ABSTRACT
Sustainable heritage tourism is recognized as an economic activity that can ensure the careful management of tangible cultural heritage sites for future generations, and attract visitors to experience their cultural, historical, and archaeological significance. The use of 3D immersive cultural heritage visualization presentations can enhance a visitor’s perceived experience and motivation, and have received growing interest in the tourism literature. However, the impact of these cultural heritage presentations on visitor perceived experience with regard to certain psychological and social factors has not been fully explored. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by investigating how 3D immersive visualization experiences enhance the significance and value of tangible cultural heritage sites, through considering significant factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted with visitors who experienced a 3D reconstructed immersive visual experience of the Seokguram Grotto World Heritage Site. The results showed that the 3D reconstructed immersive visualization contents increased the significance and value of the tangible cultural heritage site, by influencing visitors' perceived experiences using certain psychological factors. These findings will contribute positively to the sustainable heritage tourism development literature.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Muhammad Tufail
Muhammad Tufail is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Design at UNIST. He obtained his Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Culture Technology at Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea, and his Ph.D. degree from the Graduate School of Creative Design Engineering at UNIST. His areas of interest include digital heritage, exercise, sport and leisure, tourism, service design, product service system design, sustainable design, and ergonomic design.
Jinho Park
Park Jinho is currently a research professor in Virtual Smart City Visualization System Convergence Education and Research Cluster at Korea University. He obtained his Doctor’s degree in Digital Heritage from SangMyung University, Seoul, South Korea. His areas of interest include VR, AR, MR, Artificial intelligence, Metaverse and Digital heritage. He is a leading scholar in Korea's Digital heritage department and has carried out around 70 digital heritage projects over the past 23 years.
Hwang Kim
Hwang Kim is an assistant professor and director of the OF NOW Lab in the Department of Design at UNIST. He obtained his BS from Hongik University and worked as a UX Designer in Ahn Graphics, South Korea. He obtained his MA in Product Design from the Royal College of Art UK. He served as the User Experience Design Manager in Philips Healthcare Singapore and Amsterdam. He worked as an interaction designer for 15 + years in UX and UI design and directed UX strategy of corporate services, guided rich interaction design from conceptualization to implementation, and organized qualitative and quantitative research.
Sangheon Kim
Sangheon Kim is currently assistant professor in the Department of History and Historical Content at SangMyung University. He obtained his Doctor’s degree in Computer Science from the Graduate School of Soongsil University, Seoul, South Korea. His areas of interest include cultural informatics, digital heritage and Digital Archives.
KwanMyung Kim
KwanMyung Kim is a professor in the Department of Design at UNIST, South Korea since 2010, and was a Dean of Graduate School of Creative Design Engineering during 2016-2020. He serves as an editor for Archives of Design Research and ICONARP International Journal of Architecture and Planning. He is also a CEO of ID SPACE Corp., a start-up company that commercializes academic research outcomes. Before joining UNIST, he worked in industry for 14 years. He is interested in integration of design and engineering, and industry and academic knowledge. His research areas include Design for Elderly and Rehabilitation/Health Care Design.
Ji-Hyun Lee
Ji-Hyun Lee is a Professor in the Graduate School of Culture Technology at KAIST. She received her Ph.D. in School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University. Currently, she is the Director of the Division of Arts, Culture and Convergence of National Research Foundation (NRF), Korea as well as the Director of the Information-Based Design (IBD) Research Group in KAIST. Her research focus narrowed down to three interdisciplinary areas that are not mutually exclusive: (1) calculation for UX + service design, (2) cultural DNA with morphological analysis, and (3) Future Education with AI.