Abstract
This study explores the mechanism that contributes to travel intention in the field of virtual tourism. The overall research method is based on the “Stimulus-Organism-Response” theory. In the research model, the effects of content quality, system quality, and interaction quality in virtual tourism on tourism experience and travel intention are explored, as well as the role of virtual attachment and travel intention. A total of 390 respondents were invited to participate in a virtual tourism experience, and provide feedback through a questionnaire. SmartPLS 3.3.2 was used to validate the causal model, and most of the study hypotheses were supported. The findings show that virtual tourism significantly promotes travel intention. Specifically, content quality, system quality, and interaction quality positively affect tourists' travel intention through the complementary mediations of tourism experience and virtual attachment; and system quality even directly promotes travel intention. However, tourism experience does not affect virtual attachment. The present study extends prior studies on virtual tourism with SOR as a general model for field tourism experience research, while demonstrating the effectiveness of virtual tourism in promoting tourists’ travel intention. The results are useful in assisting governments with develo** relevant policies and services, as well as hel** tourism companies understand virtual tourism as an enhancement for tourist travel intention, thus contributing to the recovery of the tourism industry in the post-COVID-19 era.
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1 Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic was the most significant public health emergency with the most rapid spread and broadest infection range since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 [114]. During the outbreak, economic activities in China were basically at a standstill [79], except for certain industries that still functioned to meet the basic needs of the public. The outbreak significantly disrupted the entire tourism industry due to the allopatric and clustered nature of tourism activities [ The Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model is a model of human cognitive behavior, first proposed by [63]. It reflects the “stimulus-perception-response” process of human behavior. The SOR theory model suggests that stimuli from the external environment influence individuals' behavioral decisions by affecting their emotions. The term "stimulus" refers to the factors that stimulate and cause individuals to act [85]. The term “organism” refers to an individual's interior psychological state [85]. The term "response" refers to the individual's numerous behaviors or behavior intentions in response to the stimuli and the organism [85]. In the SOR framework, the stimulus is generally used as the independent variable, the organism as the mediating variable, and the response as the dependent variable. SOR began as a cognitive model used in psychology and is now frequently utilized to examine Internet user behavior [14, 46, 99, 118]. In tourism research, the SOR model was used to study travel experience [15, 64], travel intention [64, 91, 97], and user engagement [2, 96, 111]. Researchers have found various factors capable of influencing tourist travel intention, including tourists' internal reasoning and the influence of certain external factors, such as tourists' reference information, personal perceptions, and perceived risks [69]. Various social, economic, and psychological factors may impact tourists' travel intentions. Among them, both the reference group and the individual's subjective perceptions play a vital role in forming travel intentions. The reference group of tourists and their subjective knowledge psychologically form emotional preferences and inherent impressions of a tourist destination, which affects the willingness and choice of tourists to travel to that destination. SOR theory suggests that the external environment stimulates the individual's perceptions and emotions, which affects the individual's behavior [88]. Therefore, in studies of consumer travel intentions or behaviors, giving subjects “S” (e.g., VR environment) stimuli before measuring “R” (e.g., questionnaire results) tend to reveal more valid findings when travelers use digital technology such as virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality (AR) to immerse themselves in a highly immersive virtual tourism experience. The process of content stimulation produces the individual's organism, i.e., psychological state. The content quality, system quality, and interaction quality of virtual tourism will directly impact the tourists' tourism experience and virtual attachment, which will affect the tourists' travel intention in the field. According to previous research findings, content quality, system quality, and interaction quality are essential variables that entice tourists to use digital devices for virtual tourism experiences [43, 67, 90]. According to the SOR theory, tourists experienced content quality, system quality, and interaction quality of the virtual travel as stimuli in the experience process. The organism, i.e., the internal process that mediates the external stimulus and behavioral response received by the individual, is in this study expressed as the tourist experience and virtual