October University for Modern Sciences & Arts

Faculty of Management Sciences

Measuring the use of virtual tourism on consumer

behavior applied on traveling agencies

Supervised by: Dr. Ranya Ibrahim

Submitted by:
Hazem Galal: 202547

Fady Magdy: 202779

Heidi Mahmoud: 202707

Fall 2022
1. Introduction
People can view and interact through a three-dimensional environment and be a part of the
virtual world using the technology known as virtual reality. Virtual reality has become known
and trendy in the past years. The development of information and communication technologies
has an impact on many sectors of the economy, especially the tourism industry. They are
changing the way tourism products and services are managed and marketed, which means a
corresponding change in the way travelers are inspired, booked, planned and experienced.
Potential technologies that have been drawing attention recently include cutting-edge immersive
technologies such as augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality AR superimposes
computer-generated 2D or 3D data and information onto a view of the real world, while VR can
be described as a virtual computer simulated world. VR is described as a technology with a wide
range of applications which are predicted to have a profound influence on the future of the
tourism industry (Beck, J., Rainoldi, M. and Egger, R.,2019).

How is consumer behavior relevant to research? Customers, both individuals and organizations,
meet their needs and desires by purchasing, using or disposing of goods, ideas or services.
Consumer behavior has always been a great area of interest to researchers and has exploded in
the last 50 years. Literature on consumer behavior is different and wide as it changes in society,
economics and technology and affects how consumers behave. This leads to changing in the
consumer behavior which require companies to study topics such as why, how and when, to
learn more about their consumers in order to offer them the best products/services possible
(Kaveh P., Setayesh S., Arash K., and Pejvak O., 2016). Therefore, it is critical for new sectors
such as virtual tourism to consider factors of consumer behavior.

Virtual reality is new technology in tourism, therefore, a little research has been made on what
drives consumers to visit virtual destinations. To fill this gap, this study is exploring authentic
experiences, cognitive and emotional responses, attachment and intentions of visiting with VR
tourism to develop a framework. It showed significant effects of authentic experiences on
cognitive and affective responses, suggesting that authentic experiences are an important factor
in VR tourism. It identified cognitive and affective responses as important mediators and that
they have a strong impact on the intention to visit virtual places and the attachment to VR. This
study explains the reasons why tourists visit destinations presented by virtual reality (Myung Ja
Kim, Choong-Ki Lee and Timothy Jung, 2020). This study identifies the quality factors of VR
and examines their impacts on customers’ behavioral intentions. As proposed, the three virtual
tourism variables, cost, quality of service, and ease of use, appeared to have strong positive
effects on consumer behavior.
2. Research problem:

Tourism lately around the world was affected badly due to the pandemic outbreak that
caused by Covid-19. Then couldn’t get to museums or travel to other countries to visit new
sights. Therefore, it led to some economic drop in all countries that depends on tourism.
Moreover, the research here focuses on study of measuring the use of virtual reality in tourism
on consumer behavior, and applies it on traveling agencies that can present this service to
consumers. Since people started to get afraid from the concept of traveling due to the Covid-19
effect.

3. Research Questions:

 What is the impact of using Virtual tourism on consumer behavior applied on traveling
agencies?
 What is the effect of cost on consumer behavior?
 What is the impact of quality of service on consumer behavior?
 What is the effect of ease of use on consumer behavior?

4.Research Objective:

 To examine the impact of using Virtual tourism on consumer behavior applied on

traveling tourism.
 To measure the effect of cost on Consumer behavior
 To examine the impact of quality of service on consumer behavior.
 To study the effect of ease of use on consumer behavior
5. Data collection tools

For the quantitative research, this research will be using questionnaires and online surveys as
many recent tourism studies have mentioned that online surveys are suitable for recruiting topics
about consumers’ behaviors in VR tourism and that they are a more effective way to reach more
consumers. The participants in this research are virtual tourism users. They are involved in this
study because it is directly related to the use of virtual tourism. For the secondary data, this
research will be depending on academic articles and books. For qualitative research, we will be
asking experts in VR tourism and who are familiar with it.

6) Research population

Every research should have a target research population in order to conduct an accurate research.
Research population is simply explained as a group of people or certain individuals that share
certain qualities (Stratton, S.J, 2021). When it comes to this research, the target population are
the people who are familiar with virtual reality and people who like to travel.

7) Sampling technique

Sampling is the process of using a certain group of people to represent a larger population.
According to Stratton,S.J (2021), Sampling is a must when the population is too large to be
researched as a whole. Therefore, this research will be using non-probability sampling since the
population is too large and it will not be possible have it examined (people familiar with virtual
reality and travelers). Using non-probability sampling technique means we will choose certain
individuals to represent the larger population. This method will give extremely accurate results
and helps the research be conducted in less time.
8) Process of data collection

This research will gather information from people who like to travel and see new things and also
people who are familiar with virtual reality technology and understand the factors the change
behavior towards the virtual tourism concept.

9 Time Frame

This research will be conducted over the period of 6 months

References

Beck, J., Rainoldi, M., & Egger, R. (2019). Virtual reality in tourism: a state-of-the-art review.
Tourism Review, 74(3), 586-612.

Kim, M. J., Lee, C. K., & Jung, T. (2020). Exploring consumer behavior in virtual reality
tourism using an extended stimulus-organism-response model. Journal of travel research, 59(1),
69-89.

Peighambari, K., Sattari, S., Kordestani, A., & Oghazi, P. (2016). Consumer behavior research:
A synthesis of the recent literature. Sage Open, 6(2), 2158244016645638.

Stratton, S. J. (2021). Population research: convenience sampling strategies. Prehospital and

disaster Medicine, 36(4), 373-374.