An Exploratory Study about the Effect of COVID-19 on the Intention to Adopt Virtual Reality in the Tourism Sector

During the health crisis caused by COVID-19, virtual reality (VR) proved to be useful for the tourism industry, allowing this industry to continue working despite the restrictions imposed. However, it remains to be seen if the impact of this sanitary crisis in the tourism industry influenced managers' intention to adopt this technology in the post-pandemic period. To fill this gap, a qualitative methodological approach was adopted, using the MAXQDA20 software and interviews with managers of tourism enterprises. The results show that the willingness to invest in technology, the perception of VR as a business strategy, and the perception of the impact of the pandemic are factors that regulate the intention of companies to adopt VR. In addition, prior experience with VR and the perception of technical support are also important for its adoption. Thus, it was concluded that VR can be a valuable sustainable strategy for tourism companies to address the challenges imposed by the pandemic. However, adopting the technology depends on factors such as financial availability, business strategy, and previous experience with VR. Furthermore, tourism companies must also receive adequate technical support to ensure its correct implementation.

The future of sports tourism in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic - Developing a new paradigm model

PurposeSports tourism was strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is no consensus on what sports tourism should look like in the post-pandemic period. This study explores the future of sports tourism in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides an alternative paradigm model.Design/methodology/approachData were collected by interviewing sports tourism experts. Data analysis was based on the continuous comparison method during three stages of open, axial and selective coding.FindingsThe findings point to the complexity of the future sports tourism industry. Post-COVID-19 sports tourism strongly depends on environmental forces and targeted support, with strategies focused on tourists' safety and security, digitalization of the industry, and new employment opportunities.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the body of knowledge on sports tourism by providing answers to the current challenges, threats and opportunities associated with the pandemic. The proposed paradigm model could be a guideline for sports tourism practitioners and policymakers to accelerate recovery from COVID-19 in a sustainable and resilient manner.

Online tourism experiences: exploring digital and human dimensions in in-remote destination visits

Fully online tourist experiences remain a largely unexplored area of inquiry, as a valuable and meaningful traveling modality per se, beyond any connection with conventional tourism. This explorative study aims to advance knowledge on the role of human and technology dimensions in shaping the online tourist experience during the pandemic. A sample of 9,300 Airbnb Online Experience reviews of thirty-four online destination experiences was analyzed. A typology of four fully online tourism experiences is presented, such as individual escape and personalized learning, meeting the destination, meeting the host and social bonding. The research reveals the dynamic evolution of the fully online tourist experience during the pandemic, highlighting the strengthening role of the human dimension and the human-to-human interaction, despite the digital mediation of the in-remote destination visit. Avenues for destination management and marketing research and practice spring from the analysis of fully online tourist experiences as a form of virtual tourism. 完全在线的旅游体验仍然是一个很大程度上未被探索的领域, 作为一种有价值和有意义的旅游方式, 超越了传统旅游的任何联系. 这项探索性研究旨在增进对人类和技术维度在大流行期间塑造在线旅游体验中的作用的认识. 对34个在线目的地体验的9300个Airbnb在线体验评论样本进行了分析. 介绍了四种完全在线旅游体验的类型, 如个人逃生和个性化学习、与目的地见面、与主人见面和社会联系. 这项研究揭示了疫情期间完全在线旅游体验的动态演变, 突出了人的层面和人与人的互动的强化作用, 尽管远程目的地访问是数字媒介. 目的地管理和营销研究与实践的途径来源于对作为虚拟旅游形式的完全在线旅游体验的分析. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Interactive webcam travel: supporting wildlife tourism and conservation during COVID-19 lockdowns

Using the conceptual frameworks and theories of virtual tourism, telepresence and para-social interactions, this exploratory study investigates an innovative campaign employed by a nature-based wildlife tourism operator as a response to the COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions of 2020/21. Insights are provided into a unique model of webcam livestreaming that is scheduled, hosted and interactive. Over 73,000 social media comments and 590 survey responses from webcam viewers were analysed and indicate that watching the livestream had positive impacts for tourism recovery and conservation action. Research findings suggest that interactive webcam travel can affect travel behaviour and conservation awareness and action in part through building and engaging online communities and supporting a sense of connection with nature. This study contributes new knowledge to the emerging research on webcam livestreaming in tourism. As a subset of virtual tourism, interactive webcam travel emerges as an alternative to more costly forms of virtual reality for industry practitioners and stakeholders to engage new and old audiences, especially in the context of tourism recovery initiatives after disasters and crises that prevent or limit physical visitation. © 2023, The Author(s).

