Abstract
Tourism is among the domains that might see in Virtual reality (VR) several advances for promoting its products and services. This study is one of the first that proposes the use of biophysical data for investigating the media effects of a tourism-related VR experience and discusses the use of such technique for studying media effects in VR settings. A VR experience proposed to the public by Ticino Tourism, a regional Swiss Destination Management Organization (DMO) was tested with 23 people who participated in an experiment in which biophysical reactions were tracked. Findings show that specific media characteristics of the VR experience, such as proposing an unusual horizon perspective to the VR viewer, hold the potential to lead to the formation of strong memories. These results might enable a better understanding of the effects of VR technology on consumer behaviour and eventually lead to the design of more engaging VR content.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Biocca, F., & Nowak, K. (2001). Plugging your body into the telecommunication system: mediated embodiment, media interfaces, and social virtual environments. In Carolyn Lin & David Atkin (Eds.), Communication technology and society (pp. 407–447). Waverly Hill, VI: Hampton Press.
D’Argembeau, A., Comblain, C., & Van der Linden, M. (2003). Phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for positive, negative, and neutral events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17(3), 281–294.
Earnshaw, R.A., Gigante M.A., & Jones H. (1993). Virtual reality systems, Academic Press, London Earnshaw R.A.
Erickson, K. I., Voss, M. W., & Prakash, R. S. (2011). Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 3017–3022.
Guttentag, D. A. (2010). Virtual reality: applications and implications for tourism. Tourism Management, 31(5), 637–651.
Hamann, S. (2001). Cognitive and neural mechanisms of emotional memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(9), 394–400.
Highton, S. (2015). Virtual Reality Photography: Creating Panoramic and Object Images. Foreword.
Huang, Y. C., Backman, K. F., & Backman, S. J., Chang, L. L. (2015). Exploring the Implications of Virtual Reality Technology in Tourism Marketing: An Integrated Research Framework. International Journal of Tourism Research, n/a–n/a.
Kim, J. J., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2015). Measuring emotions in real time. Implications for Tourism Experience Design, Journal of Travel Research, 54(4), 419–429.
LaBar, K. S., & Cabeza, R. (2006). Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(1), 54–64.
Lauria, R. M., & Ford Morie, J. (2015). Virtuality: VR as metamedia and herald of our future realities, In L. Cantoni & J. A Danowski (Eds.), Communication and Technology. Series: Handbooks of Communication Science [HoCS] 5, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 141–160.
Schaefer, A., & Philippot, P. (2005). Selective effects of emotion on the phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories. Memory, 13(2), 148–160.
Shah, A. J., Su, S., & Veledar, E. (2011). Is heart rate variability related to memory performance in middle-aged men?, Psychosomatic Medicine, 73(6): 475–482.
Sherman, W. R., & Craig, A. B. (2002). Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc.
Slater, M., (2003). A note on presence terminology. Presence Connect 3(3): n/a.
Talarico, J. M., LaBar, K. S., & Rubin, D. C. (2004). Emotional intensity predicts autobiographical memory experience. Memory & cognition, 32(7), 1118–1132.
Wan, C. S., Tsaur, S. H., Chiu, Y.-L., & Chiou, W. B. (2007). Is the advertising effect of virtual experience always better or contingent on different travel destinations? Information Technology & Tourism, 9(1), 45–54.
Weinberg, L., Hasni, A., Shinohara, M., & Duarte, A. (2014). A single bout of resistance exercise can enhance episodic memory performance. Acta Psychologica, 153, 13–19.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the precious contribution of Maria Katsira & Christos Petrakis to the design of the research protocol and the data collection. Moreover, the authors acknowledge the financial support of the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme within the 7th Framework Programme for Research of the European Commission, under FET Grant Number: 612933.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Marchiori, E., Niforatos, E., Preto, L. (2017). Measuring the Media Effects of a Tourism-Related Virtual Reality Experience Using Biophysical Data. In: Schegg, R., Stangl, B. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51168-9_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51168-9_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51167-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51168-9
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)