Understanding the core technological features of virtual and augmented reality in tourism: a qualitative and quantitative review

ABSTRACT

As virtual tourism and service automation grow, immersive technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), are widely being used in tourism to attain the aspirational tourism experience. To identify the effectiveness of AR and VR applications in the tourism experience, several technological features have been proposed. However, these features are fragmented and inherently confusing in terms of conceptualizations, internal relationships, and effects on the travel experience. Thus, this qualitative and quantitative review clarifies the similarities and differences among high-frequency technological features retrieved from 118 (with 68 being used for meta-analysis) critical articles. Using presence as an anchor, a qualitative review constructs a web of convergent conceptual models (involving presence, immersion, interaction, vividness, and realms of experience economy), while a quantitative (i.e. meta-analytic) review tests their effect sizes. The findings reveal the overall impact of AR and VR technological features on tourism effectiveness, and provide insights for future research into the profound effects of AR and VR technological features on travellers' experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual reality
• augmented reality
• traveller experience
• presence
• tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was partly supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [22YJC630017].