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This study aims to investigate the effects of smart tourism technology experience (STTE) on tourist satisfaction and happiness in Bordeaux, with a focus on understanding the mediating role of self-gratification. By examining these relationships, the study seeks to provide insights into how smart tourism technologies can enhance tourist experiences.

The study uses partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze data collected from 380 tourists who visited Bordeaux. The measurement model assesses reliability and validity, while the structural model evaluates the proposed hypotheses and the mediation effects of self-gratification.

The results confirm that STTE positively impacts tourist satisfaction, with accessibility, informativeness and personalization significantly enhancing tourist satisfaction, while interactivity does not. Tourist satisfaction, in turn, positively affects tourist happiness. Furthermore, self-gratification partially mediates the relationship between tourist satisfaction and happiness, highlighting its importance in the smart tourism context.

This research extends the understanding of STTE by demonstrating its effects on tourist satisfaction and happiness. It introduces the mediating role of self-gratification, providing a novel perspective on how personalized smart tourism experiences contribute to overall tourist happiness.

Understanding tourist experiences with virtual reality (VR) products is essential for firms using VR for tourism marketing, particularly in developing countries where customers do not have access to personal VR devices or gadgets. This study aims to provide insights into technology usage for tourism marketing India, which is a developing country. It explores 360° virtual tours as an upcoming strategy for tourism promotion by analysing tourists’ perspectives through a qualitative approach.

360° YouTube video launched by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, was shown to the participants as a marketing stimulus, followed by questions to understand tourists’ experiences and intentions. Responses were collected from 45 tourists who visited popular tourist destinations such as Shimla, Manali and Dharamshala districts of Himachal Pradesh, India.

The findings of the study indicate that several crucial elements play a pivotal role in creating the 360° VR experience. Based on interviews, it was found that 360° video experiences assist in visualising a destination through imaginative exploration, generating curiosity about the destination, forming a favourable image of the destination and facilitates ease of experience. A few participants mentioned experiencing discomforts, such as motion sickness and eye strain, while viewing 360° videos. Moreover, tourists provided valuable insights into various factors, including how 360° videos elicit arousal through entertainment and excitement, develop immersion and engagement in the virtual environment (VE), aid in assessing destination suitability, offers advantage over other media, serves as a substitutes for travel during constraints, generates assurance and influences intentions. These factors have emerged as significant considerations influencing their willingness to adopt such technology in the future.

In the contemporary market landscape, 360° VR technology is anticipated to enhance the experiential elements within VEs. While existing research has focused on the technical attributes of VR, there remains a crucial gap pertaining to the experiential and destination-related elements and their influence on usage, travel planning and intentions. Therefore, this study provides deeper insights into the unexplored concepts and dimensions of the virtual tourism experience, particularly concerning interaction with 360° videos. The study contributes novel insights to the existing body of tourism literature and provides practical implications for enhancing 360° virtual tour experiences.

This study aims to explore the influence of creative tourist experiences (CTE) on tourists’ recommendation intentions (RCI) toward creative tourist destinations. This study examines the roles of tourist engagement and satisfaction in this relationship, proposing a sequential mediation model based on the cognitive-affective-conative model.

The research surveyed travelers to Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India, using a structured questionnaire. Through purposive sampling data were collected from 413 generation Z (Gen Z in short) tourists. The study used exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and sequential mediation analysis. The present research used Model 6 by Andrew Hayes in the SPSS process macro to test the serial mediation.

The findings emphasize the importance of active engagement in creative tourism and its potential to transform cultural heritage into enriching experiences, thereby influencing tourists’ recommendation behaviors. Results of sequential mediation analysis show that there is a significant and positive impact of CTE on tourist’s RCI. Further, results showed the sequential mediation effect of tourist engagement and satisfaction on the relationship between CTE and RCI.

The findings offer valuable insights for destination managers and policymakers in creative tourism. Enhancing tourist engagement and satisfaction through creative experiences can effectively increase RCI, contributing to the sustainable management of cultural resources and preventing the over-commercialization of cultural heritage.