attachment of tourists. Experience is an objectively existing psychological need. Essentially, the tourism experience is an individualized feeling of an individual responding to certain stimuli [73]. Morrison et al. [68] discovered that physical environmental factors such as music, lighting, and facilities were positively associated with customer mood. Lee, park, and Han [56] found that the quality of online content affects user engagement and acceptance. Due to the attractiveness of the web, uploading high-quality images or videos can influence user satisfaction. Ghose and Huang [33] found that the higher the availability of modern technology, the more companies can promote product quality through personalized services and products. In this way, service quality is improved by increasing satisfaction. In the context of virtual tourism, its interaction quality mainly refers to the ability to provide personalized information, understand tourists' needs and preferences, and personalized interactions. Chang [13] designed an AR-based cultural heritage tour system. He found through a questionnaire that tourists had a strong experience with this system. Jung's [43] study found that the content of augmented reality technology, personalized services, and system quality affect tourists' experience and thus their satisfaction. Based on this, this study proposes the following hypotheses: The content quality of virtual tourism positively affects the tourism experience; The system quality of virtual tourism positively affects the tourism experience; The interaction quality of virtual tourism positively affects the tourism experience. The specific and deep connections people make to a place by assigning meaning to it are called "place attachments" [71]. Attachment refers to "the human tendency to develop strong emotional ties to specific people and objects [7]." With the development of technology, an individual's attachment is not necessarily to a real place. However, it can be extended to a broader scope [81]. For example, with the rapid development of new media, people with common interests or experiences communicate and interact through computer networks, creating emotional attachments to the virtual communities they form [10]. When experiencing social isolation or loneliness, some users develop an emotional attachment to the Internet and social media [104]. Moreover, in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, virtual tourism rekindles tourists' travel confidence, helps them gain a sense of control and security, and regains their travel rhythm. Attachment arises from experience [35, 42], and the perceived value of different experiences has different effects on attachment production [31, 75]. When the virtual world is more realistic, the user's visual senses are more actively involved in aesthetic perception, resulting in a more memorable experience and encouraging attachment to virtual tourism [46]. In addition, the dual stimulation of content quality (virtual scenery) and interactive format (virtual experience) allows users to perceive the experience value of entertainment and enjoyment [71]. When users' own emotional needs are satisfied, they will have a positive emotional evaluation of the virtual scenery, which leads to the enhancement of virtual attachment [71]. This study contends that while utilizing digital devices for virtual tourism, tourists perceived positive content quality, system quality, and interaction quality would drive their connection to virtual tourism. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed in the present study: The content quality of virtual tourism positively affects virtual attachment; The system quality of virtual tourism positively affects virtual attachment; The interaction quality of virtual tourism positively affects virtual attachment. The organism is an internal cognitive process in response to external stimuli. In this process, the information generated by the organism as a result of the stimulus, such as sensations, perceptions, and emotions, will become the basis for subsequent travel intentions and travel behaviors. The emotions generated by an individual stimulated by the external environment will lead the user to approach or avoid behaviors toward the environment and mediate between environment and behavior [113]. Ekanayake [27] found that tourists' experiences positively influenced their travel intentions by studying tourists in the eastern province of Sri Lanka. Kim [47] studied tourists of virtual reality tourism based on the diffusion of innovation theory. He found that users' authentic tourism experience positively affects their travel intention. Kim and Jung studied the effect of tourists' authentic experience on their travel intention based on SOR theory. The study finds that tourists' behavioral intentions are influenced by their sense of authentic virtual reality tourism experiences [46]. Raouf Ahmad Rather [82] investigated the impact of experiential marketing activities on tourists' behavioral intentions in tourist destinations. It was found that tourists' experiences of marketing activities in tourist destinations affect their travel intention. Based on this, this paper proposes the following hypothesis: H7: Tourism experience positively affects travel intention. The prior studies have found that with the intervention of network information, the traditional two-dimensional