Measuring the Media Effects of a Tourism-Related Virtual Reality Experience Using Biophysical Data

Findings show that specific media characteristics of the VR experience, such as proposing an unusual horizon perspective to the VR viewer, hold the potential to lead to the formation of strong memories.

Abstract

Tourism is among the domains that might see in Virtual reality (VR) several advances for promoting its products and services. This study is one of the first that proposes the use of biophysical data for investigating the media effects of a tourism-related VR experience and discusses the use of such technique for studying media effects in VR settings. A VR experience proposed to the public by Ticino Tourism, a regional Swiss Destination Management Organization (DMO) was tested with 23 people who participated in an experiment in which biophysical reactions were tracked. Findings show that specific media characteristics of the VR experience, such as proposing an unusual horizon perspective to the VR viewer, hold the potential to lead to the formation of strong memories. These results might enable a better understanding of the effects of VR technology on consumer behaviour and eventually lead to the design of more engaging VR content.