Virtual pets want to travel: engaging visitors, creating excitement

Thirumaran, K., Chawla, Shailey, Dillon, Roberto, and Sabharwal, Jagdeep Kaur (2021) Virtual pets want to travel: engaging visitors, creating excitement. Tourism Management Perspectives, 39. 100859.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.tmp.2021.100859

View at Publisher Website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2021.10085...

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Abstract

This paper proposes a gamified approach to promote tourism attractions based on users' interaction with a virtual pet in the context of an AR mobile application. Technology Acceptance Model, 6–11 Framework and Persuasive Systems Design are combined, to extract factors influencing the intention to travel with the virtual pet. A survey questionnaire was developed and administered online to 539 participants. Outcomes of this study highlight the significant role of emotional attachment and rewarding experience towards intention to travel with a virtual pet. The outcomes also helped us to develop a new ‘Intention to Travel’ (I2T) model. To interest and excite prospective visitors, a design of a mobile game with Augmented Reality (AR) features is proposed which will involve engaging interactions with virtual pets to attract visitors to desired location(s). Practitioners such as game developers and tourism policy makers may consider the virtual pets as a vehicle to impact tourists' behavior.


Item ID:	68817
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2211-9744
Keywords:	Augmented reality; Virtual travel companions; Mobile games; Virtual pets; Tourism marketing; Technology acceptance model; 6–11 framework; Persuasive systems design
Copyright Information:	Published Version: © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Accepted Version: © 2021. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Research Data:	https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211973621000726?dgcid=coauthor
Date Deposited:	28 Jul 2021 02:55
FoR Codes:	35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3508 Tourism > 350804 Tourism marketing @ 40% 46 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES > 4608 Human-centred computing > 460806 Human-computer interaction @ 40% 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5205 Social and personality psychology > 520599 Social and personality psychology not elsewhere classified @ 20%
SEO Codes:	11 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 1104 Tourism services > 110499 Tourism services not elsewhere classified @ 40% 22 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES > 2204 Information systems, technologies and services > 220407 Human-computer interaction @ 40% 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280121 Expanding knowledge in psychology @ 20%
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