ABSTRACT
Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a tool for helping tourism marketers in forming realistic customer expectations. Extant literature is available on the technological adoption of VR in business-related fields like marketing and tourism. Still, a gap exists in studying decision-making to visit a destination and attitude towards a tourism destination. This study attempts to cover the gap by investigating decision-making behaviour with respect to VR for selecting a tourism destination. Individuals’ decision-making is based on a cognitive or emotional approach; therefore, Elaboration Likelihood Model is used in this research to understand consumer decision-making. Eight face-to-face interviews were conducted from students to identify the most unfamiliar destination. Field experimentation was used to collect data from 216 Malaysian students; one group experienced VR, and another watched a video. The results reveal that the information quality (cognitive approach) of VR plays a significant role in attitudinal change. On the contrary, video positively influences the attitude through information quality and source credibility, but its intensity is low compared to VR. This research makes a substantial contribution for VR marketers to focus on informational aspects while developing a prototype of VR.
