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Virtual reality experiences influence how potential tourists perceive destinations and shape their intentions to visit in person. An investigation using both qualitative interviews and a survey of four hundred participants who viewed a virtual reality destination video identified three primary dimensions of telepresence: environmental realism, immersion, and the sense of presence within the virtual setting. These elements of telepresence exert both direct and indirect effects on real visit intentions. Furthermore, the relationship is partially mediated by the mental imagery formed by viewers and their resulting attitudes towards the tourist destination. Understanding how these factors interact provides tourism managers with insights into how virtual reality media can be evaluated and structured to foster positive perceptions and encourage physical travel to featured locations.
Virtual reality is increasingly used to showcase travel destinations, yet the mechanisms influencing consumer behaviour require clarity. By defining the key components of the virtual experience and showing how immersion and realism shape attitudes and mental imagery, destination marketers can better design virtual content that translates into actual visits, supporting local tourism economies and visitor engagement strategies.
Tourism marketing organisations and travel promoters can apply these findings to design more effective promotional campaigns using virtual reality videos. The research operates at an applied, tested stage, demonstrating through four hundred user evaluations that high levels of realism and immersion positively influence destination attitudes and travel intentions, offering a validated basis for developing virtual tourism marketing tools.
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Drawing on media richness theory, this study investigates the effect of rich media, such as virtual reality (VR), on visit intentions for a specific destination. Specifically, this research employs a mixed-method approach, using abductive theorization to explore and confirm the dimensions of the VR visit experience, notably those related to telepresence, a key concept in tourism through VR. Furthermore, the study aims to elucidate how telepresence influences mental imagery, attitudes towards tourist destinations, and actual visit intentions. To do this, qualitative data were gathered between February and June 2022 from 34 semi-structured interviews with respondents who viewed a VR video of the destination. A second study collected quantitative data from 400 participants through face-to-face questionnaires after a VR video view between June and August 2022. The findings reveal that telepresence comprises three dimensions: realism of the virtual environment, immersion, and the sense of presence in the virtual environment. Telepresence, in turn, both directly and indirectly affects actual visit intentions, with mental imagery and attitude toward tourist destinations partially mediating those relationships. This study provides methodological, theoretical, and tourism management implications to enhance our comprehension of telepresence’s facets, its measurement, and the process by which VR influences real visit intentions.
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DOI: 10.3390/info14100546
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