Austria 360 : An Exploratory Study of User Experience on Tourism Virtual Reality Application
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Austria 360°: An Exploratory Study of
User Experience on
Tourism Virtual Reality Application
Bachelor Thesis for Obtaining the Degree
Bachelor of Business Administration in
Tourism and Hospitality Management
Submitted to Daniel Leung
Dennis Pregesbauer
1311011
Vienna,17 June 2016Affidavit
I hereby affirm that this Bachelor’s Thesis represents my own written work and that I
have used no sources and aids other than those indicated. All passages quoted from
publications or paraphrased from these sources are properly cited and attributed.
The thesis was not submitted in the same or in a substantially similar version, not
even partially, to another examination board and was not published elsewhere.
Date Signature
2Abstract
This thesis was aimed at gaining an insight into the fast developing world of virtual
reality. As the technology we are using in our daily and professional lives are
changing so rapidly, it affects the operation and best practices in various industries
and particularly the tourism industry because the exploitation of virtual reality in the
tourism industry is constantly growing.
For this thesis, looking into the historical development of virtual reality as well as the
differences for the provider and user of this technology are key points. Moreover,
overseeing some case studies of big player in the tourism and hospitality industry
will also be included in this thesis. The empirical part of this thesis primarily purports
to tackle the question of "how users like and dislike the experience of Austria 360°?”
- the virtual reality app developed by the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) for
triggering users’ travel inspiration.
To achieve this objective, the post-use survey responses collected by the ANTO at
the ITB 2016 were used. Using the methods of descriptive analysis, multiple
correspondence analysis and sentiment analysis, this study is excepted to provide
the ANTO with insights of users’ satisfaction with Austria 360°, difference in users’
perceptions and satisfaction with Austria 360° across gender, age group, nationality
and region. This study is also expected to help the ANTO in understanding what they
could and should improve their virtual reality app in terms of information quality,
system quality and user experience.
3Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 7
1.1 History of Virtual Reality ....................................................................... 7
1.2 Virtual experience & Technology-enhanced experience (users’
perspective) ..................................................................................................... 8
1.3 Virtual experience & Technology-enhanced experience (providers’
perspective) ..................................................................................................... 9
1.4 Application of Virtual Reality in Tourism and Hospitality ...................... 11
1.5 The application of Austria 360° ............................................................ 13
1.6 Research question and Research objectives ......................................... 13
2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................... 14
2.1 Difference between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality .................. 14
2.1 Industry cases of VR applications in Tourism and Hospitality ................ 15
2.1.1 Case 1: Hilton Hotels & Resorts .......................................................... 15
2.1.2 Case 2: Destination Canada ................................................................ 16
2.1.3 Case 3: Rock Tourism .......................................................................... 17
2.1.4 Case 4: Visit Albuquerque ................................................................... 19
2.1.5 Case 5: Future Outlook for Virtual Reality .......................................... 20
2.2 Introduction to TAM model ................................................................. 21
3 The virtual reality experience of Austria 360° ..................................... 22
4 Research methodology ...................................................................... 24
4.1.1 Presentation of Austria 360° ............................................................... 24
4.1.2 Data collection .................................................................................... 25
4.1.3 Data analysis ....................................................................................... 26
5 Research findings .............................................................................. 28
5.1 Descriptive analysis method ................................................................... 28
5.2 Multiple correspondence analysis .......................................................... 33
5.3 Sentiment Analysis .................................................................................. 38
6 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 40
7 Bibliography ...................................................................................... 43
8 Appendices........................................................................................ 48
8.1 Appendix 1 Sentiment Analysis (Full Table) .......................................... 48
4List of Tables
Table 1 Variables for evaluation ................................................................................. 27
Table 3 Case Processing Summary 1 ........................................................................... 29
Table 4 Chi Square Test for Gender and Rating .......................................................... 30
Table 5 Chi Square Test for Age and Rating ................................................................ 31
Table 6 Chi Square Test for Nationality*Rating .......................................................... 31
Table 7 Chi Square Test for Region*Rating ................................................................. 32
Table 8 Case Processing Summary 2 ........................................................................... 33
Table 9 Sentiment Analysis Feedback ......................................................................... 39
List of Figures
Figure 1 Example of the Experience-Feedback-Sheet at ITB 2016 ............................. 25
Figure 2 Plot for Gender and Rating ........................................................................... 34
Figure 3 Plot for Age and Rating ................................................................................. 35
Figure 4 Plot for Nationality and Rating...................................................................... 37
Figure 5 Plot for Region and Rating ............................................................................ 38
5List of Abbreviations
ANTO = Austrian National Tourist Office
DMO = Destination Management Organization
HMD = Head Mounted Displays
ITB = Internationale Tourismus Börse
MICE = Meeting, Incentive, Congress, Events
TAM = Technology Acceptance Model
TRI = Technology Readiness Model
VFR = Visiting Friends and Relatives
VR = Virtual Reality
61 INTRODUCTION
1.1 History of Virtual Reality
In recent years the world has benefited from the overall development of information
technologies, in all different kind of areas beginning with the ease of online booking
for vacations and more. A factor for that was the stormy development of more
powerful microprocessors and faster computers to the market. All those machines
are equipped with better technologies and to more affordable prices. Therefore,
using computer for different activities became a habit for our society (Mazuryk &
Gervautz 1996). Back in 1965, Gordon E. Moore, former director at Fairchild
Semiconductor and co-founder of Intel Cooperation, forecasted that the density of
components for information technologies integrated would continue to double
every two years as the price will fall too and have a great impact on different
industries in general. This observation was called “Moore’s Law” (Computer History
Museum 2016; Schaller 1997). With the stance of today’s information technology
and the fast development of this sector, people all over the globe are influenced in
many aspects of their daily lives. Not only that progress is changing the way we live
and the way we work, borders to other dimensions are also crossed slowly (Mazuryk
& Gervautz 1996). The technology, which is meant by that is called virtual reality.
