Synthetic tourist experience

Li Miao, Fiona X. Yang, Qiao Zhang and Kanye Ye Wang

Annals of Tourism Research, 2025, vol. 113, issue C

Abstract: Synthetic reality—characterized by the increasingly blurring boundaries between physical and virtual worlds—is reshaping tourist experiences. This forward-looking conceptual research re-examines the tourist experience from an ontological perspective, positioning synthetic reality as an integrated super-reality transcending the physical–virtual dichotomy. Using the six-dimensional consumer experience framework as an organizing structure, this research discusses key experiential qualities of the synthetic tourist experience: surreality, symbiosis, discrete emotions, extended cognition, syntheticity, and meta-interactivity. Critical theoretical considerations of each proposed experiential quality are also discussed. This study further outlines a future research agenda for a better understanding of the synthetic tourist experience.

Keywords: Tourist experience; Synthetic reality; Metaverse; Extended reality; Virtual reality; Mixed reality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:anture:v:113:y:2025:i:c:s0160738325000830

DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2025.103977

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