Exploring impacts of AR on group package tours: Destination image, perceived certainty, and experiential value

Abstract

With the growing demand for experience, technologies such as augmented reality (AR) have been widely adopted across fields to increase individuals’ interactive experiences. In tourism, group package tours have become a common touring approach; however, research in investigating tourists’ journey experiences facilitated by modern technologies such as AR remains rare. This study aims to examine factors affecting tourists’ behavioral intentions to choose group package tours. An extended theory of the planned behavior model with three antecedents—destination image, perceived certainty, and experiential value— is posited to evaluate the potential influence of AR. Using data of 557 survey respondents, the structural equation modeling shows a good fit for the empirical results. The findings reveal that AR gives tourists access to more explicit destination images, increases the certainty of group package tours, and creates experiential value during a trip, thereby enhancing behavioral intentions to opt for a group package tour. The study concludes with theoretical and empirical implications for tourism and related industries.

The Technology Acceptance on AR Memorable Tourism Experience—The Empirical Evidence from China

“…AR technology has the capability to offer physical, emotional, and cognitive experiences related to tourist destinations [31]. The incorporation of AR technology into the tourism domain not only signifies the integration of information technology into human life and space [31,32], but also serves as a significant medium for generating distinctive human behaviors and emotional experiences [33,34], effectively fulfilling certain bodily functions, such as perception and gaze.…”

“…First, due to the potential of AR technology to reduce tourists' utilization of physical tourism resources and to preserve the integrity of cultural heritage, it has been utilized to enhance the sustainability of cultural heritage tourism destinations [19,36]. A significant body of relevant tourism types has confirmed the association between AR and tourist experiences [34,42]. Nevertheless, current research has been confined to indoor tourism settings, such as museums and exhibitions [3,41], with a paucity of exploration into the application of AR in outdoor real-world tourism contexts.…”

“…The adoption of AR technology by destinations serves to achieve sustainable development both economically, by attracting tourist flows [34], and socially and environmentally, by reducing the strain on physical tourism resources [19]. Thus, the successful implementation and societal acceptance of AR technology has become pivotal in promoting the sustainable development of tourist destinations.…”