This research contributes to the literature on creative tourism by empirically testing the sequential mediation model and highlighting the pivotal role of tourist engagement and satisfaction in transforming creative experiences into positive behavioral outcomes. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the factors influencing tourists’ RCI in creative tourism contexts.

The study aims to review how the use of technology enhances the authentic tourist experience. Technology and digitalization have enhanced tourist experiences. However, critiques comment on its ability to over-commercialize activity and lack of authenticity. Thus, there is a need to synthesize knowledge of technology usage to increase authentic tourist experience.

The study carries out a bibliometric review of the studies focusing on the use of technology in enhancing tourist experiences. Two hundred journal articles, published between 1997 and 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database to carry out descriptive and network analysis using the Gephi, VOSviewer and Science of Science (Sci2) software. The components of authentic tourism experience are identified from the literature through a content analysis.

The findings of the study are broadly classified into two: first, the most frequently used keywords in the study include tourist experience and satisfaction, co-creation, virtual reality, smart tourism, technology, authenticity and heritage tourism. Second, the five major themes studied in the topic include virtual reality and tourist experience; media, tourist experience and encounters; technology, smart tourism and tourist experience; digital transformation, social media and tourist experience; and virtual reality and tourist experience which are still relevant in the literature because of the presence of study gaps.

The findings are used to develop a conceptual framework for the role of technology in enhancing authenticity in tourism typologies where authenticity is critical.

This paper aims to understand Chinese tourists’ changing shopping experience in Macao. In scrutinizing reviews posted in the pre-COVID and during COVID eras, the study has identified changing patterns in Chinese tourists’ shopping experiences, including increased leisure components while shopping, decreased luxury pursuits and an improved overall leisure and shopping experience because of decreased prices in accommodation and a less crowded retail and leisure environment. An emergent opportunity to provide “retail-tainment” experience is discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between wine tourism experiences (i.e. winescape, winery service quality, winery brand differentiation and tourist motivation) and tourist behavioral intentions (satisfaction, loyalty and revisit intention) from both demand and supply perspectives in Ningxia, China, by using the SERVQUAL model and the self-determination theory.

The research comprises two studies with an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach. Study 1 adopted semi-structured interviews with winery owners and managers to explore the factors related to wine tourism experiences that influence tourists’ tourism experience. The results from the Study 1 leads to Study 2, which used a survey to explore wine tourist experiences and their behavioral intentions

This study provided important information regarding the factors that influence wine tourists experience in Ningxia wine region from the perspectives of supply and demands sides. Frist, this study confirmed the various factors influence wine tourism experiences in Ningxia based on the results from Study 1 (supply perspectives). Second, by further investigation in the Study 1, this study integrates the SERVQUAL model and the self-determination theory as fundamental theoretical frameworks in Study 2 to analysis the tourist perspectives. Third, as results, the authors finally confirmed the theoretical frameworks of wine tourism in Ningxia based on dual supply-demand perspectives.

The integration of multiple research approaches enriches the research findings and provides a more robust understanding of the wine tourism experiences in Ningxia.

This study aims to investigate city branding as a post-pandemic COVID-19 outcome factor on brand satisfaction, brand experience, perceived risk and revisit intention. In addition, this research contributes to the discussion of post-COVID-19 city branding that needs to be considered in the development of future tourism marketing.

A quantitative approach was used with PLS-SEM statistical analysis and a 263-tourist sample. The study was conducted on tourists from Malang Regency in Indonesia by distributing questionnaires modified from previous studies in a similar context.

The results of this study found that there were significant influences of city brand personality on brand experience, brand satisfaction, brand experience on perceived risk, brand satisfaction on revisit intention and perceived risk on revisit intention. This study also presents the mediating role.

The study was only conducted on a small regency in Indonesia, and therefore the results cannot be generalized for other cities over the world.

The proposed study model suggests that stakeholders must seek to socialize services to potential tourists, so that tourists can understand the description of tourism activities that can be enjoyed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the way they travel in the future.

