This study investigates how the interaction between images and tones influences users’ virtual reality travel intentions.
This study establishes a research model to reveal the mechanism underlying the impact of the interaction between images and tones on virtual reality travel intention. A laboratory experiment (N = 338) was conducted to test the hypotheses.
The results showed that presenting images and sound simultaneously enhanced users’ ease of imagination more than presenting images alone. Moreover, the influence of tones on ease of imagination varied across different types of images. Specifically, in the context of digital images, high tone caused greater ease of imagination than low tone. In the context of real images, there was no significant difference in the ease of imagination caused by low and high tones. The ease of imagination positively affected the sense of proximity, which positively affected users’ virtual reality travel intentions. Furthermore, individual escapism moderated the interaction between images and tones on ease of imagination.
This study offers insights for the tourism industry on pairing images with tones in virtual reality (VR) tourism system design.
This study offers insights for the tourism industry on how to pair images with tones in VR tourism system design.
This study fills a gap in the VR tourism literature by investigating the interaction between images and tones. It contributes to the discourse on multi-sensory VR tourism design.
