Virtual Heritage Experiences:Towards A Typology

Bingjie Liu, M.S.Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management,

University of Florida

Holly Donohoe, Ph.D.Assistant Professor

Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management,University of Florida

March 2013

Introduction

• The influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) development (Buhalis & Law, 2008)

• New Tourists have the specific requirement of “edutainment ” (Buhalis & Law, 2008)

• Destination management organizations are transforming towards knowledge-based entrepreneurships (Stamboulis & Sjayannis, 2003)

IntroductionICT influence in heritage tourism• On-site interpretation

The emergence of virtual heritage (VH)• A type of virtual environments that embedded with

cultural heritage and represented through digital media” (Tan & Rahaman, 2009 p. 144)

• Preservation and education (Berndt, & Carlos, 2000; Roussou, 2002)

• Alternative form for heritage visits (Sundstedt et al., 2004).

Example : Lascaux cave

Introduction

• Can VH become a sustainable form of cultural tourism? The key is to understand how receptive tourists could accept VH as tourism substitute (Guttentag, 2010)

Study Objective

• As one of the early attempts, this study examined both the supply and demand of VH and proposed a conceptual framework to demonstrate the possibilities of VH as cultural tourism products

Theoretical Background : VH

Supply Side: Virtual Heritage Sites:

• Create and represent a virtual heritage site of accuracy and authenticity (e.g. Addision, 2000; Ibrahim et al., 2011; Koller et al., 2009)

• User experience: a conceptual framework of interpretation (Rahaman et al., 2012)

Theoretical Background: VH

Conceptual model for interpreting digital heritage Adopted from Rahaman & Tan, 2010

Theoretical Background : Cultural Tourists

Demand: Cultural Tourist• Cultural tourism as special interest tourism and cultural

tourists (McKercher et al, 2002 )

• The cultural tourists typology (McKercher et al, 2002 )

• A spectrum of cultural tourists based on the centrality of cultural tourists rangingg from casual cultural tourists to purposeful cultural tourist (McKercher et al, 2002)

Proposed Conceptual Framework

Dimensions:

• Supply (VH) : interpretation

• Demand (Cultural Tourists): the centrality of cultural tourism

Proposed Conceptual FrameworkDemand

Serious Cultural Tourists

DemandCasual Cultural Tourists

SupplyLow Interpretation

SupplyHigh Interpretation

Moderate SubstitutiveLow Substitutive

High SubstitutiveModerate Substitutive

Implication• Marketing

Help produce positive destination imageEngage with a broader audience

• ManagementHeritage preservation, and sustainable managementIncrease the value of educationNecessities to build up virtual heritage sitesDifferent strategy towards different population

Limitation

• Conceptualized model, future empirical research is needed

• A general theoretical estimation

Thank you