디지털 기술의 지속적인 발전에 따라 가상 관광과 디지털 문화유산 탐방은 실제 관광을 보완하는 중요한 수단으로 자리 잡고 있다. 본 연구는 기술수용모델(Technol ogy Acceptance Model, TAM)을 적용하여 인지된 용이성, 인지된 유용성, 외부 변 수 측면에서 가상 관광 체험의 성과를 살펴보고, 이러한 요인들이 사회와 온라인 환 경에서의 커뮤니케이션 효과에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 살펴보고자 한다. 이에 본 연구는 관련 대상자와의 심층 인터뷰를 실시한 연구 결과를 보면 인지된 용이성과 인지된 유용성이 이용자의 가상 관광 체험 수용과 홍보에 영향을 미치는 주요 요인 으로 밝혀졌다. 그리고 대영박물관, 바티칸 박물관, 스미소니언 자연사 박물관, 운강석굴 등 다양한 가상 관광 플랫폼의 사례도 분석하였다. 본 연구는 가상 관광 연구 에 대해 새로운 관점을 제시하고 가상 관광을 효과적으로 설계하는 방법에 대해 의 견을 제안하였다. 또한, 문화유산 가상 관광의 전파 및 홍보를 위한 이론적인 지침과 실제적인 조언을 제시하였다.

The objective of this study is to compare the efficiency of VR and 2D in the tourism industry as marketing tools, using affective forecasting and purchase intention. Accordingly, this study has two primary research aims. The first is to examine if a higher level of mental imagery (resulting from VR) is more effective than a lower level (2D) in a tourism marketing context. To evaluate this, the researchers use experimental method, measuring predicted dominance, predicted pleasure and predicted arousal, as well as purchase intention towards the hotel. Relevant to the tourism industry, tourism products are spatially and temporally distant (vs. near). This study aims to investigate how differently mental imagery, resulting from VR (versus 2D) experience, generates affective forecasting of a tourism product when tourists plan distant (versus near) future trips (temporal distance).

Despite the increasing attention to customer engagement (CE) by practitioners and academics, extant studies have largely been restricted to conceptualized relationships without empirical testing (So, King, & Sparks, 2014). Drawing on social identity theory and social exchange theory, this study develops a research model delineating the relationship between customer identification (CI), CE and customer purchasing behaviors in virtual communities. The model was tested with structural equation modeling and survey data from 513 members of two virtual tourism communities. Results indicate that both customer-community identification and customer-customer identification (constituting two classifications of CI) have directly positive effect on customer engagement attitude, on which the duration of membership in a community has a moderating effect. Additionally, customer-customer identification influences customer engagement behavior directly and positively, of which customer engagement attitude is the psychological foundation. Finally, customer engagement attitude and customer engagement behavior will promote customers’ purchasing behaviors. The contribution of this paper is that CE has been empirically validated to compose of customer engagement attitude and customer engagement behavior these two separate variables, and CI is testified to be an antecedent rather than a dimension of CE, in line with the standpoints proposed by Algesheimer, Dholakia, and Herrmann (2005).Through the current investigation, empirical studies into the concept connotation and formation mechanism of CE are enriched, and the insight into customer behavior management and CE marketing is intensified.