy). The analysis provides evidence of some practices adopted to leverage collaboration and stakeholders' engagement to strategically address cultural sustainability and to realize it in practice throughout the new service development process.