Hongxiao Yu

Date of Award

Spring 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management

First Advisor

Haemoon Oh

Abstract

The rapid development of virtual reality (VR) platforms offers great potential for the widespread consumption of VR tourism offerings. This creation of tourism experiences through VR significantly impacts tourism marketing strategies. Nevertheless, unprecedented development presents research challenges to better understand the effectiveness of VR interactivity in providing dynamic virtual experiences and shaping consumers’ intention to visit actual tourism destinations. Moreover, destination marketing managers face challenges in designing interactive features to leverage VR technology to influence consumers’ decision-making. To address these challenges, this dissertation extends the heuristic-systematic model to investigate how VR interactivity influences visit intention through engaging experiences with technology and VR content.

This study contributes to tourism marketing both theoretically and practically. From a theoretical standpoint, this study extends the tourism management literature by constructing an information processing model in VR marketing. This research also constructs a holistic picture of engagement and explains the multidirectional effects of interactivity on information processing. From a practical perspective, the conceptual model offers specific guidelines for tourism marketers to effectively engage potential tourists with VR. Overall, this dissertation reveals several key mechanisms by which VR interactivity creates significant persuasion outcomes in destination marketing. VR interactivity plays an important independent role in informing, inspiring, and persuading potential tourists.

Rights

© 2023, Hongxiao Yu

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