The formation of tourism experience frequently subjected to complexity of individual tourist psycho-graphical factor, which leads to vast difference in the end experience formed among the respective tourist. However, the fact that travelling is highly subjected to environmental fuzziness and the issue of geographical consciousness may interfere the emotion of tourist and influence the formation of this experience. The evolution and advancement of mobile technologies had been optimized in improving the way human interact with the surrounding environment. Within this context, mobile augmented reality (AR) technology is perceived as capable in narrowing the gap between the formation of pleasant experience and the issue of geographical consciousness, thus transform the way tourist interact with the destination. Pertaining to this situation, this conceptual paper is attempted to understand the effectiveness of mobile augmented reality in enhancing tourist travel experience on the tourism destination. In relation to this aim, this study is directed to clarify the mechanism and usability of mobile augmented reality in relation to its capability in improving tourism interpretation and to discover the influence of utilization of this technology towards tourism experience. Critical review of existing literature that relevant to the research area was done in understanding on the extensiveness of impact of mobile AR on tourist and experience formation. Findings revealed the capability of AR in merging virtual information with the real world environment through the platform of mobile device able to create a more dynamic interaction between tourist and surrounding environment.

Millennial is known to be the generations that strongly empowered by technologies that apparently had altered the pattern of their consumption habits to shape a new form of tourist market. The great incursion of technology on Millennial does not only mediates the experience formation at destination, instead provide added value and emotional impact through its cognitive stimulation and experience co-creation possibilities. As the key instrument for experience enhancement, mobile technologies support users' needs of on-site information, virtually connect tourism providers and consumers, and unfold destination uniqueness. These in turn allow co-creation of tourist experience through satisfaction of Millennial's addiction of connectivity. Virtual connectivity seems to create new form of affective attachment, through which Millennial are emotionally bonded to the place due to the intensity of technological engagement. Consequently, instead of tourist-destination encounter per se, technological experience is potentially classified as the third aspects that dictate experience development, especially among Millennial travellers. Existing literatures indicates that Millennial strong engagement with virtual platform is capable to manipulate their on-site emotional experience, which apparently changing the conventional way of tourist experiencing the destination. Nevertheless, the significant of Millennial's technological engagement towards their destination emotional experience is still open for debates. Pertaining to this situation, this conceptual paper is attempted to understand the influence of technology in the enhancement of emotional experience, specifically among Millennial travellers, in better understanding the evolving demand of the new generations tourist from psychological perspective.

The population today have immersed in mobile technology as ICTs is seen as capable in supplementing human social and psychological experience. Similarly, city visitors often perceived mobile technology as an inevitable partner in facilitating space consumption of an unfamiliar environment. Especially in urban setting, great incursion of technology in mediating human-destination encounter had manipulated visitor’s cognitive conceptualisation process, and arguably critical for destination management and liveable city making. Due to high dependency on mobile assistance among current visitors market, cognitive stimulation from tech-human engagement was seen as influential force in psychologically motivating travel satisfaction and destination loyalty. Therefore, perspective on how visitor’s cognitive experience affected by mobile engagement is critical in understanding the continuum of technology-mediated experience. The study was executed at Kuala Lumpur City Centre and the population was confined to millennial generation due to visibility as current tourism market. On-going survey of 235 respondents was conducted on 56 identified main attractions within the city centre. Preliminary findings reveal respondents’ desire towards deviation of smartphone engagement from daily uses during travel, as well as significant of interactive and value instilling engagement to uplift experience. This paper concluded with indication of research limitations and possible future research in this area.

Tourist experiences are shaped by the complexities of the individual visitor’s psychological factors, and it is widely known that tourists anticipate a positive experience from every trip made. Yet, the fact remains that travel is inextricably linked to the issues of geography and awareness and a misinterpretation of the attributes of a destination may lead to unlikely expectations that affect the entire experience. With the dynamic and interactive visualisation features offered by augmented reality (AR) on mobile phones and other smart handheld devices, this technology is viewed as being capable of closing the gap between tourist expectations and reality, thereby improving how tourists engage with their surroundings. Despite the known potential of this relatively new technology, its actual acceptance among the users is still minimal, especially in the Malaysian context. Considering this limitation, this study examined the extent of AR utilisation and its ability to influence the development of a tourists’ travel experience. The ‘Iskandar.my’ mobile AR app was used in this research to evaluate the tourists’ expectations, perception and satisfaction with the utilisation of this software platform to add value to their travel experience. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant differences in the respondents’ experiences before and after using the AR content on the mobile app. The thrill associated with the use of this advanced technology was the primary factor in their satisfaction with the AR function. However, the lack of variety in the attractions covered, as well as the app’s currently limited offerings, were noted as factors that could affect the ‘Iskandar. my’ apps competitiveness with regard to other travel-related apps. Therefore, this researcher recommends that the developer of the app improve the design and service dimensions of the app to meet users’ travel needs.