The role of COVID-19 anxiety and social contact within technology readiness and acceptance model for virtual reality

Abstract

This research aims to question the current threats posed by COVID-19 anxiety and the concept of social contact brought up by the pandemic, with the goal of extending the TRAM model within the context of tourism and virtual reality (VR). The sample of the study comprises of 300 participants taking part in a touristic activity within the last year and experiencing the lockdown period. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) is used for data analysis. According to the findings, COVID-19 anxiety significantly enhances attitudes toward VR, social contact as a tourist role, and perceived usefulness (PU) toward VR. However, social contact is shown not to have a significant effect on attitudes toward VR. Lastly, technological readiness predicts perceived ease of use (PEOU) and PU of VR. The two, in turn, affect attitudes toward virtual reality technology (AVR), which positively affects behavioral intention toward virtual reality technology, namely, BIVR. Insights derived from the study extend present knowledge concerning TRAM, COVID-19 anxiety, virtual reality, social contact as a value, and provide various recovery marketing-oriented strategies for tourism professionals.

Küresel Ki̇mli̇ği̇n Ekoturi̇zme Yönelme Üzeri̇ndeki̇ Etki̇si̇nde Çevre Koruma Moti̇vasyonunun Araci Rolü

“…Next, the fact that the identity-specific factor has a moderate and upper level of explanatory power over value-based motivation validates and extends our present knowledge (Agyeiwaah et al, 2020;Der-Karabetian et al, 2014;Ng and Basu, 2019;Özekici and Küçükergin, 2022;Woosnam et al, 2019) regarding the role of identities as a motivational factor in the context of ecotourism. What is more, the theory in point was delineated to have the potential of integration with constructs from sociology as well (Özekici and Ünlüönen, 2019).…”

Virtual reality: A review and a new framework for integrated adoption

“…For perceived enjoyment, there is a positive statistical significance on attitude (β = 0.449, p ≤ .001) (Langaro et al, 2022;Manis & Choi, 2019) Özekici & Küçükergin, 2022) and usage intention (β = 0.288, p ≤ .001) (Kwok et al, 2021;Özekici & Küçükergin, 2022;Sagnier et al, 2020;Seong & Hong, 2022;Vishwakarma et al, 2020a). For perceived ease of use, there is a positive statistical significance on perceived usefulness (β = 0.435, p ≤ .001) (Capasa et al, 2022;Esper et al, 2022;Kwok et al, 2021;Özekici & Küçükergin, 2022;Vishwakarma et al, 2020a;Yuen et al, 2022) and attitude (β = 0.185, p ≤ .001) (Capasa et al, 2022;Esper et al, 2022;Kwok et al, 2021;Langaro et al, 2022;Manis & Choi, 2019;Özekici & Küçükergin, 2022). For past use, there is a positive statistical significance on perceived ease of use (β = 0.420, p ≤ .01) (Capasa et al, 2022;Langaro et al, 2022;Manis & Choi, 2019) and marginal statistical significance on usage intention (β = 0.150, p = .09) (Manis & Choi, 2019;Langaro et al, 2022).…”

The Role of Technology Acceptance and Readiness on Intention to Adopt Virtual Tourism Technology during The New Normal Era

“…[1], [24], [30]. Then, TAM is represented by two variables, namely perceived usefulness using three indicators, and perceived ease-of-use using five indicators [21], [38]. Finally, the measurement of usage intention used three indicators [1], [38].…”

“…Then, TAM is represented by two variables, namely perceived usefulness using three indicators, and perceived ease-of-use using five indicators [21], [38]. Finally, the measurement of usage intention used three indicators [1], [38]. The first part of the questionnaire is a statement that respondents are willing to take this survey.…”