Virtual Reality Technology as a Tool for Promoting Luxor as a Cultural Tourism Destination (original) (raw)

The Real Effectiveness of VR: the tourism and cultural organization managers' point of view

International Conference on Tourism Research

Virtual reality (VR) has become an important field of academic research investigation, firstly and obviously in relation to its technological aspects. Then, as a marketing tool for promotion and communication purposes. In this context, researchers have mainly focused on analyzing the behavior and appreciation of tourists with respect to this new technology. This article proposes an alternative approach, focusing on the company's decision-makers, mainly tourism and cultural organizations, who use this technology. This approach seeks to understand how and why VR is integrated into a company's strategy. Methodology: Firstly, we did a literature review and studied a systematic collection of virtual tour offers in Switzerland, which led to the analysis of characteristics of these virtual reality offers. These characteristics consider the different virtual reality systems according to the level of immersion, interactivity, and presence, which made it possible to construct a classification of virtual tour offers in Switzerland. Secondly, a qualitative method was used to conduct twelve semi-structured interviews with companies offering virtual tours of Swiss regions, in order to understand the managerial vision of VR usage and to deepen understanding of the various applications of virtual reality in the context of Swiss tourism. Findings: The analysis revealed that there is a distinction between the different virtual reality systems used in the Swiss tourism sector. Research has shown that non-immersive 360° videos as a marketing tool are no longer of great benefit to tourist destinations. Conversely, immersive virtual tours for promotional purposes at trade fairs and with travel partners are still of interest however are no longer considered a competitive advantage. It is the integration of VR into the in-situ tourism experience which has received a more enthusiastic response but creating fears among tourism stakeholders. Originality/Value: The main argument of this article is that it analyzes the use of VR tools from the point of view of managers of cultural and tourist institutions, and not from the point of view of customers. Furthermore, the article proposes a new structural classification of VR projects in Switzerland and offers practical implications for tourism and cultural organizations, as well as new directions for future studies.

Kan, M.H. et al., "A Preliminary Field Work on Digital Heritage and the Use of Virtual Reality for Cultural Heritage Management" Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Research (AHTR), Vol 10(4) 2022,625-645.

Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Research (AHTR), 2022

This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary research project carried on during the Covid-19 Pandemic and supported by TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). The results are gathered from six months of field and office work, as the project was limited with this period. The archaeological site of Letoon in Muğla/Turkey has been chosen as the test area, specifically the triple temples of Leto, Apollo, and Artemis. Photogrammetric reconstruction of the current situation, as well as archaeologically accurate 3D models, have been created and converted into interactive immersive VR content to measure consumer behaviour and experience. These two different types of 3D content are integrated into the VR environment both separately and as a single content with switching from one to the other. After the creation process, the content was experienced by the visitors with different demographic characteristics and a survey was conducted to measure this experience.

The Use of Virtual Reality in Tourism Destinations as a Tool to Develop Tourist Behavior Perspective

Sustainability

The role of new technologies in tourism is changing rapidly, leading to the development of customer relationships through the use of virtual reality in the marketing of tourist destinations. In addition to focusing on the influence of travel intentions that has prevailed in practice so far, the use of VR is expected to have an impact on the travel experience on the spot. This exploratory research study was conducted with 824 respondents to identify the role of virtual reality in choosing a tourist destination, as well as the expectations of potential customers that could rekindle the tourism industry for a post-pandemic world. The results pointed out that highly used virtual reality applications for destination marketing aim to create a certain image for a tourist destination and to communicate this to the outside world in a consistent and coordinated manner. The findings also reinforce the importance of developing future scenarios for virtual reality as a decisive factor for strate...

Virtual Reality - Shows a New Vision for Tourism and Heritage

European Scientific Journal, 2015

Observe the heritage, a monument, architecture or a sculpture and immediately receive useful additional information to interpret better. This is one of the promises of virtual reality technology. The concept of virtual reality is far from being a new concept. Many experiments on ways to overcome layers of information, in addition to the real world elements, in live observation, have been made over the past decade, exploring different types of use, in leisure and professional contexts. Improving the perception of reality, in contrast to virtual reality, offers other initiatives that replace the context of a simulated world, and the possibility of using an interactive way to manipulate it in a digitally way. Those are the latest achievements that have opened new evolution perspectives of virtual reality. The idea behind most computer applications is to improve the user interaction with the real world, adding information through the use of tools and techniques that were confined to the digital world. But those applications could be used on tourism orientation in cities and in the professional world, in diverse areas, as architecture in the BIM environment or interior design architecture, with the projection of elements like the furniture and could be visualized in the virtual space. The ability to draw, could verify and share new realities, that was already being exploited by companies, which add new layers of information to be used in their catalogs and products that literally transform the hybrid PC, tablets and smartphones customer in additional information sources, that lead to know better what is observed, but in tourism and heritage that virtual reality is being used more intensively. Virtual Reality could be a good way to travel and understand the touristic world.