There are several approaches to define virtual reality. In this thesis, virtual reality is
defined as a technology; which allows a user to interact, experience, feel or touch a
computer simulated environment – also called virtual environment – whether that
environment is a replication of the real world or an imaginary one in the past,
present or future (Guttentag 2010; Mandal 2013). Started off in the 1960s, when
Morton Heilig approached and tried to encounter the world of virtual reality with
building a multi-sensory simulator called “Sensorama”. Although it had all the
qualities of virtual reality, it was not interactive at all. To redress this, Ivan
Sutherland later introduced the “Ultimate Display”, an artificial world constructed,
where people could interact with the machine and this technology came a long way
until today (Mazuryk & Gervautz 1996). Since then, virtual reality made a myriad
development and slowly applies in the tourism industry.
71.2 Virtual experience & Technology-enhanced experience (users’
perspective)
In pace with the rapid development of information technologies, tourism is globally
changing in different facets and specifically the evolution of virtual experiences. The
steady progress of new inventions and expansions fundamentally transforms the
way how tourist’s experience are created (Baggio, Sigala, Inversini & Pesonen 2014).
The terminus experience can be explained as “a continuous process of doing and
undergoing a process that provides meaning to the individual” (Boswijk, Thijssen &
Peeled 2007, p. 28). If we talk about it in touristic aspect, we can describe it as “the
culmination of a given experience” formed by tourists “when they are visiting and
spending time in a given tourists’ location” (Boswijk, Thijssen & Peeled 2007, p. 28;
Zátori 2013). As mentioned above, information technologies are changing the tourist
experience via acting as creator and initiator of tourist experiences (Williams &
Hobson 1995). But this is good, as different studies found out that vacationer are
striving for more exclusive and unforgettable experiences – for this case in the
tourism sector virtual reality would be a perfect example for an inspirational tool
(Baggio, Sigala , Inversini & Pesonen 2014).
Considering virtual reality in the tourism sector, we have to be aware that one
individual – the user or tourist – has to have the acceptance and willingness to
interact with a synthetic experience in a touristic aspect (Guttentag 2010). The
reason is due to the fact that virtual reality is an interactive and immerse world
(Mazuryk & Gervautz 1996). The virtual setting can provide a virtual landscape with
almost unlimited interactions for the users, as long as the technology is available and
offered to them (Guttentag 2010). In the past, a mixture of the best of both, a
physical park with virtual reality rides was common in the theme park context. One
example would be the Star Tours Ride in Disney World Orlando, America, which is a
3D motion simulated space flight from the movie of Star Wars (Star Tours 2016;
Williams & Hobson 1995). But as technology is continuously evolving, the market is
slowly conquered by the VOID, or called also a virtual theme park. Situated in the
federal state of Utah, America, this invention should revolutionize the way of virtual
8reality. For this virtual experience, the user has to wear equipment which consist of
three body parts – a helmet, a pair of virtual glasses and an interactive jacket - which
are all fully interactive with the surrounding of the room. So depending on which
type of virtual environment the user is choosing, it has different effects on all of the
five senses of the human body (Gruber 2015). This is just one representation of the
different levels of immersion, when it comes to the technology of virtual reality. A
more detailed explanation of the various levels will follow later on in this thesis.
Some people will argue, virtual reality can serve as a substitute of having a trip to a
destination physically. There are, however, still some irreplaceable reasons why
people do travel in real life. First, to those whose travel purposes are visiting friends,
family and relatives (VFR), relaxation as well as business travels for networking
connections, virtual reality may not be able to accurately simulate every aspect of
these real-life experiences. On the one hand, the world of virtual environments
could offer lower costs, no queues, no transportation issues with traveling to the
destination, greater safety, no language barriers and so on and still guarantee the
experience. On the other hand, it is a replicated environment and an experience,
whereas virtual reality tourism should not be seen as a substitute for the tourism
industry but more than a tool which could provide tourists a more realistic
expectation, what to anticipate on their vacation (Guttentag 2010).
1.3 Virtual experience & Technology-enhanced experience
(providers’ perspective)
Seeing the world of virtual reality from a user’s perspective is not the only important
viewpoint. The provider’s one should also be explored, as no experience can be
brought to the user, if no provider offers the virtual environment and technology.
Especially as there are certain levels of immersion. Before talking about the three
different levels, the expression immersion has to be defined more clearly.
The term immersion is used in the context with virtual reality to describe the
sensation of being inside a particular environment, in this case a virtual one, where
the interaction in this world allows the user to discover and experience almost
9everything in their imagination (Virtual Reality Society 2016). As the virtual
environment passes on the impression of the immersion, a user’s willingness to
interact or not depends heavily on the resolution, quality and consistency of the
technology.
In general, virtual reality systems are classified into three levels of immersion
(Mazuryk & Gervautz 1996). The first level is called non-immersive or desktop virtual
reality systems. This kind of system has the lowest level of immersion. A desktop
virtual reality system can be described as, using the computer for a virtual
environment through one or more computer screens without any other sensory
output than the screens. Followed by the first level, the second level refers to the
semi-immersive or fish tank virtual reality systems, which are improved versions of
the desktop virtual reality. This system supports head coupled perspective tracking
and therefore gives users the feeling of “of being there”, thanks to motion parallax
effects. However, they use conventional screens from the computer but do not
support sensory output. Last but not least, the third level is the immersive systems.
