Impact of VR on impulsive desire for a destination

This study proposes a research model to analyze and evaluate — through affective and cognitive processes based on construal level theory and telepresence — the impact of head-mounted displays (HMD) VR on a tourism product that has experiential and hedonic characteristics. A laboratory experiment using 89 student samples compared HMD VR and video. The HMD VR produced 47% higher telepresence than video. The higher level of telepresence, in turn, through the affective process, shortened participants’ hypothetical distance by 45%, intensified affection by 62%, and increased their impulsive desire by 75%. Although dual path affective and cognitive processes both affected impulsive desire, the affective process seemed to have the stronger effect in the case of the tourism product.