Development Trends and Potential in the Field of Virtual Tourism after the COVID-19 Pandemic: Generation Z Example

Until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual tourism was not as popular as during its duration in 2021, when traveling in the real world was not possible due to social isolation and forced quarantine. In response to the lockdown and the lack of freedom of movement around the world, tourists decided to travel in cyberspace during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this way only, and without leaving home, could they visit tourist attractions, watch museum exhibitions, participate in various media events and take virtual walks. After the "unfreezing” of tourism, the time has now come to adapt tourism to the post-pandemic normality. The aim of the paper is to discover whether the new trend of online tourism that developed during the pandemic will stay with us forever and how it will evolve, especially for Generation Z, who are just entering the labor market but who, at the same time, will determine the future of tourism soon. The research results show that as the pandemic restrictions disappear, the need to experience various forms of tourism in places previously viewed in cyberspace (virtually), occurs among the representatives of Generation Z. Thus, virtual tourism is a form that precedes and complements a real journey. The qualitative method was chosen for the research conducted in Poland. The research was carried out in 2022. A total of 40 focus groups of 7 people each (N = 280) participated in the research. They consisted of Generation Z representatives born after 1995;the oldest of them will be 27 in 2022. In parallel, the method of in-depth individual interviews was used in the research. In order to reach the participants, a non-random sample was chosen using the "snowball” method. In total, 100 people took part in the in-depth individual interview. The two-track research allowed to obtain a total sample of N = 380. © 2023 by the authors.

Smart Tourism: Mobile Application with Augmented Reality to Promote the Use of Virtual Tourism for the Archaeological Zone of Caral, Peru

Due to COVID-19, the tourism sector had a loss of visitor revenue of 56%. For tourism in Caral, Peru for 2020 there was a 95% reduction in the annual number of visitors expected. Therefore, the research aims to develop a mobile application for Android with augmented reality to show 3D models and audiovisual content that allows to promote the use of virtual tourism for the archaeological zone of Caral, Peru. To this end, an applied research is developed with a quantitative approach following an experimental methodological design through the pre-experimental method for which a sample of 50 users was taken. To measure this experiment was based on the use of indicators of time of use of the application and the use of augmented reality in the application. The results obtained an average time of use of the application of 0:08:25 minutes while the average time of use of augmented reality in the application was 0:03:36 minutes. Likewise, the results show a great interest on the part of users towards the implementation of augmented reality in an application focused on tourism. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Virtual tourist motivation: the differences between virtual tourism and on-site tourism

Purpose: Virtual tourism has become popular in recent years. However, there is still a research gap on virtual tourist motivation. This study aims to identify virtual tourist motivation and explore the relationship between virtual tourism and on-site tourism. Design/methodology/approach: This research identifies virtual tourist motivation based on Means-end chain (MEC) theory. Laddering interviews with 32 respondents were conducted to construct a hierarchical value map. Additionally, a motivation analysis of virtual tourism and on-site tourism was developed based on a review of the relevant literature. Findings: This exploratory study revealed 12 attributes, 9 results and 4 values that virtual tourists wish to achieve and identified 5 means-end chains where self-satisfaction is the most important value-led motivation. Compared with on-site tourism motivations, virtual tourism shows possibilities of replacing, complementing and extending on-site tourism under certain circumstances. However, it significantly depends on whether tourists are attracted by the technical characteristics, security and experience conditions of virtual tourism. Originality/value: This study contributes to understanding virtual tourist motivation and offers motivation-based insights into the relationship between virtual and on-site tourism. Managerial implications on how to attract potential online tourists are also provided. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Welcome to stay-at-home travel and virtual attention restoration