There are two ways to use this technology and both interact with head mounted
displays (HMD). In brief, the user can use either a computer screen as primary
medium for the interaction or a smartphone in combination with either Oculus Rift
Glasses – referring here only to this provider of virtual reality as it is later on
important for the empirical study of this thesis – or a cardboard for entering the
virtual environment. Sometimes this system can also be used in combination with a
physical room, which is fully interactive as the computer generated environment
corresponds to the user’s position and orientation – an example would be the virtual
theme park, the VOID. Either one option gives you the feeling of totally being there.
They are considered as the ultimate version of virtual reality systems and at this
point the latest technology there is, as the user totally immerses in a virtual
environment with the help of a HMD (Guttentag 2010; Mandal 2013; Mazuryk &
Gervautz 1996; Mulder & Van Liere 2003).
101.4 Application of Virtual Reality in Tourism and Hospitality
With this background knowledge in mind, looking at the potential of virtual reality in
the tourism field as a tool from a provider’s viewpoint is essential. In the case of
virtual reality from a user’s perspective, virtual reality can possibly be an instrument
for experiencing new exciting things. In the field of the bringer, it can work in fields
like planning and management; the Meeting, Incentive, Conferencing, Exhibitions
(MICE) sector as well as marketing. Using synthetic environments for tourism
planning can be helpful in cases like, building a new road through a cultural heritage
site as the artificial environment allows you to perceive it in an unlimited number of
perspectives and so plan it accordingly. In the past, a lot of people have never
thought about attending a meeting or congress in a virtual way. Instead of traveling
to a congress which might be on the other side of the globe, virtual events can
benefit both exhibitors and attendees. During the event, delivering the content from
a conference in a virtual way, the provider truly benefits as broadening the brand
community and raising the awareness for the brand, while getting more insight from
the attendees as they can track them, about their online behavior and what kind of
meetings they are attending. From the attendee perspective, saving the time as well
as the money for booking the trip to the event is a positive aspect for them
(Guttentag 2010; Pearlman & Gates 2010). Another key point and also the most
important one for this thesis is virtual reality in terms of marketing.
Different from the other two examples, virtual reality in combination with marketing
has the chance to provide an extensive experience already in advance before
purchasing the tourism product. As suggested before, virtual reality can operate as a
tool for experiencing a destination beforehand. In terms of the provider’s point of
view, it might achieve two outcomes, first persuasive powers for marketing a
destination and second working as an inspirational tool for future travel planning
(Guttentag 2010; Huang, Backman, Backman & Moore 2013; Tussyadiah, Wang & Jia
2016;). There are two important studies, which take a closer look at the virtual
reality in this aspect. A study conducted by Tussyadiah, Wang and Jia (2016)
researches the influential power of virtual reality imagery and videos in tourism,
based towards popular sightseeing destinations. Split up into three different phases
for this analysis, the participants had the possibility to explore metropolises like
11Paris, Tokyo, Berlin and many more with different virtual reality frameworks. Two
semi-immersive technologies of virtual reality were used in the above study, which
were the Oculus Rift Glasses – a HMD system technology patented by Samsung – as
well as the cardboards – boxes made out of stiff and thick paper which can be used
in combination with a smartphone to recreate virtual environments (Kickstarter
2016; Merriam Webster 2016;). The conclusion of that study suggests that the
destination has to be created in a recognizable way for the user in order to boost the
persuasive power of virtual reality. In the terms of the video content, the
researchers also recognize the importance of offering appealing and enjoyable
images and videos, as some users urged about getting lost in the virtual
environment. Furthermore, the provision of additional information, for instance an
audio guide in the virtual environment, would strengthen the overall performance of
the Virtual reality experience (Tussyadiah, Wang & Jia 2016).
Another study conducted by a research team from Africa, is also helpful. The focus
of that research was to evaluate the behavioral intention of virtual tourists in a
cybernetic basecamp in Maasai, Kenya, using the platform Second Life. In as much as
the crucial point was to provide information about the Maasai tribe, identically it
was to raise awareness about the destination and promote it from a destination
marketing organization point of view. In order to achieve a good outcome, the
research focused on six different levels – perceived usefulness, enjoyment,
emotions, involvement, the flow of the setting and behavioral intentions – in the
virtual environment including beginner and advanced users in Second Life. Using a
computer-generated setting in the travel decision making, the final outcome of this
study indicates that virtual reality experience can increase the user’s intention about
visiting a destination in real life in the near future. Nevertheless, using such a device
as an inspirational tool from a destination management organization (DMO) point of
view, certain criteria like an enjoyable experience and positive reactions, while
interacting with the virtual environment are necessities. For the most part, DMOs
should consider looking more into detail at this developing technology, whilst it can
provide an enhancing experience, as well as an awareness for a future trip to the
destination for the user (Huang, Backman, Backman & Moore 2013).
121.5 The application of Austria 360°
The Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) is responsible to encourage tourists for
a holiday in Austria. Operating since 1955, the central aim besides brining tourists to
Austria, is to assure and magnify the country’s competitiveness in cooperation with
all the important tourism players in Austria. Furthermore, the ANTO is developing
the brand “Vacation in Austria” as an emotional element for tourists while their stay.
Last but not least, they are also establishing their brand on potential international
markets with innovative and modern marketing campaigns. For these kind of
activities, the ANTO is funded by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and
Economy as well as the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber and additionally
receives contributions for marketing services from the Austrian tourism trade
partnership – included in this group are mainly provincial tourist boards (The
Austrian National Tourist Office 1995).
