Virtual Reality and Attitudes Toward Tourism Destinations

Abstract

Recent developments in Virtual Reality (VR) technology present a tremendous opportunity for the tourism industry. This research aims to understand better how the VR experience may influence travel decision-making by investigating spatial presence in VR environments and its impact on attitudes toward tourism destinations. Based on a study involving virtual walkthroughs of tourism destinations with 202 participants, two dimensions of spatial presence were identified: being somewhere other than the actual environment and self-location in a VR environment. The analysis revealed that users’ attention allocation to VR environments significantly contributed to spatial presence. It was also found that spatial presence positively affects post-VR attitude change toward tourism destinations, indicating the persuasiveness of VR. No significant differences were found across VR stimuli (devices) and prior visitation.