The present investigation takes a qualitative approach to explore Airbnb's Online Experience as a new virtual tourism initiative through the lens of attention restoration theory. Data were collected from tourist reviews at Airbnb's platform with an emphasis on touring services such as sightseeing and cultural immersion sessions. Our findings first point to a multitude of virtual tour experiences germane to deep immersion, authenticity, nostalgia, hedonism, past-present resonance, novelty, learning, social interaction, and escape. These stay-at-home virtual restorative experiences were infused by Airbnb's state-of-the-art platform with features such as a super host, storytelling, personalization, virtual connection, stay-at-home indulgence, and technology enablement, which ultimately transcend home as the center stage for virtual attention restoration under the COVID-19 new normal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

All without leaving home: building a conceptual model of virtual tourism experiences

PurposeThis study aims to use mixed methods to create a new conceptual framework to understand the unique characteristics of virtual tourism experiences (VTE), which has not been systemically examined.Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 uses topic modeling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation to analyze 91,609 online reviews from the Airbnb Experience platform. Study 2 uses content analysis of open-ended qualitative responses from VTE customers. The two studies together are used to build a new conceptual model.FindingsBuilding upon the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) model and the experience economy, results present a new conceptual model and identify VTE as unique in terms of Stimulus (education, entertainment, esthetics, escapism and connection), Organism (experiencing synchronicity, telepresence, participation and customization, emotion) and Response (evaluation and behavioral responses). Given the uniqueness of VTE, the new construct of the virtual servicescape is incorporated, recognizing the host, the focal customer and other customers, and the technology as the four main components.Practical implicationsThe proposed framework can be used to guide the design, development, and evaluation of VTE, including identifying the key considerations, engagement within the ecosystem and providing guidance to hosts and operators.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that systematically explores VTE and proposes the theoretical framework to comprehensively understand this new form of experience in sharing economy by combining the unique aspects of the stimulus, organism, response and virtual servicescape.

Quality Dimensions of Augmented Reality-based Mobile Apps for Smart-Tourism and its Impact on Customer Satisfaction & Reuse Intention

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the tourism industry, with national lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the virus mandating travel restrictions and prohibiting events and gatherings. The shift to online video conferencing tools, which offer limited interactivity, has spurred the need to integrate augmented reality (AR) in various contexts, such as meetings, exhibitions, museums, and travel. This quantitative study examines visitors' perspectives on AR-based apps in tourism. It investigates the influence of three kinds of quality determinants, such as information quality, system quality, and service quality, on visitors' perspectives on AR apps. Their impact on visitor satisfaction ultimately triggers visitors to reuse AR-based mobile apps. The research makes a theoretical contribution to the literature on AR and the quality dimensions of mobile apps. We expect demand for AR-based apps to rapidly increase, as people continue to follow preventive measures even after COVID-19.

Analyzing Public Opinions Regarding Virtual Tourism in the Context of COVID-19: Unidirectional vs. 360-Degree Videos

Over the last few years, more and more people have been using YouTube videos to experience virtual reality travel. Many individuals utilize comments to voice their ideas or criticize a subject on YouTube. The number of replies to 360-degree and unidirectional videos is enormous and might differ between the two kinds of videos. This presents the problem of efficiently evaluating user opinions with respect to which type of video will be more appealing to viewers, positive comments, or interest. This paper aims to study SentiStrength-SE and SenticNet7 techniques for sentiment analysis. The findings demonstrate that the sentiment analysis obtained from SenticNet7 outperforms that from SentiStrength-SE. It is revealed through the sentiment analysis that sentiment disparity among the viewers of 360-degree and unidirectional videos is low and insignificant. Furthermore, the study shows that unidirectional videos garnered the most traffic during COVID-19 induced global travel bans. The study elaborates on the capacity of unidirectional videos on travel and the implications for industry and academia. The second aim of this paper also employs a Convolutional Neural Network and Random Forest for sentiment analysis of YouTube viewers' comments, where the sentiment analysis output by SenticNet7 is used as actual values. Cross-validation with 10-folds is employed in the proposed models. The findings demonstrate that the max-voting technique outperforms compared with an individual fold.

