Virtual tourism attributes in cultural heritage: Benefits and values

Abstract

The rapid development of virtual tourism is an opportunity for cultural heritage sites. This study combines the means-end chain theory with the Kano model to explore cultural heritage sites' virtual tourism attributes, benefits, and values. We obtained 29 attributes, 23 benefits, and 14 values of virtual tourism, then discussed the hierarchical relationship among the attributes, benefits, and values. Also, the 29 attributes were classified according to their impact on user satisfaction. The results show that virtual tourism attributes can be divided into four aspects. In addition to the technical attributes, people often attach more importance to the content attributes as their basic requirements. Convenience is the core value of virtual tourism, followed by learning, entertainment, immersion, uniqueness, the sense of novelty,comfort and the sense of participation. It expands and deepens the theoretical framework of virtual tourism and provides theoretical guidance for developing and marketing virtual tourism products/services in cultural heritage sites.