Understanding the determinant factors of city branding post-COVID-19 was valuable for developing marketing strategies to cope with intense competition among the city.

This study emphasizes the determinants of COVID-19 perceived risk and revisit intentions as explained in the tourism marketing literature by considering the role of brand satisfaction, brand experience and city brand personality which significantly contribute to build the city competitiveness. Therefore, various creative strategies should be implemented to promote the city as well as escalate tourist visits without ignoring the pandemic’s risks.

This study addresses tourists' post-consumption perspectives on the impact of online destination experiences and animosity on travel decisions. Developing a framework based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, we examine the previously unexplored relationship between post-negative events, online destination brand experience (ODBE), tourists' animosity and destination boycott intentions within the domestic tourism context.

Data from 355 actively engaged domestic travelers in Pakistan who follow destination social media pages (i.e. Instagram and Facebook) was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that post-negative events ODBE significantly stimulate tourists' animosity, which in turn drives destination boycott intentions. The ODBE indirectly affects boycott intentions through animosity, acting as a partial mediator. The analysis highlights the significance of the users' prior experience levels (novice vs experienced). Multigroup analysis shows that novice visitors are more sensitive to negative online experiences, resulting in stronger animosity than experienced visitors. Animosity significantly drives boycott intentions, particularly among experienced visitors.

This study’s novelty lies in its comprehensive examination of post-negative events, focusing on how the ODBE influences tourists' negative emotions and boycott intentions. These findings offer valuable insights for tourism researchers and destination marketers, underscoring the importance of optimizing post-service failure ODBE strategies for brand repair, online reputation management, digital marketing innovation and customized service recovery to mitigate the impact of negative events.

More specifically, the research identifies the determinants of positive and negative memorable experiences in different contexts of food tourism.

Qualitative data were collected from domestic and international tourists visiting New Zealand. Using an in-person, self-administered, electronic survey, 374 complete surveys were gathered in Christchurch City.

The findings reveal 25 factors contributing to positive memorable experiences, whereas the lack of seven of them leads to negative memorable experiences. Food quality is the most dominant determinant of both positive and negative memorable experiences.

Despite existing various types of food and drink experiences, the literature largely focused on the consumption part. The negative memorable experience has also been neglected. To expand the knowledge of the determinants of memorable food/drink experiences, this research focuses on all types of such experiences including positive and negative ones to provide a comprehensive understanding of memorable experiences within food tourism.

The purpose of this study is to explore from a place attachment (PA) theory perspective the extent to which and how, a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) experience enhances tourists’ attachment level on-site at a rural destination.

This study applied an exploratory mixed method approach. Respondents were tourists visiting the Lake District National Park who were asked to try a VR experience. In Study 1, interviews were conducted to explore new themes and to develop an enhanced PA framework in VR. Study 1 confirmed existing variables from the literature and highlighted new variables (themes) to be included in the new framework on how PA is formed. In Study 2, surveys were conducted, and the proposed framework analyzed using structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). To fully understand how VR had an impact on enhancing PA, the moderating effect of tourists’ pre-existing PA was considered.

The findings revealed “Accessibility”, “Memories” and “Increased Place Knowledge” as new themes (variables) and confirmed that these and established variables “Aesthetics” and “Presence” enhance PA, leading to increased loyalty. Significant moderating effects of existing PA were found.

VR serves as a complementary and substitutional tool for tourism. Tailored VR experiences for diverse tourist needs may enhance destination marketing and competitiveness. For tourists with low PA, destinations should focus on promoting activities and highlights to enhance engagement and the experiential understanding of the destination. For tourists with high PA, VR experiences should focus on providing a comprehensive view of the destination and unveiling new places. In both cases, the VR experience leads to deeper engagement with the destination and an increase in PA.

Research on the impact of VR on tourists’ PA is limited. To address this gap, this study’s theoretical contribution lies in developing and testing a PA framework within a VR and tourism context. This also includes the validation of new measurement items developed in relation to the new themes.