Proposal for a User-Centered Virtual Reality System for Promoting Tourism in Peru

Tourism has a substantial impact on the economy of different regions of the world such as Latin America, however due to the health crisis generated by COVID-19 this sector has been one of the most affected, for this reason, different investigations have been carried out focused on solving the problems generated by the pandemic. Therefore, it has become necessary to implement new technological alternatives that allow promoting alternative tourism;for example, take virtual tours of different tourist attractions with the help of virtual or augmented reality. In this article we present a proposal for a virtual reality application focused on promoting tourism in Peru using a user-centered design. To make this proposal, an analysis of tourism in Peru was carried out, analyzing the impact of the pandemic in Peru and the most visited attractions in the city of Arequipa to select the scenarios to be virtualized. An important aspect of the proposed is the creation of a user-centered design, for which a set of functions focused on users was proposed, such as the use of a map to select the tourist attractions to visit, showing updated information of the tourist attractions, the use of multiple methods of movement in virtual reality environments and a camera that allows taking pictures when navigating the virtual scenario. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

All Aboard: One Year of Accessible and Inclusive Remote School Trips

The rapid spread of the CoViD-19 pandemic in early 2020 and the adoption of social distancing and "stay-at-home"orders gave rise to the sudden need for schools to be able to provide effective remote teaching. In Italy and elsewhere, the introduction of distance learning technologies has significantly impacted the education of students and limited their social interaction and activities, among which are school trips and other scholastic experiences. To support the constrained educational possibilities of Italian schools, we developed "ActiveViewer", a technological platform that enables massive and interactive remote events, and performed a year-long large-scale experiment, providing a series of massive remote school trips to several Italian cities. We designed a new school trip format, named "CodyTrip"that merges coding and computational thinking with elements of traditional school outings, and provides an engaging experience for participants. In this paper, we present the format and five online trips performed during the school year 2020/2021. The results based on user feedback support the adoption of the tool not only as a stopgap measure for school outings throughout the pandemic but as an accessible and inclusive tool to widen the possibilities of cultural tourism. © 2022 IEEE.

DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY VIRTUAL TOURISM IN 5 SUPER PRIORITY DESTINATIONS ON THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The tourism sector in Indonesia is feeling a significant hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the countries that relies on the tourism sector as the largest foreign exchange income besides the non-oil and gas sector, various efforts have been made to restore the glory of national tourism to its former place. Virtual Torism became the initial effort used by Indonesia as a way to overcome the collapse of the national tourism industry. With Virtual Torism, travel activities can be enjoyed anywhere and anytime, because it only requires an internet network, social media platforms and gadgets. With the emergence of this innovation, it is hoped that it can maintain sustainable tourism and reduce cases of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic because it can be enjoyed at home. This study focuses on answering the reasons for the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia to develop virtual tourism and marketing communication strategies in Indonesia for virtual tourism during the pandemic in 5 super priority destinations (DSP). With a qualitative-descriptive approach and thematic analysis techniques, this study concludes that the marketing communication strategy is a direct direction of the Government. The formulation of this strategy is supported by the help of sprinkler tools to find out thematic sentiments on social media that are circulating in the community. In addition, to introduce to the public related to virtual tourism using co-partner cooperation with tourism business actors as well as co-branding with actors and influencers. The information provided for 5 DSPs is based on 5 Wonders ((Nature, Culinary & Wellness, Culture, Recreation, Adventure). Then also uses special hashtags such as #WonderfullIndonesia, #InDOnesiaCARE, #diIndonesiaAja, #VirtualTourism, and #5DestinasiSuperPrioritas which is intended to be able to adjusting to social media algorithms. © 2022 Little Lion Scientific.

Quality Dimensions of Augmented Reality-based Mobile Apps for Smart-Tourism and its Impact on Customer Satisfaction & Reuse Intention

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the tourism industry, with national lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the virus mandating travel restrictions and prohibiting events and gatherings. The shift to online video conferencing tools, which offer limited interactivity, has spurred the need to integrate augmented reality (AR) in various contexts, such as meetings, exhibitions, museums, and travel. This quantitative study examines visitors' perspectives on AR-based apps in tourism. It investigates the influence of three kinds of quality determinants, such as information quality, system quality, and service quality, on visitors' perspectives on AR apps. Their impact on visitor satisfaction ultimately triggers visitors to reuse AR-based mobile apps. The research makes a theoretical contribution to the literature on AR and the quality dimensions of mobile apps. We expect demand for AR-based apps to rapidly increase, as people continue to follow preventive measures even after COVID-19.

