Digital Tourism and Wellbeing: Conceptual Framework to Examine Technology Effects of Online Travel Media

Youngjoon Choi, Benjamin Hickerson, Jaewon Lee, Hwabong Lee and Yeongbae Choe
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Youngjoon Choi: Department of International Office Administration, College of Science & Industry Convergence, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea
Benjamin Hickerson: Department of Community and Therapeutic Recreation, School of Health and Human Sciences, The University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA
Jaewon Lee: College of Fine Arts, Hongik University, Seoul 04066, Korea
Hwabong Lee: Department of Space Marketing, COEX, Seoul 06164, Korea
Yeongbae Choe: Department of Tourism Management, College of Social Sciences, Gachon University, Seongnam-si 13120, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: The current pandemic is accelerating the wide-spreading popularity of digital tourism. Given that technology innovation has broadened the horizon of tourist experiences to the realm of virtual environments, this study aims to (re)conceptualize travel experience and develop a theoretical framework to examine media technology effects on virtual travel experience, destination image, and tourists’ well-being. As a conceptual work, this study adopts technological perspectives on online travel media to decompose technology attributes and articulate distinctive effects of technology-centric variables. The proposed framework illustrates five propositions that specify and explain the relationships among technology-centric variables (modality, agency, interactivity, and navigability), three groups of moderators (user-centric, content-centric, and situation-centric variables), virtual travel experience, destination image, and psychological wellbeing. By adopting the variable-centered approach to decompose online travel media, this study provides a new theoretical lens to understand the psychological mechanism of media technology effects in digital tourism. The framework will serve as useful methodological guidelines to conduct experiments to investigate the distinctive effect of a particular affordance or a specific technical feature. The potential benefits of digital tourism to enhance tourists’ wellbeing are discussed by highlighting the environmentally friendly and inclusive aspects.

Keywords: digital tourism; virtual travel experience; heuristics; affordance; tourism destination image; inclusiveness; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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