perspective of the human–territory relationship is extended to a three-dimensional space. New human-territory links and interaction forms of (real)person–(virtual)person, (virtual)person–(virtual)place, and (real)place–(virtual)place emerge [17]. The cognition, emotion, and behavior of virtual and real spaces influence each other and intermingle. Users' purchase intentions in the virtual world are consistent with those in the real world [93], and Ren et al. [83] demonstrated that attachment to virtual communities affects the frequency with which individuals visit virtual communities. Kim et al. [46] also found that their attachment to VR influenced VR tourism users' intentions to visit real places. Therefore, based on the above literature, this study argues that users' awareness and behavior in the virtual world somehow represent real-world awareness and behavior. Virtual attachment enhances tourists' desire for real-world travel destinations. Therefore, the virtual attachment will stimulate the travel intention in the field. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed: H8: Virtual attachment positively affects travel intention. Regarding the relationship between residents' activity participation and local attachment, many empirical studies point out that residents' involvement in local activities positively affects their local attachment [36, 84, 89]. Furthermore, through an empirical study, Kyle et al. and Hwang et al. [41, 53] found that tourists' leisure activity participation had a significant positive effect on their place attachment. In the study on the relationship between the cognitive gap, affective experience, and place attachment, scholars also confirmed that affective experience positively affects place attachment [38]. The higher the quality of tourists' emotional experience, the higher their level of attachment. It is hypothesized that the higher the positive tourism experience, the greater the likelihood that the tourist will develop a virtual attachment to the destination. Based on this, the following hypothesis was proposed: H9: Tourism experiences positively influence virtual attachment. The SOR theory emphasizes the mediating role of the response between the stimulus and the individual's behavior. By comparing the results of prior studies, it was found that tourism experience and virtual attachment play a connecting role between various influencing factors and behavioral intention. Chae, Kuo et al. [9, 52] found that service quality positively impacts customer recommendation and continued usage behavior. Wang and Chen found that the presentation of information systems positively affected consumers' intention to use them [101]. Jung [44] points out that the quality of content affects tourists' attitudes toward AR applications. N Zhang et al. [115] found that brand attachment exerts a partial mediating effect on the relationship between effective CC and brand commitment. Jenny Lee et al. [55] found a mediating effect between place attachment on satisfaction and loyalty. Based on this, the following hypotheses were formulated: Tourism experience has a mediating role in influencing travel intention on content quality; Tourism experience has a mediating role in influencing travel intention on system quality; Tourism experience has a mediating role in influencing travel intention on interaction quality; Virtual attachment has a mediating role in influencing travel intention on content quality; Virtual attachment has a mediating role in influencing travel intention on system quality; Virtual attachment has a mediating role in influencing travel intention on interaction quality. In summary, this study employs SOR theory as the research framework. Content quality, system quality, and interaction quality of virtual tourism as the antecedent variables of tourism experience, virtual attachment, and tourists' travel intention in the field. The construction of a research model of the factors influencing virtual tourism on tourists' travel intention in the field, as shown in Fig. 1. Research model Virtual tourism is a new type of tourism as well as a new industry. Currently, Chinese tourists have less exposure and knowledge about it [1, 5, 9, 19, 23, 45, 51, 112]. The organism factors were measured using the variable of tourism experience (four items) and virtual attachment (five items) adopted from [43, 44, 65, 70, 76], 100, 103, 106, 2: in terms of reliability, Cronbach's α were above the critical value of 0.7 [30], from 0.868 (SQ) to 0.931 (VA),the Composite Reliability is also more significant than the critical value of 0.7 [37], from 0.910 (SQ) to 0.948 (VA). Thus, the measurement model has good reliability. In terms of validity, the factor loadings (λ) for all measurement questions were more significant than the critical value of 0.7 [37], from 0.795 (SQ4) to 0.921 (CQ3). In addition, the AVE for all variables were more significant than the critical value of 0.5 [37], from 0.718 (SQ) to 0.822 (CQ). Thus, the measurement model has good convergent validity. In terms of VIF, the Outer VIF Value was all less than the standard value of 5 [37], from 1.821 (SQ4) to 3.629 (TE3). The Inner VIF Value was also less than the standard value of 5, from 1.217 (VA) to 1.531 (SQ), so the structural model did not have serious multicollinearity problems. The square root of each variable AVE is greater than the correlation