Virtual Tourism, Carbon Footprint, and Circularity

This chapter aims to analyze the tourism sector globally and the creation of virtual tourism. It is presented along with the previous context of the sector and the damage made by the COVID-19 pandemic. This lens shows how virtual tourism emerged as an alternative to traditional tourism while people worldwide were forced to stay home during the uncertainty of the pandemic. Virtual tourism would be related to the arising environmental tendencies expected to be embraced by the industry companies to make tourism a more sustainable economic activity and, therefore, reduce its carbon footprint through circularity. Finally, it also analyses the possibility of its per durability once the consequences and lags of the pandemic are solved. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Virtual Tourism: Bibliometric Analysis

Virtual tourism is currently a reality that has been making progress in particular with the need to redefine the strategy for tourism caused by the emergence of Covid-19. This bibliometric study aims to analyze the evolution of virtual tourism over the years and during the period of the pandemic with the identification of themes and related areas of scientific research. Data from the scientific production of the Scopus database were collected using the keywords “Virtual” and “Tourism”. The study includes descriptive analysis and co-occurrence analyzes of terms and keywords using the VOSviewer software. The results show that the interest of researchers in the topic of virtual tourism increased in the year 2020-21, a period in which a pandemic occurred and that the main areas of research are related to technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D, information technologies. alongside themes such as cultural heritage and sustainable tourism development. © 2022, Associacao Iberica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informacao. All rights reserved.

Direct use of point clouds in real-time interaction with the cultural heritage in pandemic and post-pandemic tourism on the case of Kłodzko Fortress

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology and interactive communication methods increased in importance. One of the sectors most affected by the lockdown was the tourism industry. It became necessary to apply a new approach to the research and development of this field using the virtual world. This paper presents the implementation of direct use of raw point cloud data enriched with digital historical resources on the case of the historic Klodzko Fortress in Poland's Lower Silesia. Terrestrial laser scanning was used to visualise the real world, later used in a game engine to create space for real-time virtual interaction. Like the touring paths in the real world, the interaction in the adopted solution went beyond observation and understanding of the space unified with historical resources. The project's overall goal was to create a safe and accessible digital tool to popularise the region's cultural heritage resources in pandemic and post-pandemic times.

Distant Gastronomic Experiences through Online Cooking Classes in the Covid-19 Era

The current paper explores the distant gastronomic experience of online cooking class participants. Accordingly, reviews from various online cooking class providers posted by participants worldwide during the Covid-19 era were included in this research to be examined through content analysis. Adopting the grounded theory approach, this study also aims to propose a model explaining the inter-relationships of the extracted dimensions. As a result, nine dimensions of distant gastronomic experience were revealed: characteristics and skills of service providers, distance learning, entertaining, distance celebration, escape and relaxation, socializing and togetherness, memorable, value, and recommendation and repurchase intention. Besides, a model that explains the inter-relationships of these variables was provided. Hence, the study contributes to the literature regarding gastronomic experience in general and distant gastronomic experience through online cooking classes by providing the components of distant gastronomic experience and their inter-relationships. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Culinary Science & Technology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Environmental Temperature in Thermal Comfort Under Different Virtual Tourism Activity Intensities: Based on Microclimate Simulation Experiment.

Although COVID-19 lockdowns and travel regulations have restricted the spatial area for human activities, tourists can still use virtual devices and applications for travel purposes. This study aimed to explore the thermal comfort and satisfaction of tourists under various tourist activity intensities, using experimental and semi-structured interview methods, combined with microclimate simulation experiments and electrocardiogram data to monitor physiological indicators. The results showed that: (1) The thermal comfort of virtual tourists had a significant correlation with the environmental temperature. (2) The thermal comfort of virtual tourists differed under various activity intensities. The virtual tourism activity intensity moderated the relation between environmental temperature and tourists' thermal comfort. (3) In the state of exercise (slow walking, fast walking), the environmental temperature affected tourists' physiological indicators. (4) Virtual tourism that integrates realistic visual, audio, and tactile sensations can improve tourists' perception and satisfaction. The results provide a new perspective for the study of the virtual tourism experience and thermal comfort. In addition, it provides theoretical and practical support for the development of virtual tourism scenes in the environmental temperature context.