International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management最新文献

Purpose

The Metaverse is rapidly reshaping the understanding of tourism, yet the public perception of this new domain remains largely uncharted empirically. This paper aims to build on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and diffusion of innovations theory (DIT) to fill this gap, offering crucial insights that could inform scholars and practitioners in both the tourism and technology sectors.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a big-data approach, the authors applied machine learning to scrape comments made by social media users on recent popular posts or videos related to tourism in the Metaverse from three prominent social media platforms. The cleaning process narrowed down 15,461 comments to 2,650, which were then analysed using thematic, emotion and sentiment analysis techniques.

Findings

The thematic analysis revealed that virtual tourism evokes a complex range of public beliefs. While many express awe and excitement toward its immersive capabilities, others remain sceptical about authenticity compared to physical travel. Additional themes show people draw comparisons to real-world tourism, discuss technology’s role and note educational value and novelty. However, some comments raise concerns about potential societal harms, exploitation and mental health impacts. Sentiment analysis found over half of the comments positive, though some were negative. Emotion analysis showed contentment, happiness and excitement as most frequent, though sadness, worry and loneliness also featured. Overall, perceptions of Metaverse tourism encompass enthusiasm yet substantial ambivalence.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to comprehensively analyse public discussions on Metaverse tourism. It takes TAM and Rogers’s DIT a step further and provides fresh insights into how these theories can be employed in the emerging field of Metaverse tourism. The themes revealed new conceptual insights into multidimensional factors shaping public beliefs about Metaverse tourism and thus informing scholarly research on virtual interaction and technology acceptance regarding Metaverse tourism. In addition, the results can help tourism providers, platforms and marketers address salient public beliefs and sentiments/attitudes in developing marketing offerings, experiences and communications. Over time, this analysis methodology can be used to track the evolving public perceptions of Metaverse tourism.

Purpose

Grounded on the X Reality framework and human–machine collaboration, this study aims to explore the potential of immersive augmentation through artificial intelligence (AI) service robots for promoting social inclusion in the hospitality industry.

Design/methodology/approach

Three experimental studies across diverse hospitality contexts examine the effects of immersive augmentation using inclusive-AI service robots compared to standard-AI robots. The studies also uncover the underlying process of perceived ethicality and the moderating role of customers’ familiarity with AI.

Findings

The results indicate that immersive augmentation through inclusive-AI service robots generates higher levels of supportive tipping behavior (Studies 1 and 3), superior buying intentions (Study 2) and an increased likelihood for customers to pay a premium price (Study 2). These effects are mediated by perceived ethicality (Studies 1–3). However, the impact of immersive augmentation for social inclusion is contingent upon customers’ familiarity with AI: customers with high familiarity with AI exhibit lower levels of supportive tipping behavior (Study 3).

Research limitations/implications

The findings emphasize the importance of perceived ethicality and customers’ familiarity with AI in determining the effectiveness of immersive augmentation for social inclusion in hospitality.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by exploring the potential of immersive augmentation using AI service robots for social inclusion in hospitality. It offers novel insights by highlighting the importance of perceived ethicality and customers’ familiarity with AI. The findings provide valuable guidance for hospitality managers seeking to leverage AI technology to foster social inclusion.

Purpose

Through the theoretical lenses of media richness, perceived realism and customer engagement, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms that promote customer engagement in metaverse-mediated environments in the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) context, as well as the impact of customer engagement on customers’ metaverse usage intensity and future visit intention.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey of customers who have experience with metaverse-mediated MICE activities was conducted. Data from 267 respondents were analysed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to test our research framework.

Findings

Media richness dimensions, including multiple cues, immediate feedback and personal focus, were found to enhance perceived metaverse realism, which in turn affects the dimensions of customer engagement, leading to customers’ metaverse usage intensity and future visit intention. The fsQCA analysis identifies three configurations that lead to high event visit intention.

Practical implications

This research helps developers and marketers better understand how rich media contents create realistic experiences in the metaverse, aiding them to devise strategies for customer engagement and improve resource allocation.

Originality/value

Despite its potentially revolutionary impacts, empirical studies on the mechanisms driving customer engagement in the metaverse and its effects are scarce. This study contributes by revealing the multiple-phase mechanism of the customer engagement journey in the metaverse-mediated MICE context. By expanding the media richness theory into this area, our study provides new insights by illustrating how media richness dimensions create multisensory experiences and real-time interactions, enhancing perceived metaverse realism and customer engagement. It also addresses the debate on whether metaverse-mediated events substitute or complement real-life events.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of presence on users’ information processing in mediated visualizations using immersive virtual reality (VR) and websites, focusing on information understanding and cognitive load. The impact of user interfaces on users’ perception of presence is also tested.