coefficient of that variable with any other variable by the discriminant validity test, and the measurement model has good discriminant validity, as shown in Table 3. In terms of path analysis, as shown in Table 4 and Fig. 4, CQ had a significant positive effect on TE with a path coefficient of 0.144 (p < 0.05); SQ had a significant positive effect on TE with a path coefficient of 0.298 (p < 0.001); IQ had a significant positive effect on TE with a path coefficient of 0.116 (p < 0.05); CQ had a significant positive effect on VA with a path coefficient of 0.195 (p < 0.05); SQ has a significant positive effect on VA with a path coefficient of 0.153 (p < 0.05); IQ has a significant positive effect on VA with a path coefficient of 0.235 (p < 0.001); TE has a significant positive effect on TI with a path coefficient of 0.577 (p < 0.001); VA has a significant positive effect on TI with a path coefficient of 0.577 (p < 0.001); SQ has a significant positive effect on TI with a path coefficient of 0.180 (p < 0.01). Therefore, H1-H8 were established. On the other hand, there is no significant effect of TE on VA; there is no significant effect of CQ and IQ on TI. Therefore, H9 was not valid. Meanwhile, when performing model fitting and hypothesis testing, the researchers found that system quality also had a positive effect on travel intention to some extent. So, this study added hypothesis H16: System quality positively affects travel intention. PLS results of the structural model. Note The dotted line indicates that the relationship is not valid. **p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 For the mediating effects, TE and VA acted as mediating variables in the relationship between the effects of CQ on TI, with indirect effects of 0.083 (p < 0.05) and 0.045 (p < 0.01) and total effects of 0.081 (p < 0.001) and 0.043 (p < 0.001), respectively; TE and VA acted as mediating variables in the relationship between the effects of SQ on TI, with indirect effects of 0.172 (p < 0.001) and 0.036 (p < 0.05) and total effects of 0.352 (p < 0.001) and 0.216 (p < 0.05), respectively. indirect effects of 0.172 (p < 0.001) and 0.036 (p < 0.05), respectively, and total effects of 0.352 (p < 0.001) and 0.216 (p < 0.001), respectively; TE and VA acted as mediating variables in the relationship between the effects of IQ on TI, with indirect effects of 0.067 (p < 0.05) and 0.055 (p < 0.01), with total effects of 0.082 (p < 0.001) and 0.070 (p < 0.001), respectively. Since all the above indirect effects were positive, the mediating effects were all Complementary mediation [37], and H10–H15 were established, as shown in Table 5. The predictive power assessment showed R2 = 0.201 for TE, R2 = 0.566 for TI, and R2 = 0.178 for VA. Q2 was calculated based on Blindfolding, and Q2 > 0 indicates that the structural model has predictive relevance for the endogenous variables and vice versa [37]. The calculated Q2 = 0.158 for TE, Q2 = 0.450 for TI, and Q2 = 0.135 for VA, all of which are greater than 0. This indicates that the structural model has predictive relevance for TE, TI, and VA. This study adopts a psychologically-derived SOR theoretical framework to explore the impact of virtual tourism on tourists' travel intention in the field. The findings and implications are described below. RQ1 was clearly answered (Does virtual tourism experience increase users' travel intention in the field?). This research revealed a significant positive relationship between content quality, system quality, and interaction quality of virtual tourism on tourists' tourism experience, virtual attachment, and travel intention through model testing and mediating effect testing, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies [33]. During home quarantine, the recurrence of the pandemic and the disclosure of various negative information led to a surge in stress and anxiety [108]. Many people were compelled to cancel their travel plans. With the intrinsic motivation to travel [22] and the negative information about the pandemic, people's psychological need to escape from the real world and be free from bondage is triggered to a great extent. The magnificent scenery of virtual tourism attractions provides people with the opportunity to have a short escape from reality. It brings a visual feast of beauty, thus facilitating the creation of virtual attachment. In addition, the quality of content, system quality, and interaction of virtual tourism [24] enable tourists to obscure the boundaries between the virtual and physical realities [6, 24], which generates a higher degree of authenticity in the tourism experience [46]. In the virtual environment created by virtual tourism, tourists develop virtual attachments and experience unique tourism experiences distinct from natural tourism. These factors ultimately impact tourists' travel intention in the field. As a new type of tourism, virtual tourism has novel and unique characteristics that attract tourists and inspire their curiosity. As a result, virtual tourism strengthens tourists' intention to run to the destinations promoted in virtual tourism by providing immersive tourism experiences and realistic virtual attachments. The following findings can be reported for RQ2 (What factors change tourists' travel intention in the field of virtual tourism?). Tourism experience and virtual attachment are critical variables that influence