One of the latest innovative projects developed by the ANTO, is the virtual reality
application – or shortly app – Austria 360°. This application will solely work on
smartphones with an Android operating system, downloaded from the Google Play
Store or the Oculus App Store. As a matter of fact, that the technological
development in this field is advancing so fast, the ANTO had the idea to introduce
this app to the owner of smartphones to visit Austria in a virtual way. After having
downloaded the app the users can use the semi-immersive level of virtual reality
technology – in this case an Oculus Rift device if available – to view the different
360° videos of Austria. To put it in another way, the app can be used in terms of
marketing to promote Austria as a vacation destination.
1.6 Research question and Research objectives
For the purpose of investigating the aspect of the usage experience with the
smartphone application Austria 360° in combination with the virtual reality glasses
from Oculus, the current research addresses the user’s likes and dislikes about it. To
be specific, the objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to examine the overall
users’ satisfaction with Austria 360°; (2) to examine the users’ usage experience
13across three demographic variables which are gender, age group and nationality; (3)
to provide the ANTO with more insights on how to improve the Austria 360° from
information quality, system quality and the user experience perspectives.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Difference between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Augmented reality and virtual reality are types of innovative technologies, which are
often mentioned over the past years. Even though people sometimes used these
two terminologies interchangeably, it is important to define and differentiate them
as they refer to two different types of technologies. According to Milgram,
Takemura, Utsumi and Kishino (1994) who agreed and stated to consider both
concepts, augmented and virtual reality as one. Yet, in this thesis, the standpoint of
Burdea and Coiffet (2003) is employed and they claim augmented reality is not
“virtual reality in its strictest sense”. Another viewpoint which can be consulted here
is the following one, defined by Azuma and Milgram (1997;1994), augmented reality
allows a user to interact with virtual computer graphic objects overlaid upon the real
world. To be more precise, Azuma (1997) stated that augmented reality generally
constrains these three characteristics: (1) Combining reality and virtuality, (2)
interactive in real time with (3) objects in 3D. In contrast to virtual reality, users of
augmented reality are not fully immersed in the virtual environment and only use
for instance, a smartphone to portray different computer graphics over the real
world. Meaning that the virtual environment works in a different way of interaction.
In brief, the participants interact in the real world with computer objects when they
use augmented reality, whereas the users are totally absorbed in a synthetic world
when they use virtual reality. The participant can freely navigate and move around
to explore the virtual environment. While using a HMD like Oculus Rift Glasses, the
user is totally immersed in the respective world and are not interacting with the real
world anymore. Also really important, the boundaries of imagination, creation or
physical reality are set no limits, as the virtual environment can be created as the
participants want it (Guttentag 2010; Mazuryk & Gervautz 1996; Milgram & Kishino
141994). Considering all the content mentioned above, one can summarize that virtual
reality is a fully immersive computer generated or interactive environment
compared to augmented reality, as it can be described as an augmented natural
environment combined with virtual objects (Guttentag 2010; Milgram, Takemura,
Utsumi & Kishino 1995).
2.1 Industry cases of VR applications in Tourism and Hospitality
2.1.1 Case 1: Hilton Hotels & Resorts
Hilton Hotels & Resorts is a big player in the tourism industry and was one of the
most recent companies who joined the trend of using 360° videos for marketing
purposes. Compared to virtual reality applications, they used 360° videos which
were recorded with the same technology as virtual reality experiences are made.
Users can watch the videos via their smartphones or tablets, but there is no
interaction between users and devices. In other words, they are not virtual reality
applications but only utilize the handhelds for showing users the 360° videos which
are interactive ones as the user can direct the viewpoint by moving the device.
The main aim of implementing this campaign was to increase the direct bookings
with this 360° video experience. With the help of Opera Mediaworks and OMD, the
advertising agency of Hilton, they developed those kind of 360° videos at one of
their resorts in Barbados. Using such a magnificent destination and putting it
together with the latest innovations of technology, they made some stunning videos.
Besides broadcasting the campaign on different social networks and other
smartphone apps, the 360° experience was always shown as pre-rolls on YouTube or
as other kind of video advertisements on different platforms.
Although this promotion is designed to increase the direct bookings, there are
several disadvantages for that kind of advertisement. First, making the user to watch
a commercial before the 360° video is a risky technique. Since more pre-rolls are
shown before presenting the actual video the user wants to see, most of the people
are skipping the advertisement – as it is possible to skip it after 5 seconds on
15YouTube – and so most of the consumers didn’t even get to see the 360° virtual
experience. Thus, it is hard to say, if the advertisement was as effective as expected.
Probably, if people were really interested in the destination of Barbados and
watched the whole advertisement and afterwards interacted with the 360° video, it
may possibly impose a positive effect on the booking rate of Hilton Resorts.
Nevertheless, it is always hard to analyze those kind of campaigns right during their
launch. After the advertisement is ending, which is excepted to be the end of 2016
according to the Hilton brand, the promotion agency OMD will definitely have a
closer look at the numbers and interaction rates with the 360° video and then Hilton
group can analyze if their direct bookings increased during the promotion of this
virtual interaction (Ting 2016; King 2016).
2.1.2 Case 2: Destination Canada
Will the future of traveling be using a drone and a virtual reality glass to experience
the destinations a traveler wants to see? As the technology becomes more advanced
and continue to be progressing, the above phenomenon might happen in the
coming future. For example, using a drone to explore the Mount Everest would be
really nice, as there is no threat of getting lost in the mountains or maybe even
suffer major injuries.
