The Effectiveness of Jeju Island Mixed Reality Tourism Application: Focusing on the Moderating Role of Users' K-Culture Involvement

Abstract

In this study, we introduce a multi-modal mixed reality (MR) application for advertising the main touristic landmarks on Jeju Island, and evaluate its effectiveness based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with a focus on the user's involvement in Korean culture (K-Culture). Specifically, we deployed several stimuli to enable users to retrieve information, visualize a variety of heritage content such as text, images, videos, virtual artifacts, and immerse in a VR environment to experience the heritage locations. The results of the online survey with 436 participants showed that for consumers with low K-Culture involvement, Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease-of-Use did not affect their Intention to Visit the island. Still, it had a significant impact on their Intention to Use the application. On the other hand, for the group with high K-Culture involvement, Perceived Usefulness had no effect on the Intention to Use and Intention to Visit. However, Perceived Ease-of-Use had a significant impact on their Intention to Use the application and Intention to Visit Jeju Island. Therefore, when user involvement in K-Culture is high, convenience of use has played a significant role in sensory media usage and the intention to visit, regardless of the usefulness of the mixed reality content. In contrast, users with low K-Culture involvement primarily focused on the functional aspects of the application. These findings open the path for follow-up studies on K-Culture involvement and immersive media tourism marketing, which will benefit digital tourism marketing and Korea's tourism industry.