tourists' travel intention in the field and are crucial factors in whether virtual tourism can attract more tourists. This empirical analysis revealed that tourism experience and virtual attachment positively impact tourists' travel intention in the field. Tourism experience has the most significant impact on travel intention in the field, followed by virtual attachment, which is mainly relevant to the form and nature of virtual tourism. As a new form of tourism, the ultimate goal of virtual tourism is to provide tourists with an ideal tourism experience. Thus, virtual tourism will be designed to consider tourists' needs to meet the tourism experience. Tourists gain their desired experience in virtual tourism; therefore, the tourism experience has the most significant impact on the travel intention in the field. In addition, tourists may develop an emotional attachment to the actual tourist place through the interaction between the virtual space and the 3D reconstructed scenery, thus creating an emotional connection with the place they have not visited, which further influences the travel intention in the field. The following findings can be reported for RQ3 (How do influencing factors of virtual tourism experience <content quality, system quality, interaction quality>, tourism experience, virtual attachment, and travel intention interact with each other?). System quality may directly and significantly affect travel intention positively. Tourism experience and virtual attachment play a complementary mediating role in influencing relationships of content quality, system quality, and interaction quality. As shown by the relative effect values of the mediating effects, the indirect effects are significant in proportion. Tourists' knowledge of the scenery presented in virtual tourism drives their travel intention while granting them real tourism experience and virtual attachment during the tour, further motivating their travel intention. In addition, there was no significant positive impact of tourism experience on virtual attachment. The results of this study contradict the findings of [36, 89]. The emergence of virtual attachment requires a deeper connection between the tourist and the destination. The positive perceptions and memorability developed from a single or a few tourism experiences do not allow for the emotional connection and psychological identification with the destination that tourists accumulate to give rise to the virtual attachment. Therefore, tourism experiences and virtual attachment do not have a direct correlation. This study's theoretical contributions are categorized into three parts. First, we studied the three contributing dimensions of virtual tourism experience and travel motivation under the immersive "S-O-R" research design. Namely, content quality, system quality, and interaction quality [34, 48, 74]. Further, we expanded their meaning under the scope of VR tourism. Content quality refers to the intrinsic values, i.e., objectivity, credibility, and the amount of information the virtual tourism provides. System quality refers to the quality of the tourist's use of virtual tourism and its design in terms of structure, presentation, and connectivity. Interaction quality is the ability of virtual tourism to provide interactive features to tourists. With these delimitations, this study constructs a relational model which suggests a positive relationship between those qualities and tourism intention through the mediation of virtual content characteristics. Together, the results should be carefully considered in building virtual tourism interactions, providing information to tourists, and understanding tourists' preferences. Second, prior Studies have conducted empirical tourism research for VR only in a limited number of areas: first, web-based visual images, such as 360°panoramic images [8, 39, 62]. Second, virtual environments are based on fictional worlds in VR games [21, 32]. Third, virtual environments are displayed on a two-dimensional computer screen [18, 95]. In addition, few tourism studies have used VR devices to conduct usability tests on live-action virtual tourism products. By focusing on the sensory stimuli evoked by VR technology-based virtual tourism for tourists, this work examines the psychological processes of tourists' travel experiences and reactions to virtual tourism products. Since VR technology is constantly evolving, this study will be a good reference paradigm for future usability studies of virtual tourism products based on VR technology. Third, scholars' prior studies on travel intention have focused on influencing factors of travel intention [86, 102], relationship studies [66, 77], and place attachment [54, 94]. Researchers' work on travel intention was first extended from social behavior, where it was generally accepted that "travel" is also social behavior. The research methods used by scholars for research in this area are mainly quantitative methods, such as factor analysis and constructive modeling. In terms of research content, scholars have expanded from the factors influencing its formation to the study of relationships. Later scholars have focused more on the emotional expression of individual tourists and explored the relationship between tourism intention and place attachment. This study builds on the prior studies and further explores a research model that is more consistent