Exploring Consumer Behavior in Virtual Reality Tourism Using an Extended Stimulus-Organism-Response Model

TLDR

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology in tourism, yet little research has examined the factors that drive consumers to visit destinations presented through VR. To address this gap, the study developed a theoretical framework linking authentic experience, cognitive and affective responses, attachment, and visit intention within VR tourism. The framework was constructed using stimulus‑organism‑response (SOR) theory to model how VR stimuli influence internal responses and subsequent behaviors. Authentic experience significantly affects cognitive and affective responses, which mediate attachment and visit intention; attachment also directly influences intention, with cognitive response exerting a stronger effect than affective response, explaining why potential tourists are motivated to visit VR‑shown destinations.

Abstract

Although virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology in tourism, little research has been conducted on what factors make consumers visit destinations presented by VR. To address this gap in the literature, this study developed a theoretical framework including authentic experience, cognitive and affective responses, attachment, and visit intention with VR tourism using a stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory. The results revealed significant impacts of authentic experience on cognitive and affective responses, indicating that authentic experience is an important factor in VR tourism. The study identified cognitive and affective responses as significant mediators in predicting attachment and visit intention. The results demonstrated that the intention to visit places shown in VR tourism was influenced by attachment to VR. Cognitive response had a stronger influence than affective response on the intention to visit a destination in VR. This study sheds light on why potential tourists visit destinations shown in VR.