Design/methodology/approach

A between-subjects laboratory experiment using two user interfaces – immersive VR and website – is carried out. It is complemented by a self-administered survey on the participants.

Findings

The current results indicate that an immersive VR interface improves tourists’ information processing by producing a heightened sense of presence. The results confirm that presence facilitates tourists’ information processing by increasing information understanding and decreasing cognitive load. Finally, a negative relationship between cognitive load and information understanding is obtained.

Practical implications

VR user interfaces are not only visually appealing but also cognitively optimized. Immersive VR devices can be introduced in the specific sale process of cruise trips through both offline channels (physical stores and travel agencies) and online channels to facilitate tourists’ information processing during the prepurchase phase.

Originality/value

The primary contribution lies in the integration of the theory of presence with two influential information processing frameworks, namely, cognitive load theory and cognitive fit theory. This integration provides a holistic perspective on how user interfaces influence consumer information processing in the unique context of cruise tourism, particularly during the stage of a prepurchase information search.

Purpose

As exponential technologies continue to transform business models rapidly, there is a growing focus on metaverse research within the tourism industry. Despite the significant findings, the practical discussion of high-cost and resource-demanding space tourism within the metaverse platform is still abstract. This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of virtual space tourism and consumer motivations inspired by the intrinsic principles of the sharing economy business model and the metaverse platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

By gathering primary data through questionnaires from individuals interested in virtual space tourism and using the 530 valid responses, this study uses the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) along with the status quo bias theory (SQB) to better comprehend travelers’ motivations for engaging with the metaverse in space tourism.

Findings

The study confirms UTAUT2’s effectiveness in predicting travelers’ adoption behavior. Specifically, factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation, price value and facilitating conditions significantly impact attitudes and behavioral intentions toward adopting the metaverse for space tourism. Furthermore, skepticism significantly moderates the relationship between attitudes and behavioral intentions.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to empirically explore the motivations for using metaverse capabilities in the context of space tourism. In line with recent calls for more research on advancing UN sustainable development goals through the metaverse platform, this research discusses findings based on eight shared attributes in both sharing economies and the metaverse platforms that offer the potential for sustainable, socialized and affordable access to space tourism. In addition to the managerial implications, this study outlines future research directions, drawing on insights from the sharing economy’s success in the tourism industry.

Purpose

This study aims to cross-validate the technology experience (TE) scale and examine the potential differences in consumer TE across three different sectors.

Design/methodology/approach

Across three separate studies, the TE scale and its psychometric properties and consequences were examined across three distinctive hospitality and tourism (H&T) sectors: accommodations (n = 640), food and beverage (n = 615) and tourism (n = 592).

Findings

The findings consistently show that TE is a second-order formative construct with nine dimensions. Furthermore, the factor structure of consumer TE is consistent across the focal sectors, enhancing the TE scale’s generalizability. While the dimensions consisting of TE were identical across the three sectors, the composites of TE were formed differently across the sectors, demonstrating the differences in consumers’ TE across the three sectors.

Practical implications

This research offers practical implications to the H&T industry regarding the different impacts of various TE dimensions on consumers’ overall experiences, thereby creating overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research was the first attempt to examine the differences in consumers’ TE across the sectors of the H&T industry. By identifying the different impacts of TE dimensions on consumers’ overall experience, this research provides theoretical and practical contributions by confirming the distinct characteristics of the sectors under the H&T industry.

Purpose

This study aims to examine how the telepresence of tourists using immersive technology affects responsible travel behaviour at natural heritage sites by exploring the role of feelings.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposed a conceptual model that was empirically tested. Data was collected through online and offline surveys from 672 respondents who used AR/VR while visiting the natural heritage sites. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data using SmartPLS 4.0.

Findings

The findings of this study highlight how feelings are processed as information when tourists are exposed to immersive technologies. These feelings, in addition to perceived value and destination attractiveness, affect responsible travel behaviour.

Research limitations/implications

This study adds to the literature by offering insights concerning the tourists’ feelings related to responsible travel that can be evoked by getting involved in the virtual worlds. The findings suggest how managers can use immersive technology-based campaigns to promote responsible travel at natural heritage sites.

Originality/value

The literature does not elucidate the role of feelings and its dimensions (emotions and metacognitive experience) in explaining the effect of immersive technology in evoking responsible travel behaviour in the context of tourism. The current study addresses this gap and extends prior research by theorizing that feelings-as-information is the missing link between why tourists behave in a certain way, given a specific immersive stimulus.

Purpose

Virtual wine experiences (VWEs) replaced in-person wine experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and continue to be offered by some actors. This study aims to investigate the factors driving interest in VWEs and identify relevant traits of potential consumers to help assess VWEs long-term potential.

