Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Zahra Razmi ¹
• Samaneh Ahmadi ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Management, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

² Master of Information Technology Management, AlZahra University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Today, virtual reality technologies offer unlimited potential for extensive virtual visits to real tourist destinations. The aim of the research is to measure the impact of the variables affecting the change of attitude in the decision to travel using virtual reality. This research is quantitative research, and in terms of purpose, it is applied, and in terms of data collection, it is a descriptive-survey of correlation type. The statistical population of this research is the users of the tourism channel. According to the Cochran relation, the sample size was 270 people, who answered the questions by distributing the questionnaire online in the statistical community. First, the collected data were analyzed and in the next step, the variables were ranked using the process of fuzzy hierarchy analysis. The research findings indicate that the criteria of flexibility, usefulness, perceived pleasure, a positive and significant relationship with changing attitudes has it. The results obtained in the fuzzy hierarchical method show that the variables of attitude change are first rank, usefulness is second rank, decided to travel is third rank, flexibility is fourth rank, perceived pleasure is fifth rank. It is concluded that tourism service providers should create new models in line with tourism marketing in order to raise the level of virtual experience of tourists.
Introduction
In the development of information and communication technology, the growth of virtual reality technology has attracted attention, especially considering the innovations that are expected from the fifth generation of mobile communications (5G). The fifth generation of mobile communications is an international mobile standard with the aim of commercialization in 2020(Lee et al., 2020). Tavakli and Mora say that despite the move towards virtual tourism, the experiences of tourists in virtual tourism destinations remain relatively unknown. This is especially true if the gender identity and behavior patterns of Iranian women in virtual tourism destinations are mentioned (Tavakoli, Mura, 2015). Zhang and colleagues say that although the studies related to virtual tourism have formed a relatively complete theoretical framework, it is not enough to respond to the systematic and comprehensive attitude of tourists and the causes of the attitude towards virtual tourism (Zhang et al., 2022). It has also been raised in the field of challenges; Although virtual reality provides information about the destination as smart tourism and is very useful, it is slow due to the problems of accepting new technology by tourists (Pestek et al., 2020). Tan and his colleagues have conducted research under the title; Borders are open again! Has virtual reality been friend or foe? Therefore, in this regard and according to the above, the basic research question is what effect does virtual reality have on the attitude and ultimately the intention to travel in terms of external and internal motivations? Previous researches have focused on the role of virtual reality displays in creating a sense of presence and how virtual reality affects destination marketing. To answer this question, a new model in technology development was created in this study. The gap that exists is that in few researches, in terms of investigating the motivation in using virtual reality in tourism, a distinction has been made between internal and external motivations, although Leung et al. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a parsimony and should be expanded to include factors that are particularly relevant to it (Leong et al., 2020). Therefore, based on the theory of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, in the technology acceptance model, the current research measures the effect of flexibility, usefulness and perceived enjoyment of virtual reality on the change of attitude in the decision to travel. In the current research, an attempt has been made to change the attitude towards virtual reality in tourism. In addition to external motives such as usefulness, criteria such as curiosity, relaxation, and personal belief, which are internal motives, have been investigate.
Material and Method:
This research is quantitative research, and in terms of its purpose, it is applied, and in terms of the method of data collection, it is a descriptive-survey of the correlation type. The method of collecting information is divided into two categories: field (questionnaire tool) and library sources. Library sources have been used to collect theoretical foundations and research literature, and field methods have been used to collect research data. The confirmatory factor analysis test was used to verify the validity of the questions and to specify the key factors of each component, and the structural equation modeling technique was used to check the fit of the research model with the collected data. In the next step, we rank the variables using Fuzzy Hierarchy Analysis Process (FAHP), and make decisions by converting expression variables into triangular fuzzy numbers.
Discussion and results
Three variables of flexibility, usefulness, and pleasure were considered in attitude change, and in attitude change, in addition to measures of external motives, measures of internal motives such as curiosity, relaxation, and personal belief are effective in the decision to travel.
 
 
Conclusions
The findings show that the more the level of usefulness, perceived pleasure and flexibility increases in the virtual space, the more the person's attitude changes accordingly. In the next step, we ranked the confirmed variables using the fuzzy AHP method. Basically, although fuzzy systems describe uncertain and uncertain phenomena, the fuzzy theory itself is a precise theory. The results obtained based on the weighting coefficient show that the attitude change variable ranks first, usefulness ranks second, decision to travel ranks third, flexibility ranks fourth, and perceived pleasure ranks fifth. The findings of the research showed that the flexibility, usefulness, perceived enjoyment of virtual reality by virtual tourism users had an effect on the change of attitude, and this factor leads to their intention to travel.  The result of this will increase the number of tourists in the real environment. Therefore, it is suggested that virtual reality service providers design programs and applications based on this technology to enrich the content of advertising video by adding more dynamic interactive virtual reality elements, creating immersive virtual reality products in order to improve the experience. Increasing the enjoyable experience of virtual tourists affects their behavioral intentions and as a result requests for more information about destinations, the likelihood of visiting the virtual site and then the real trip. The findings showed that in addition to external motives such as usefulness, measures such as curiosity, soothing, and personal belief, which are internal motives, have an effect on the intention to travel

Keywords

• virtual reality
• Tourism
• External and internal motivation
• Change of attitude

Main Subjects

• tourism management