Purpose

This study aims to examine the underlying emotional process that explains how context-specific stimuli involved in virtual reality (VR) destinations translate into presence perceptions and behavioral intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 403 potential tourists participated in a self-administered online survey after they watched a randomly assigned VR tour. The Lavaan package in R software was used to conduct structural equation analysis and examine the proposed theoretical framework.

Findings

The results reveal that media content consisting of informativeness, aesthetics and novelty was positively related to users’ sense of presence in a VR tour. The effect of media content on presence was partially mediated by emotional arousal.

Practical implications

Managers and VR designers can create an emotive virtual tour that contributes to the user’s sense of presence to promote attraction to the target destination. The VR content needs to be informative, aesthetic and novel, which can excite users during the VR tour, portray virtual destinations clearly and eventually influence potential tourists’ visit intentions.

Originality/value

Research on the emotional mechanism to generate presence is still in its infancy. This study integrates presence theory into a conceptual framework to explore how media content influences presence and decision-making through the emotional mechanism.

中文翻译：

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虚拟现实和目的地存在感

目的

本研究旨在探讨潜在的情感过程，解释虚拟现实 (VR) 目的地中涉及的特定情境刺激如何转化为存在感知和行为意图。

设计/方法论/途径

共有 403 名潜在游客在观看了随机分配的 VR 旅游后参与了一项自我管理的在线调查。使用R软件中的Lavaan包进行结构方程分析并检验所提出的理论框架。

发现

结果表明，由信息性、美观性和新颖性组成的媒体内容与用户在 VR 游览中的存在感呈正相关。媒体内容对存在感的影响部分是通过情绪唤醒来调节的。

实际影响

经理和 VR 设计师可以创建富有情感的虚拟旅游，增强用户的临场感，从而增强对目标目的地的吸引力。 VR内容需要信息丰富、美观、新颖，能够在VR游览过程中激发用户的兴奋感，清晰地描绘虚拟目的地，最终影响潜在游客的参观意愿。

原创性/价值

对产生存在感的情绪机制的研究仍处于起步阶段。本研究将存在理论融入概念框架中，探讨媒体内容如何通过情感机制影响存在和决策。