Destination Canada, the tourism board of Canada, did realize this concept for
creating several virtual reality videos. Using drones installed with a GoPro camera,
they generated some breathtaking videos at Nimmo Bay, which is a location for
hiking, fishing and other adventures in Canada. Once done, the video can be viewed
with an Oculus Rift Glasses or on YouTube, so that users have the opportunity to
jump right into the landscape of Nimmo Bay and experience it in the virtual way.
But again, there are some downsides to this virtual tourism experience. The high
dropout rate while watching the video is the first problem, as the awareness of
watching 360° videos is still not so high with users. So maybe as a result, when
comparing the actual views of the videos with the production costs might raise some
questions, as if it is valuable enough to produce such videos for only a small amount
16of viewers, as this technology is still really new and so pretty expensive. Moreover,
the fun of experiencing something on its own while getting involved with locals is
the allure of traveling and a virtual reality cannot yet be accomplished by this
technology. Nevertheless, the videos are pretty impressive and when the targeted
viewers enjoy the videos and might think about going there in the long term, the aim
of the videos is accomplished (Burks 2015; The Canadian Press 2015).
2.1.3 Case 3: Rock Tourism
Imagine walking along the beach, smelling the sea at one of the beautiful Marriott
Resorts in Hawaii or walking around the pool area at one of the many Thomas Cook
destinations around the world while being at work or home. You think that is not
possible, well then you haven’t heard about the ‘Travel brilliantly’ marketing
campaign by Marriott or didn’t receive a brochure with a Google cardboard from the
travel agency Thomas Cook. Both of them are two big players in the tourism
industry. But in general, they are always ahead of the competitors when it comes to
the newest developments for the tourism industry. Right now, the trend is to use
virtual reality in all its different aspects.
For instance, Marriott started to support the five senses of the human body with the
help of 4D virtual reality tele-porter capsule. Producing 360° videos from their resort
destinations is not something unusual in the tourism industry right now, but building
a whole pod which is totally interactive is new. In cooperation between Marriott
Brand and the agency Relevant, who call themselves the first experience agency,
they build those kind of ‘Travel Brilliantly’ tele-porter capsules using the latest
technology of virtual reality, motion sensors and a rumbling platform. The
participants have to use an Oculus Rift glass for seeing the virtual environment, in
that case a sandy beach in Hawaii and step afterwards in the fully immerse
container. While watching the 360° video, the motion sensors simulates a walk on
the beach by moving the rumbling platform. Overall the campaign was a successful
one. People participated in this virtual experience generally shared good reviews on
their website.
17The travel agency Thomas Cook had a different approach to integrate virtual reality.
As almost every person owns a smartphone now, Thomas Cook produced the 360°
videos in some of their top destinations and included Google cardboards for the
receiver of the brochures. Mailing around 5,000 different copies, the recipients have
the possibility to use their smartphone in combination with a programed app and
the included cardboard to dive into the virtual reality videos. When being lucky to be
one of the recipients of the brochure, they would have the possibility to see some
stunning destinations of the travel agency Thomas Cook.
Comparing the two different campaigns, one could say, they are completely
different but having the same aim, raising the awareness of virtual reality as a tool in
the tourism industry. While the Marriott promotion was an amazing idea to include
the other senses as well, one could argue that it is only a one-time opportunity for
people who experienced it. As it is not available on a regular basis. Moreover, only
making the videos available on Oculus Rift Glasses – so only people who actually
bought the device which is a really small number – and not video platforms, who
support the 360° video technology after the campaign, is a big downside. In contrast,
the Thomas Cook initiative with the cardboards and brochures was a good idea, as it
is available to users who don’t have the Oculus Rift device. Although it is easier for
the recipients to experience the 360° videos as they get a cardboard, the downside
of tis campaign was that only a small number of people received such a brochure. As
the prices of those kind of cardboards are still very high for the provider they only
produced a small sample. On top of that fact, making the recipient download
another app on their smartphone might not be a smart move, as smartphone users
always or most of the time struggle with storage problems on their phones. All in all,
both campaigns have their positive and negative sides, but once again it shows the
effect of virtual reality in the tourism industry and how effective this technology can
be already used or will be used in the future (Allen 2015; Munshower 2015; Parker
2015).
182.1.4 Case 4: Visit Albuquerque
Finding new ways to attract people to a certain destination is not as easy as it
sounds. Providing potential future tourists an overview of what people are able to
do at a certain destination is always a good way though. The Albuquerque Visitors
and Convention Bureau, or newly renamed Visit Albuquerque, started their new
campaign ‘Visit Albuquerque Viewfinder’. Announced at their last annual meeting,
the DMO wants to showcase the local people and places of Albuquerque via a 360°
immersive video. Seeing the future potential of virtual reality, Visit Albuquerque
thought about expanding their tourism marketing also to this kind of marketing.
Compared to the already explained big players like Hilton or Marriott above, this
project is something completely new and never has been done before.
Not using virtual reality glasses or cardboards to see the landscape and people of
Albuquerque, this 360° videos will be watched with the help of a ‘normal’
viewfinder. The marketing team behind Visit Albuquerque wanted to show
something new and fancy but in a traditional way what most tourists would
associate with traveling. Working together with a start-up from San Francisco
Owlized, the user has the opportunity to interact with the videos over a technically
modified viewfinder. Shooting all different kind of outdoor virtual reality videos and
activities in Albuquerque, these 360° videos will be afterwards included into these
viewfinders. Through the technological advancement, the viewfinders are so
customized, as the people turning the viewfinder in a certain direction the
respective 360° video will adapt to the viewpoint. Sounds pretty amazing and
especially in the time of digital marketing, the DMO hopes to attract some new
tourists to the destination. To show the different videos, Visit Albuquerque will be
touring throughout the United States at different trade shows as well as offering
some small booths with a viewfinder in malls, airports and plazas in different cities.