with Chinese tourists' travel intention to virtual tourism destinations in the post-COVID-19 era. Finally, this study identified virtual attachment as an antecedent factor influencing tourists' travel intention in the field, rarely seen in virtual tourism research. The study revealed that virtual attachment is a prominent variable influencing tourists' travel intention in the field when users are experiencing virtual tourism. Virtual attachment differs from other variables because it incorporates more of the tourists' affective experiences. Virtual tourism is a new way of tourism; tourists' emotions are evident in their subsequent behavior of tourists. Tourists develop emotional attachments to real tourist places through interactions with three-dimensional reconstructions of scenic areas in virtual space, thus creating emotional connections to places they have not visited and further influencing their travel intention in the field. The findings empirically develop the ternary space theory of tourist places, i.e., the traditional two-dimensional perspective of the tourist-place relationship is extended to a three-dimensional ternary space, further illustrating the interrelated, interactive, and dynamic response characteristics of the ternary area [17]. Since the individual variability of tourist groups, the influence of virtual attachment on tourists' travel intention in the field cannot be neglected. First, this study discovered that tourism experience positively impacts travel intention (p = 0.001). The path coefficient of the variable of the tourism experience is 0.577, which is greater than other variables. This indicates the magnitude of tourists' perceptions of their experiences during virtual tours on their subsequent travel intentions in the field. Virtual tourism changes the way tourists visit a scenic area by providing them with more opportunities to interact, contextualize, and share with others. This study finds that content quality, system quality, and interaction quality can affect tourists' tour experience. Hence, three perspectives of content, system, and interaction can be adopted to enhance their experience. From a system perspective, the system quality of virtual tourism impacts the tourist experience, virtual attachment, and travel intention. Hence, the design of the presentation form as the carrier of the system quality is essential. The current way of virtual tourism, in addition to the traditional AR, VR, as a powerful means of augmented reality—holographic projection technology also has a vast space for development. This technology is not unattainable, and holographic projection technology has been used in many scenarios, such as virtual idol concerts. However, holographic projection technology has rarely been used in the tourism industry. Future virtual tourism technology researchers can make this technology universal so that tourists' homes become distant scenic spots. From an interactivity perspective, the interactivity quality affects tourists' tourism experience and virtual attachment, which affects their travel intention. Currently, virtual tourism has a lot of room for development in the interactivity aspect. Granted, the rise of the Internet has brought a completely different experience to virtual tourism interactivity than in the past. Tourists can communicate and interact through real-time voice and other means. When tourists travel in the field, on the one hand, they can interact with people; on the other hand, the interaction between people and scenery, people and things are also essential for tourists when traveling in the field. Photographing is usually one of how people interact with the scenery. Developers of virtual tourism can use cinematic stunts to allow users to pose for photos with scenes in virtual scenes. Techniques such as AR photography and photoshop (PS) can also increase tourists' engagement. In terms of human–object interaction, virtual tourism does not allow tourists to taste the specialties of the tourist destination as much as onsite tourism. Therefore, virtual tourism developers can incorporate the function of take-out recommendation in the course of the virtual tourism scenario setting. Tourists can order a local specialty dish at home, for example, Hangzhou dish, during virtual tourism in Hangzhou. In addition, developers can also add restaurant recommendations. For example, the system can recommend local Sichuan cuisine restaurants in Sichuan virtual tourism. Users can go straight to the restaurants in the tourist destination after virtual tourism to satisfy the tourists' desire for food, which is one of the most effective ways to increase tourists' travel intention in the field. Finally, future virtual tourism developers can optimize virtual tourism from other perspectives, such as growing tourists' olfactory or tactile experience. From a content perspective, content quality affects tourists' tourism experience and virtual attachment, affecting their travel intention. At the beginning of the pandemic, virtual tourism took up a large amount of demand for outbound travel. While domestic travel in China has thawed after the pandemic has been alleviated, outbound travel remains ice-bound. Content quality has become almost the only growth area in the post-pandemic era that can increase tourists' travel intentions onsite. The quality of content for virtual tourism requires