Abstract
Virtual and augmented reality are changing how companies interact with customers. However, previous research has paid little attention to compare their effectiveness. This study focuses on the perceptions of presence elicited by different types of contents (real or digital) and embodied devices (head-mounted display or smartphone), and their impact on user’s pre-experiences with hotels. Results from a lab experiment show that contents with high levels of factual realism (360-degree videos) have a positive influence on perceptions of presence, ease of imagination, and visual appeal, and on booking intentions. These effects are stronger when high embodied devices (head-mounted displays) are applied. Additionally, presence positively influences ease of imagination and visual appeal, which mediate the impact of content on booking intentions. These findings stress the importance of inducing presence as a key driver for behavioral intentions in hospitality. The comparative influence of conventional VR and AR experiences is also discussed. • VR and AR are compared by distinguishing between content and device. • Content with high factual realism (real higher than digital) enhances presence. • Presence favors booking intentions through visual appeal and ease of imagination. • Real contents with headsets is the best combination for empowering pre-experiences. • When using digital contents, smartphones are more effective than headsets.
Highlights
The development of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, referred to as the umbrella term Extended Reality (XR), is shaping company-customer relationships in innovative ways
Following the Embodiment-PresenceInteractivity –EPI– Cube (Flavian et al, 2019a), we explore how viewing contents that differ in terms of perceived factual realism, using devices with different levels of embodiment during the XR experiences elicit perceptions of presence, ease of imagination and visual appeal, as well as booking intentions
This research comple ments this view by focusing on psychological presence and analyzing the cognitive route that underlie potential guests’ pre-experiences with XR technologies
Summary
The development of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, referred to as the umbrella term Extended Reality (XR), is shaping company-customer relationships in innovative ways. In VR, users are fully immersed in a three-dimensional environment, trig gering a real time stimulation of their senses (Guttentag, 2010; Holle beek, Clark, Andreassen, Sigurdsson, and Smith, 2020). In AR, users are located in the physical environment and digital information is super imposed over their actual surroundings (Azuma, 1997; Rauschnabel, He, and Ro, 2018). After a period of rapid growth and development of XR technologies, a correction phase begun in 2018 (TechRepublic, 2018). In 2019, XR developers entered a professionalism and maturity stage in which, apart from launching more sophisticated devices, the creation of content and industry applications has become critical (LEK, 2019). It is expected that this stage will lead to sustainable progress over the few years in the industry value, projected at an annual growth of 63% until 2025 (Zion Market Research, 2019).
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