Not only that Visit Albuquerque has a completely new name, also using the
technology of 360° videos in combination with viewfinders has never been done
before.
Thinking about the whole campaign of ‘Visit Albuquerque Viewfinder’, one has to
say it is a really nice way of putting something traditionally used by tourists – the
viewfinder – in combination with one of the latest technological developments, the
19360° videos. Although the modified viewfinders are not that easy to manufacture for
the DMO, as well as transporting them to the different trade shows and other spots
they want to show the videos the campaign is going to be expensive. Still, the overall
value of this campaign will definitely have its positive impacts on the destination of
Albuquerque (Cardillio 2016; Dyer 2016).
2.1.5 Case 5: Future Outlook for Virtual Reality
Talking all about the different aspects what virtual reality is possible to accomplish,
one aspect should also be mentioned, the future development. There are various
studies which predict and foresee the virtual reality industry to be big by the year
2020.
The company Digi-Capital, who focuses on virtual reality in terms of gaming, foretells
in its most recent study that the augmented and virtual reality business be a 120$
billion market by 2020. While this market is constantly developing now, until 2020
there will be more different services available in terms of virtual reality. Examples
are the selling of hardware, which includes all different kind of gadgets for virtual
reality; enterprise solutions, which are focusing onto different virtual reality
solutions like Holo Lenses for meetings and advertising sales as well as producing
advertisements like the company Blippar is doing, who use augmented reality with
an offline good to make extra content available to the buyer. Nevertheless, the
development is still ongoing there are certain aspects about the future of virtual
reality which are uncertain. Kelly Andresen, vice president and head of branded
content at Gannett said that still one of the biggest challenges is consumer
awareness for the products of virtual reality. As more and more marketers and
publisher are rushing into the virtual reality market and so of course increasing the
overall value of the market, raising the consciousness for the consumers is still a
problem and letting them adopt to the virtual reality hardware is ongoing.
Thinking about the whole development and some of the aspects were virtual reality
is going is pretty astonishing as well as uncertain. Although the development of
virtual reality is increasing fast, the real question is will it be a 120$ billion market by
2020? Possible of course, but still as mentioned by Kelly Andresen, raising the
20awareness for this technology is still one major issue when talking about virtual
reality in general and before not fixing the thinking about virtual reality we will not
see the maybe bright or not so bright future of virtual reality. (Chen 2016; Crook
2015; Digi-Capital 2016).
2.2 Introduction to TAM model
Not only that adopting to new technologies in our daily lives is constantly changing
as mentioned in the beginning, also organizations are embracing new ways how
technologies are effecting the various work developments (Godoe & Johansen
2012). For this reason, introducing the technology acceptance model (TAM) when
talking about virtual reality in a tourism context is possible.
The theoretical frameworks focus on certain aspects when talking about the users’
acceptance for information technologies (Godoe & Johansen 2012). Davis (1989)
proposed the TAM model to forecast an individual’s acceptance of information
technology. More precisely, this model suggests that one’s attitude toward the
acceptance of new technology is influenced by two factors which are the perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use. For instance, this model can be used to
foresee how information technologies will help people to perform better in their
jobs as well as with the other aspect of how easy are information technologies to
use in terms of computer usage in specific situations. An example for two of those
paradigms can be how a destination management organization uses information
technologies to promote their respective country. In this case, the variable of
perceived usefulness would be the promotion of the destination, how effective it
would be in terms of attracting more tourists to the country. While the ease of use
variable would be, what information technology medium would fit best to promote
the destination, for example a social network like Facebook to communicate the
promotion. Unfortunately, this theoretical framework collides with the technology
readiness index (TRI). It refers to how ready are people to embrace the use of new
technologies in general in their lives. In short, it can be said TAM focuses on a
particular information system while TRI is towards the general technology. As a
result, both of these frameworks somehow were integrated to one model respecting
21each other, the TRAM model (Godoe & Johansen 2012; Chung, Han & Joun 2015;
Huang, Backman, Backman & Moore 2013; Legris, Ingham & Collerette 2003).
Although these constructs focus only on the attitude of pre-used information
technologies, the aspect of attitudes towards technologies in post-use are missing.
For this reason, the proposed integrated model of user satisfaction and technology
acceptance by Wixom and Todd (2005) will be used as a model for this thesis.
Wixom and Todd (2005) proposes to build the bridge between these two concepts
by using it theoretically as the attitude of the pre-used technologies will have an
effect on the post use aspect of information technologies. Thus the empirical part of
the thesis would miss how the users of the 360° videos liked or disliked them when
only using the TRAM model.
In connection with knowing these frameworks and the development of the
technology in general, the ANTO came up with the idea for the virtual reality app
called Austria 360°. Using the advanced technology and magnificent landscape of
Austria, they had a booth at the ITB to present it to the visitors.
3 The virtual reality experience of Austria 360°
For the virtual reality app from the ANTO, users only have one possibility to use it.
Combining the Oculus Rift Glasses – also called virtual reality glasses or VR – with a
Samsung smartphone, gives the user the opportunity to experience the virtual
environment with the HMD device (Samsung 2015). In terms of using the app, this is
the only way, as it was only developed and programed for this interface.