inspiring tourists and providing practical travel information, and generating real value for tourist attractions and local government departments for tourism. The pandemic has further deepened the importance of tourism content quality. From the perspective of tourists' needs, in the post-pandemic era, faced with new information gaps, tourists increasingly need tourism information related to COVID-19 precautionary measures, such as the need for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test reports and unique business hours schedules for attractions. This information needs to be updated by virtual tourism operators in the first instance in the virtual tourism scenario. Virtual tourisms need to provide tourists with the fastest and most accurate information related to the pandemic. Finally, virtual attachment directly and positively affects the travel intention, highlighting the importance of constructing a person–place emotional identity in virtual tourism [46]. When tourists develop heartfelt and emotional attachments (e.g., desire for spiritual purification and pilgrimage experiences [11]) to tourist places during virtual tours, and these needs are challenging to satisfy through the mirroring experience of virtual tourism, travel intention in the field are significantly enhanced in the future. In this regard, the virtual tourism design process should focus on the realistic simulation of beautiful scenery and stimulating tourists' spiritual resonance and emotional identification with the tourist destination, thus enhancing the effectiveness of virtual tourism as a marketing method. In addition, virtual tourism must not develop independently due to the inseparable relationship between online and offline. Specifically, virtual tourism will not wholly replace offline tourism because offline tourism is the root of virtual tourism. Without the development of offline tourism, virtual tourism will also lose the creative material. Although virtual tourism is not the pure auxiliary tool it used to be, an essential role of virtual tourism in the post-pandemic era is still to provide a reference for people to travel offline. After all, there is no substitute for offline travel that brings tourists a natural feeling. There are some shortcomings in this research on the effect of virtual tourism on tourists' travel intention on site. First, the quantitative dimensions of virtual tourism can be further enriched and deepened. The quality of virtual tourism in this study was mainly manifested in three aspects: interactivity quality, content quality, and system quality. With the development of technology however, new quantitative dimensions of virtual tourism display are bound to emerge, so in future research, new quantitative dimensions of virtual tourism can be explored through methods such as grounded theory and big data mining. Second, since the data collection of this study was completed during the pandemic, the virtual attachment of virtual tourists may be affected by the pandemic. When there is a risk of infection during the trip, tourists in a housebound state may generate higher attachment levels than during the unusual period. In other words, attachment to the virtual tourism experience may be weakened when tourists are free to go out and experience the beauty of the travel destination firsthand. Therefore, the transformational relationship between tourists' virtual attachment and travel intention in the field when going out is unrestricted and can be further investigated in the future. Third, the data collected in this study come from virtual tourists in China. The high collectivism and high-power distance, and relational culture characteristics of China [117] may also impact interpersonal relationships and social interactions, which may be very different from the perceptions of virtual tourism by tourists in other countries and cultures. Therefore, considering the impact of cultural differences, cross-cultural comparisons can be enhanced in the context of future work, to fully understand the effects and impact mechanisms of virtual tourism on tourists from different cultural backgrounds.2 Theoretical background and research hypothesis
2.1 Stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model
2.2 The impact of virtual tourism experience on tourists' intrinsic state
2.3 Virtual tourism and tourism experience
H1:
H2:
H3:
2.4 Virtual tourism and virtual attachment
H4:
H5:
H6:
2.5 The impact of tourists' intrinsic state on travel intention
2.5.1 Tourism experience and travel intention
2.5.2 Virtual attachment and travel intention
2.5.3 Virtual attachment and tourism experience
2.5.4 The mediating role of the tourists' intrinsic state
H10:
H11:
H12:
H13:
H14:
H15:
3 Methods
3.1 Research model
3.2 Usability test design and data collection
4.2 Structural model analysis
4.2.1 Path analysis
4.2.2 Mediating effect analysis
4.2.3 Predictive power assessment
5 Discussion and conclusions
5.1 Key findings
5.2 Theoretical implications
5.3 Practical implications
5.4 Limitations and future research
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Ye, D., Cho, D., Liu, F. et al. Investigating the impact of virtual tourism on travel intention during the post-COVID-19 era: evidence from China. Univ Access Inf Soc (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-022-00952-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-022-00952-1