Virtual reality and modern tourism

Journal of Tourism Futures, 2020

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight as to how recent trends in virtual reality (VR) have changed the way tourism and hospitality industry communicates their offerings and meets the tourists’ needs. Design/methodology/approach The approach is based on systematic literature review, where the relations between focal concepts are given to analyze potential future developments concerning VR. Findings The paper identifies and analyzes how VR technology affected tourism and hospitality industry through three main touch points – future tourism planning and management, technology-based marketing of tourism destinations and VR potential in changing consumer requirements. These concepts were analyzed to identify changing forces and suggest potential paradigm shifts that tourism and hospitality suppliers and marketers need to consider. These included realistic virtual travel replacements, the importance of interactive experiences and innovation in future tourism systems. ...

IMPROVING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY THROUGH VIRTUAL REALITY

International Conference on Business and Integral Security (IBIS) , 2023

This article provides an objective overview of the positive and negative impact of virtual reality (VR) in the tourism industry and on tourists. It aims to summarize the current knowledge on VR in tourism and discusses the possibilities of immersive VR systems. The article adopts a methodological approach and suggests specific meanings for different groups. It analyses previous literature on VR in tourism from 2000 to October 2023, gathering information from various sources to explore the potential applications of VR in the industry. Additionally, the study offers practical implications for tourism corporations and identifies areas for future research. The overall goal of the article is to contribute to a deeper understanding of VR research in the tourism industry.

TOURISM IN DIGITAL AGE: AN EXPLANATION FOR THE IMPACTS OF VIRTUAL, AUGMENTED AND MIXED REALITY TECHNOLOGIES ON TOURIST EXPERIENCES

JOURNAL OF TOURISM INTELLIGENCE AND SMARTNESS, 2019

The purpose of this study is clarifying effects of reality technologies on tourist experiences. For this purpose, tourist experiences and reality technologies are defined firstly. Thereafter, examples are given for the virtual, augmented and mixed reality applications within the tourism sector. In the last section, some evaluations are made for the future tourist experiences. In this study, it is concluded that virtual and augmented reality technologies are mainly used in museum tourism and have a positive effect on visitor experiences. In addition, it's suggested that future tourist experiences will be more conscious because of raise awareness with diffusion of augmented and virtual reality technologies in all tourism sector.

Virtual Reality: An Innovative Tool in Destinations’ Marketing

The Gaze: Journal of Tourism and Hospitality, 2018

Virtual reality (VR) is a fast-developing technology with a broad range of use. The tourism industry, more specifically destinations, may benefit from its potential in the near future. By using VR in its marketing strategy, destinations have a substantial influence on the information search process and the decision-making process of potential tourists. Tourists can experience the destination, its atmosphere and possible emotions beforehand. Thus, they can create a more detailed destination image and realistic expectations of their visit. This transfers them into a better position to decide whether or not to visit a destination. This experimental study takes a closer look into a destination’s promotional material by analysing and comparing a self-designed brochure with an existing VR video of the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. A total of 101 experiments were conducted at Fachhochschule Salzburg and UniparkNonntal. The research shows that VR transforms the information search experience i...

Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies to Enhance the Visitor Experience in Cultural Tourism

Progress in IS, 2019

Cultural tourism has been identified as an important economic and social contributor worldwide. Main drivers have been linked to an increasing desire for cultural awareness, meaning-creation and learning. An increasing body of research explores the application of VR and AR in this context. While previous studies outline VR and AR as promising technologies to positively influence the visitor experience, these typically do not focus on how such technologies should be built to suit the context or add value to tourists. This study investigates elements affecting the tourist experience in the cultural tourism context from a theoretical perspective by discussing the impact of VR and AR technology on the visitor's learning experience. It offers contributions in the area of cultural tourism and consumer psychology, discussing tourist sites mediated by engaging technologies to enhance the visitor experience. Further research is highlighted in the area of VR and AR development through purpose-driven design

The perception of vr of the tourists visiting chosen cultural facilities in Gdańsk

Ekonomiczne Problemy Turystyki

E-tourism is meeting more and more tourists' needs these days. It is primarily connected with using the Internet as a main tool of contacting the tourist. Therefore, the aim of this study is to collect data concerning the way in which virtual space is perceived by tourists and whether or not it has a possibility of influencing the business in question in the near future. 250 tourists-138 of whom are Polish and 123 come from abroad-visiting given cultural facilities have been subjected to analysis. The author has chosen to use a diagnostic poll method, that is a standardized survey questionnaire, prepared in Polish, English, German and Russian.