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Traditionally, Task–Technology Fit (TTF) theory has been applied to examine the usefulness of technology in the work environment. Can the same approach (based on experience rather than tasks) be applied to non-work, cultural heritage environments? This is the question the authors ask in this study. This study proposes a new variation of TTF based on the experience economy model, namely Experience–Technology Fit (ETF), for the non-work environment, in particular, in the context of cultural heritage, where visitor experience is enhanced by extended reality technology, which combines immersive technologies and artificial intelligence.

Employing a quantitative survey method, the empirical analysis seeks to determine the influence of Mixed Reality (MR) characteristics (interactivity, vividness), Voice User Interface (VUI) characteristics (speech recognition, speech synthesis) and experience economy factors (education, entertainment, esthetic, escape) on satisfaction, revisit intention and actual purchase to propose a new ETF model.

VUI, MR, and experience factors were significantly associated with ETF; when combined with MR-based experience, ETF was significantly associated with satisfaction. This study’s findings further demonstrate the relationship between users' satisfaction when engaging with MR-based experience and revisit intention, while purchase intention was significantly associated with the actual purchase.

The novel contribution of this study is the proposal of the EFT model, a new variation of TTF based on the experience economy model. Overall, this study expands the applications of TTF to an experience-oriented business, thereby broadening the authors’ understanding of technological success with a specific focus on the technology fit of Extended Reality (XR) in the context of cultural heritage.

The purpose of this study is to expand the experience economy model and to determine if this model provides a better understanding of the process of growing intention to continue using religious cultural heritage content delivered digitally and intention to visit religious cultural heritage sites. In particular, it examines the influence of spiritual experience on the evaluation of religious cultural heritage content, comparing delivery via virtual reality (VR) to a web-based experience.

In this study, a representative religious cultural heritage destination, Jerusalem, was chosen as an example for the application. Participants (n = 292) were randomly divided into two groups, one group using the web and the other group experiencing VR. After experiencing the destination virtually, participants completed a survey, the results of which were analyzed using path analysis and multi-group analysis.

The results suggest that spiritual experience mediates the four elements of Pine and Gilmore (1998) experience economy model and the intention to continue engaging with the content virtually. Intellectual awareness of religious cultural heritage strengthens the spiritual experience, which mediates educational and aesthetic experiences and the successful use of VR and the web. Additionally, for participants experiencing VR, the influence of spiritual experience on the intention to continue using the virtual media to consume content related to religious cultural heritage sites and to visit actual religious heritage sites was stronger than for participants using the web.

This study based on an expanded experience economy model explores the use of digital technologies for the enhancement of spiritual experience. Comparison of web-based and VR content delivery provides important implications for destination marketers in terms of promoting destinations online and encouraging intention to visit actual sites in the future.