Nevertheless, the videos are not only working on this device, it is also possible to
experience it with other applications. For instance, users can already interact with
the 360° videos on laptops, PCs or smartphones. Here to add, when using a
smartphone for viewing the videos a Google cardboard can be used to enhance the
virtual experience. Moreover, the videos also work on platforms like YouTube or
Facebook– as both social platforms support the 360° video technology just without a
HMD application. But for this thesis considering only the Oculus Rift Glasses in
22combination with the virtual reality app, with its respective findings and data is
necessary.
In cooperation with three different agencies, the ANTO produced 20 different videos
all situated in Austria. For these virtual environments, different events and
landscapes like a sunrise at the Bregenzer Forrest or hiking at the Sölktäler Valley
were filmed. Not only that panoramas are included in the virtual reality app, also
activities like free tour skiing in the Lienzer Dolomites or downhill skiing in the Stubai
Glacial were recorded. As all those different videos include various activities, filming
those virtual environments for the app, the agencies and ANTO used different virtual
reality recording systems.
Taking the provided example of the sunrise in Bregenzer Forrest, this was filmed
with a static camera system to record a time lapse video. For other videos like hiking
at the Sölktäler Valley, one of the agencies used their unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
or commonly referred to it as drone to record the activity. One remarkable aspect
when filming with a drone, is the fact that the user totally immerses with the virtual
environment and feels like being there as well as seeing it from a higher perspective,
as the drone flies a few meters above the surface. Last but not least, using a helmet
with a range of 6 to 12 Go Pros installed on the helmet, was another technique to
record the various 360° videos.
From a provider’s perspective a variety of different aspects have to be overlooked
while producing these kind of videos. Some examples are, organizing the rights to
film at certain destinations, as well as planning in advance to not be filming while the
destination is crowded by tourist to provide a good surrounding for filming without
disturbances and really portray the feeling of being there for the viewers of the
video. Mentioned some of the obstacles a provider or the ANTO had to overcome,
focusing on a use case how the participants actually interact with the videos and the
virtual reality glasses will be described in the following paragraph.
Explained in the beginning, in combination with the virtual reality glasses and a
Samsung Smartphone, the user has the opportunity to immerse into the virtual
reality environments of Austria. The 360° app will be released to the Google Play
Store and Oculus App Store – at the moment still under review for acceptance to be
23officially introduced in the two App Stores – so users can download the app on their
phones. Once downloaded, the user has to attach the smartphone to the Oculus Rift
Glass. Followed by accessing the branded ANTO interface of the app, including the
logo and slogan of the ANTO “arrive and revive”, the user has the selection of the 20
different videos. Although the number of videos is already determined, not all of
them are finished in production as certain videos can only be filmed, responding to
the season. Right now, most of the videos represent skiing or hiking activities in
Austria. Navigating with the touchpad on the right hand side of the virtual reality
glasses, the user will see a small red curser to navigate between the different videos.
Once found the right 360° video only by clicking it, the respective video will be
downloaded and the user can fully immerse in the video. All videos can be
downloaded and are automatically stored on the smartphone. By turning the head
to the left, right or up and down, the user can see the different sceneries in the
corresponding virtual environment he selected. Adding a Bluetooth headphone to
the Oculus Rift Glasses will enhance the virtual experience, as in some of the videos
sounds – like bird singing or the lapping of rivers – are included. For instance, if the
user selected the Sölktäler Valley video, he will see the hiking route to a small river
in-between the mountains of the Sölktäler Valley. While looking to his left, right, up
or down, he will see the surrounding of the Sölktäler Valley and feels like being
there. In each of the videos the users will always have a different aspect of viewing
the virtual environment, as each video was recorded in a different way.
All in all, one could say immersing with the virtual environments of Austria in the
app is a thrilling experience and might change the user’s intention of visiting Austria
in real life.
4 Research methodology
4.1.1 Presentation of Austria 360°
The virtual reality app Austria 360° was first introduced to a public audience at the
ITB (Internationale Tourismus-Börse) in Berlin this year in March 2016. During the
five days, from the 8th to 12th March, the visitors of the ITB had the chance to
24interact with the Oculus Rift Glasses at the ANTO booth. Presented under this year’s
marketing campaign called #austriantime, the visitors were presented a collection of
three videos from the pool of 360° videos. The videos shown at the ITB were the
hiking tour through the Sölktäler Valley, the sunrise in the Bregenzer Forrest and a
tour around the Hohe Tauern National Park. A team of ANTO employees helped the
visitors to interact with the videos and also explained how the Oculus Rift Glasses
are working and how the videos were filmed. After the participant viewed the video,
they had the voluntary option to fill out a feedback sheet and indicate either they
liked or disliked them.
4.1.2 Data collection
To solicit feedback about post-use experience of the virtual reality app by the
visitors, the ANTO developed an experience feedback sheet for the ITB. On a
voluntary basis, the participants could give their opinion about the virtual
experience after they watched one, two or all of the three videos.
Figure 1 Example of the Experience-Feedback-Sheet at ITB 2016
In terms of the target respondents they cannot be defined in certain groups, as the
visitors of the ITB were individuals from the press, media agencies and private
25people. So defining exactly which individual gave what kind of feedback was quite
hard. As mentioned above, the feedback was on a voluntary basis and so there are a
lot of people who did not indicate all the respective information. Nevertheless, how
the collected information was clustered will be explained later on in this thesis.
Illustrated underneath, is an example of a plain experience feedback sheet from the
ANTO for the ITB.
