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Since 2021, big tech companies have been interested in metaverse platforms and services. Metaverse is the permanent, immersive mixed-reality world where people and people and people and objects can synchronously interact, collaborate, and live beyond the limitations of time and space, using avatars and the immersion-supporting devices, platforms, and infrastructures. On metaverse platforms, people can merge the real world and the virtual world. Because the metaverse has only recently begun to be studied, there are only dozens of studies on the metaverse published in qualified academic journals. There are few empirical studies on the extent to which metaverse platforms will be accommodated in the lives of information system users from an integrated perspective. Therefore, this paper aimed to empirically verify user acceptance of metaverse platforms by referring the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). This study was conducted in two stages. (1) The concept and research trends of the metaverse platform were examined, and (2) the UTAUT model was introduced in “Ifland”, one of the metaverse platforms, to verify its acceptance of information system users. I conducted a laboratory experiment while complying with the quarantine rules. Participants were required to watch a 15 min lecture on artificial intelligence on the metaverse platform “Ifland” for a sufficient time, then they discussed the impacts of artificial intelligence with others in the lecture. A total of 120 valid data points, excluding insincere responses, were collected, and hypotheses were verified through PLS analysis. Results indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence of the metaverse platform significantly increased satisfaction, usage intention, purchase intention, and word-of-mouth intention. Facilitating conditions had no significant impact on satisfaction. The results of this study provide implications for how the metaverse platform should be designed and what factors should be emphasized to increase user acceptance of metaverse platforms.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, borders were closed, cities were blocked, and individuals went into quarantine. The market size of the tourism industry in 2020 declined by more than 70% compared to the previous year, regressing to the size it was 30 years ago. This does not mean that people’s needs for tourism have decreased. People started to use virtual reality technologies to get the experience of sightseeing even if they could not go directly to tourist attractions. Prior studies found that virtual reality technology is effective for online shopping and gaming contexts. However, there are insufficient studies investigating the effect of using virtual reality for tourism content. Therefore, this study attempts to verify how the media richness of virtual reality tourism content elicits various reactions from potential tourists in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, satisfaction, destination visit intention, and positive word-of-mouth intention. The purpose of this study is to verify how virtual reality tourism content increases the destination visit intention after the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on media richness theory and the information system success model, a hypothesis was developed. One hundred and eighty-two data were gathered from potential tourists who were in quarantine by performing an online scenario survey that used quasi-experiment methods. Data were analyzed with a PLS algorithm. The results indicate that media richness of tourism content using virtual reality significantly increased perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment. It could significantly increase satisfaction, destination visit intention, and positive word-of-mouth intention. The results of this study explain how information technology can be used in the tourism industry, and they provide suggestions on why tourism content using virtual reality can be useful for attracting tourists, and what experiences it can provide tourists.

With the rapid growth of the international tourism industry, governments and tourism promotion agencies in various countries challenge to make more attractive international tourism advertisement (ITA) for foreign tourists to visit their countries. However, there may be difference in the degree to which each travel advertisement reflects the nation brand image. In some ITA cases, foreign tourists could not vividly highlight the unique images of the destination countries. Few studies have empirically validated the impact of confirmation of nation brand image in ITA on the tourist’s responses. This study challenged to empirically examine how the fit between the ITA contents and nation brand image affects the travel intentions of foreign tourists. I developed my research model based on the literature of country image, brand advertisement fit model, and expectation confirmation theory. I conducted the quasi-experiment by using 4 examples of ITA which reflect 4 unique images of Korea (i.e. K-Food, Korean wave, shopping, hot place) compared with other countries. Totally 276 valid data were collected and analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) algorithm. The results indicate that confirmation of nation brand image in ITA significantly increase perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment. These changes could increase tourist’s satisfaction, ITA adoption intention, destination visit intention, and E-word of mouth intention. The findings of this study could contribute to identify the impacts on the nation brand image in ITA and could provide practical lessons on how to make more persuasive ITA.

One of the challenges in online community management is what level of perceived anonymity can be granted to encourage active participation from members while discouraging unhealthy activities. Few studies developed a scheme of anonymity and investigated how different levels of anonymity influence community activities. This study develops a classification scheme of anonymity encompassing the following three different levels : (1) real name(no

Abstract:To guarantee sustainable international tourism market growth, challenges for international tourism advertisements (ITAs) include how and by whom they are made. Different to traditional ITAs, a new type of ITA has been created by the international tourists themselves; it contains not only pictures but also their own tour stories, and it is distributed via social media (e.g., Youtube.com). However, few studies have investigated the impacts of this type of ITA. I was challenged to empirically validate the impacts on potential tourist reactions of argument quality and the peer tourist source of ITAs. I developed my research model based on Toulmin's model of argument, institution-based trust, the information adoption model, and consumer reaction literature. I conducted the quasi-experiment using three types of ITAs that vary by argument quality and advertisement source. A total of 387 data were collected and analyzed using ANOVA and the partial least squares (PLS) analysis. The results indicate that argument quality and peer tourist source significantly increase perceived ITA quality, ITA fit-to-task and trusting belief, and decrease perceived risk. Argument quality and peer tourist source could also significantly increase tourist reactions, such as ITA adoption, planned/unplanned visit, and word-of-mouth intention. These findings could make ITAs more persuasive on social media.

Enjoying local food could be one of the motives for tourism, and local food and restaurant recommendation information would be important for tourists to decide their destination. Recommendation agents are the sorting and searching function to find the best local food and restaurant among the complexity of information, and they could also be helpful for the tourist to decide their destination. Online tourism websites (e.g., Ctrip.com ) started to provide restaurant recommendations containing food-related information and recommendation agents to attract tourists. However, few studies have investigated their impact on the destination visit intention of potential Chinese tourists. This study aims to empirically validate how restaurant recommendation information, including food-related information and recommendation agents, could impact online tourists’ reactions, such as satisfaction, continuous website usage, and destination visits. We developed our hypothesis based on the information system (IS) success model. We gathered 202 data points from potential tourists using quasi-experimental methods, and these data were analyzed by the PLS algorithm. The results indicate that restaurant recommendation information and recommendation agents significantly increase the perceived information quality and perceived system quality. Increased perceived information quality and system quality could significantly increase potential tourists’ satisfaction, website continuous usage intention, and destination visit intention. The results of this study could contribute to making tourism websites more attractive by using local food and restaurant information and recommendation agents.