Examining Tourism Consumers’ Attitudes and the Role of Sensory Information in Virtual Reality Experiences of a Tourist Destination

Abstract

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.

Factors That Influence Virtual Tourism Holistic Image: The Moderating Role of Sense of Presence

“…The perception of presence is likely to elicit emotions, such as happiness and enjoyment, through VR immersion. Alyahya and McLean [38] claimed that VR can advance the sense of presence, and the sense of existence is a psychological state of feeling completely immersed in the virtual world and a feeling of "being there" in the computer-mediated environment. The cognitive processing of mental images can stimulate a high level of presence in the context of a high sensory VR experience.…”

“…Previous investigations on virtual tourism mostly focused on tour experience [40], destination attitude, and travel intention [38,66,67] and only slightly discussed the relationship between presence and destination image. A few studies, such as that of Hyun and O'Keefe [71], found the correlation between telepresence and cognitive and conative images.…”

“…Spatial presence can provide the participants with a sense of feeling as if they are in a particular destination, thus encouraging strong intentions to travel. Alyahya and McLean [38] divided presence into the perception of arriving and leaving the physical environment and proposed that the sense of presence is a vital factor affecting the behavior and attitude of tourists. Virtual tourism can enhance the sense of immersion of a user, improve the cognitive process of information, and activate mental imagination, thus increasing the perception of presence.…”

The mechanism of body–mind integration in the formation of destination attachment: A comparison of first-time and repeat tourists

“…After external stimuli are input into the body of tourists through the senses, the tourists still need to go through a complex psychological process before they can have a conscious sensory experience, affecting subsequent behavioral choices ( Jiang, 2020 ). Some scholars have proposed the “emotion-cognitive dual system model” to subdivide the complex psychological state of individuals ( Alyahya and McLean, 2021 ). The dual system theory is also regarded as an information processing theory, which explains the formation of individual attitude preferences through two different information processing pathways (the limbic pathway of the emotional system and the central pathway of the cognitive system; Alyahya and McLean, 2021 ).…”

“…Some scholars have proposed the “emotion-cognitive dual system model” to subdivide the complex psychological state of individuals ( Alyahya and McLean, 2021 ). The dual system theory is also regarded as an information processing theory, which explains the formation of individual attitude preferences through two different information processing pathways (the limbic pathway of the emotional system and the central pathway of the cognitive system; Alyahya and McLean, 2021 ). Among them, the emotional system adopts the principle of intuition, requiring individuals to process information quickly with less effort.…”