Purpose

Tourism via virtual reality (VR) technology has become an interesting option for consumers to “travel.” The best approaches to optimizing the VR tourism environment, improving the interactive experience of tourists and encouraging tourists to adopt VR are not yet fully understood. This study explores the willingness of tourists to adopt VR tourism from the dual aspects, richness and dynamics, of virtual social cues.

Design/methodology/approach

To examine the effects of richness (multiple vs. few cues) and dynamic (changeable vs. static cues) on consumers' willingness to adopt VR tourism, three virtual tourism scenes were designed and presented by head-mounted displays. The data were collected for participants in the VR laboratory and tested by ANOVA and partial least squares–structural equation modeling.

Findings

Virtual social cues can generate mental imagery through interactivity, vividness and parasocial interactions, thus increasing the consumer's likelihood of adopting VR tourism. It was also found that imagination moderates mental imagery and adoption intention. When the consumer's imagination is stronger, their mental imagery stimulates a stronger willingness to adopt VR tourism.

Originality/value

The authors innovatively utilize concepts of parasocial interaction and mental imagery and discuss the various influences and mediation mechanisms of social cue characteristics on consumers' adoption of VR tourism. The conclusions may provide new insights for VR tourism managers and tourism scholars.

中文翻译：

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丰富性和动态性：如何利用虚拟社交线索提高虚拟现实旅游的采用率

目的

通过虚拟现实（VR）技术进行旅游已成为消费者“旅行”的有趣选择。优化VR旅游环境、改善游客互动体验、鼓励游客采用VR的最佳途径尚不完全清楚。本研究从虚拟社交线索的丰富性和动态性两个方面探讨了游客采用VR旅游的意愿。

设计/方法论/途径

为了考察丰富性（多线索与少线索）和动态（多变线索与静态线索）对消费者采用 VR 旅游意愿的影响，设计了三个虚拟旅游场景并通过头戴式显示器呈现。数据是为 VR 实验室的参与者收集的，并通过方差分析和偏最小二乘结构方程模型进行测试。

发现

虚拟社交线索可以通过交互性、生动性和准社会互动产生心理意象，从而增加消费者采用虚拟现实旅游的可能性。研究还发现，想象力会调节心理意象和收养意图。当消费者的想象力更强时，他们的心理意象会激发更强烈的采用VR旅游的意愿。

原创性/价值

作者创新性地运用类社会互动和心理意象的概念，讨论了社会线索特征对消费者采用VR旅游的各种影响和中介机制。研究结论或可为VR旅游管理者和旅游学者提供新的见解。