Design/methodology/approach

A representative sample of 399 Oregon and California wine consumers answered a structured online survey. The authors combine ordered logistic regression and qualitative techniques to analyze the data.

Findings

VWEs may effectively attract potential wine consumers and tourists. High interest in VWEs is associated with strong wine involvement and intentions to visit wine regions. Digitization, aversion to travel-related risk and convenience are other relevant drivers of VWE interest. The segmentation analysis revealed that consumers with a potentially higher interest in VWE have distinct traits.

Practical implications

Wineries and wine tourism destinations could leverage VWEs to attract wine tourists and consumers. The authors discuss specific characteristics of high-interest consumers.

Originality/value

Participants in VWEs interact with hosts and explore products in real time. This engagement has long-term marketing potential for attracting them as customers or visitors. The study provides strategic information for practitioners and academics on VWE interest drivers and potential demand, which is currently missing from the literature.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how sensory cue order, wine knowledge and visual–olfactory (V–O) congruence affect consumer’s taste perceptions of wine and their subsequent behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

An experiment was performed to identify the effects of sensory cue congruence and sensory cue order on wine consumers’ perceptions of wine, affective evaluations, cognitive evaluations and purchase intentions.

Findings

Wine experts exhibited positive emotional responses to congruent sensory cues in the V–O order. Experts’ enjoyment of wine’s aroma, their emotional responses, their cognitive evaluations and their purchase intentions were lower in the incongruent condition. Consumers’ negative emotions elicited by the V–O sequence were also less intense than those triggered by the olfactory–visual (O–V) sequence. Wine experts demonstrated more positive emotional responses in the V–O sensory congruent condition.

Research limitations/implications

This study highlights how visual and olfactory sensory cue order, wine knowledge and sensory cue congruence interact to clarify wine-related behavioral intention. Findings reveal the roles of these factors in shaping sensory perceptions, cognitive evaluations, affective evaluations and behavior related to wine consumption.

Practical implications

This study holds implications for various stakeholders, including winemakers, wine businesses, restaurants and the broader hospitality industry. Wine businesses can enhance advertising effectiveness by tailoring their marketing efforts to customers’ knowledge levels and emphasizing the inherent attributes that align with individuals’ preferences. Winemakers can improve consumers’ sensory experiences by enhancing the natural color of wines. Restaurants can strive to ignite diners’ positive emotions and experiences by providing congruent information. Furthermore, sensory-driven strategies can be used in the hospitality sector to elevate customers’ positive emotions.

Originality/value

This study fills gaps in wine research by delineating how wine knowledge and related sensory cues can influence consumers’ sensory perceptions, cognitive evaluations, affective evaluations and behavior. These aspects have been largely overlooked in previous work.

Purpose

This study aims to explore the attraction, influence and persuasive effect of advertising (with or without metaphor) across different types of hotels (luxury vs. budget hotels).

Design/methodology/approach

Two independent variables – namely, the hotel category (luxury versus budget) and the use of rhetorical figures (text with metaphors versus text without metaphors) – serve as the basis for the investigation. The research design is a 2 × 2 within-subjects construct based on eye-tracking methodology complemented by questionnaire-based data collection. Participants were engaged with hotel advertisements under four specific conditions, each reflecting a distinct combination of the two independent variables.

Findings

The findings reveal the augmented attention-grabbing prowess of advertisements that use metaphors compared to those that do not. Furthermore, the study findings reveal that the hotel category significantly influences the efficacy of advertising; advertisements promoting luxury hotels were found to stimulate superior impression recall, garner higher customer affinity and prompt a more potent intention to patronize the hotel. Finally, the study shows that neither congruent nor incongruent pairings of visual (budget or luxury hotel) and verbal elements (with or without metaphor) yield additional advertising benefits.

Practical implications

This research addresses the limited empirical guidance available for hotel operators at various levels regarding the design of advertisements incorporating rhetorical devices. It highlights the potential benefits of using figurative rhetoric, especially metaphors, in advertising for both budget and luxury hotels. The study reveals a notable correlation between hotel category, particularly luxury offerings, and customer attention, retention, preference and intention to visit. Furthermore, it encourages hotel operators, regardless of their hotel’s ranking, to incorporate metaphorical language into their advertising designs, underscoring the need for strategic integration in overall advertisement planning.

Originality/value

Using high-resolution online eye-tracking technology, this study innovatively examines the influence of hotel category and rhetorical devices on the effectiveness and attention-grabbing potential of advertisements. Through this approach, the study seeks to offer valuable managerial and advertising insights for those involved in hotel marketing.