The individuals participating could rank their experience on a scale from smiley dark
green (representing very good), smiley light green (representing good), smiley
orange (representing average), smiley light red (representing not necessary) and
smiley dark red (representing not satisfied). Whilst indicating the overall experience
of the video, the respondents also had the opportunity to write an open-ended
comment on the experience, in the gray comment bubble. In the last part of the
survey, the participants were asked to indicate their gender, age as well as their
nationality. Knowing the process of data collection for the given feedback at the ITB
2016 in terms of the Austria 360° app, the next sub-section will describe how the
data were analyzed.
4.1.3 Data analysis
For the following part, will deal with the analysis methods more closely. The two
data analysis methods, which are the descriptive analysis and multiple
correspondence analysis, were used to analyzed the received data from the user of
the Austria 360° app. As the data is quantitative, the two mentioned methods are
believed to be appropriate. In addition to the two selected methods, a sentiment
analysis was used to analyze the open-ended comments.
As the descriptive analysis is a method, which alters data into a more
understandable and descriptive form, using this method for the vast amount of
quantitative data is possible (Van den Berg 2014). This method is especially useful
for investigating the frequency of answers. As the provided experience feedback
sheet at the ITB consists of different parts, which have to be filled out by the
participants this method makes it easier to cluster them. Therefore, we are going to
use the Pearson Chi-Square Test to investigate if there is an association between two
26variables – with the support of hypotheses (StarTrek 2016). In this example we will
use the variable of rating – represented by the smileys – as the dependent variable
and the demographic variables like gender, age group, nationality and region as the
independent variables. The reason for this analysis is to examine if there is a relation
between the rating given by those who interacted with the 360° videos and
respondents’ demographic profile.
While, explained above, the descriptive analysis helps to put the data in a more
descriptive form, the multiple correspondence analysis allows the user to find a
relationship between different variables over several categories (Abdi, Williams &
Valentin 2013). As we have a wide range of different participants in terms of age
group, gender, nationality and region, multiple correspondence analysis can visual
their relationship in a multi-dimensional figure and also provide us with a
correspondence analysis plot to see the relationships between the variables better.
The table underneath provides an overview, of how the different participants are
clustered in their variables.
Variable Data collected by the experience feedback sheet
Gender Male Female
Age till 29 years 33 till 44 years 45+ years
Nationality Germany Austria Switzerland
United Kingdom France United States
Romania Croatia Estonia
Luxembourg Greece Georgia
Sri Lanka Israel Russia
Poland Netherlands Lithuania
Australia Armenia
Region Central Europe Western Europe Southeastern Europe
Northern Europe Eastern Europe Southern Europe
North America West Asia Southeastern Asia
Oceania
Rating Satisfaction very good good average
not necessary not satisfied
Table 1 Variables for evaluation
Knowing the numerous variables from the experience feedback sheet and the
methods which are going to be used, it will help to (1) examine the overall users’
satisfaction with Austria 360°; (2) to examine the users’ usage experience across
three demographic variables which are gender, age group and nationality; and last
27but not least (3) to provide the ANTO with more insights on how to improve the
Austria 360° from information quality, system quality and the user experience
perspectives.
5 Research findings
Given the information, of how the data was collected and knowing the different
participants were clustered and divided into certain groups by gender, age group,
nationality and region, taking a closer look at the outcomes from the provided
feedback about the 360° videos from the ANTO at the ITB 2016 is possible. The total
number of contributors for the feedback is 113. Out of that sample, not all the
participants indicated the necessary variables for a representative presentation of all
the data. As some variables like the age or gender were missing in some experience
feedback sheets, the data set only included those complete responses and
consequently the actual number of valid samples is 78. To add here, all the collected
data from the experience feedback sheet were analyzed with the help of the
Statistical Package for Social Science 22. The following sub-sections of the thesis are
going to present these findings. Each of the selected methods will be supported by a
case processing summary table, with the indication of valid and missing cases for
each one of the methods.
5.1 Descriptive analysis method
Knowing the framework of variables which were used and thinking about a method
how to analyze the data properly is necessary. The reason for that, is due to the fact
that the Tourism-Forecasting department of the ANTO already analyzed the
collected data but they did not consider the missing data and took all responses (i.e.,
113) as given. They formed a final percentage out of all the given data for the rating
scale from (1) very good to (5) not necessary. The final result for this analysis was
very good, as 70.2% of the participants indicated it was (1) very good experience
with the 360° videos. Nevertheless, the outcome found by the ANTO was very
28satisfying in terms of presenting them to the top management, only considering the
data from the rating scale for the analysis for this thesis is not enough though.
Therefore, forming the collected data into groups of two variables as the table
underneath displays and forming hypothesis for the Pearson Chi-Square Test is
necessary.
Valid Missing Total
N Percent N Percent N Percent
Gender * Rating 71 91.0% 7 9.0% 78 100.0%
Age * Rating 48 61.5% 30 38.5% 78 100.0%
Nationality * Rating 73 93.6% 5 6.4% 78 100.0%
Region * Rating 73 93.6% 5 6.4% 78 100.0%
Table 2 Case Processing Summary 1
Represented here in the following paragraph are the different hypothesis for the
variables. As this research has the aim to find out, if the user’s satisfaction with
Austria 360° can be examined over the demographic variables listed in the table
above, the following hypotheses were formed:
Gender * Rating
H1a: There is no relationship between gender and rating
H1b: There is a relationship between gender and rating.
Age * Rating
H2a: There is no relationship between age and rating.
H2b: There is a relationship between age and rating.
Nationality * Rating
H3a: There is no relationship between nationality and rating.
H3b: There is a relationship between nationality and rating.
Region * Rating
H4a: There is no relationship between region and rating.
H4b: There is a relationship between region and rating.
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