Back in time with immersive heritage tourism experience: A study of virtual reality in archaeological sites

This study focuses on how virtual reality applications might evoke nostalgic sensations in travellers during cultural heritage tourism. While extensive research on the tourism experience has revealed different extrinsic and intrinsic dynamics that affect the tourist experience, this research aims to explore what feeling of back in time VR users experience in an archaeological destination. The gap in visitor experience employing VR research still persists, despite the rising adoption rate of immersive technology, such as virtual reality. In this study, a qualitative method has been applied to analyse online reviews of VR users who visited the Olympia Archaeological Site in Greece and used the ‘Back in Time Olympia’ VR application. The findings drawn from the results show that nostalgia, presence, engagement by learning, and service experience are essential determinants of tourist VR experiences in such cultural heritage destinations

Designing a tourist experience for numen seekers

Although tourist experience has been considerably studied, there is a dearth of research on spiritual cognitive stages in tourism literature. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal the dimensions of the tourist experience based on numinosity context. A qualitative method is used by the etic and emic approach with an ethnographic background. After observation and active participation in the field, data collected from 44 participants with semi-structured interviews to reveal their numinous experiences dimensions. The results show that numinous experience in three categories (mysterium, tremendum and fascinans) can be evaluated in seven dimensions including history, story, awe, reverence, atmosphere, place-based and nature-based dimensions. This study provides managerial and practical implications for tourism stakeholders to be aware of numinous experiences and to better manage sacred places. This paper offers a novel tourist experience design in the numinous context to the best of the authors' knowledge

Exploring religious tourist experiences in Jerusalem: The intersection of Abrahamic religions

By considering the importance of religious tourism for travel and the tourism industry, this study aims to identify religious tourists' experiences in Jerusalem, as one of the most important holy cities. By a survey, 848 data were collected from the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious tourists. Results showed that religious tourism experience was a multi-faceted construct, which consists of engaging mentally, discovering new things, interacting & belonging, connecting spiritually & emotionally, and relaxing & finding peace dimensions. By using these dimensions, perceived experience differences of tourists were examined depending on religion. Moreover, religious tourism experience was identified to significantly affect overall tourist satisfaction with Jerusalem. The study concluded with discussion of the findings and their implications

Serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 Levels in Healthy Children Between 0 and 6 Years of Age

Objective: Along with growth hormone (GH) levels, measurements of serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) are used in the diagnosis of GH deficiency and in monitoring the efficacy and safety of long-term GH treatment. The purpose of the present study was to establish reference values for serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in healthy Turkish children less than 6 years of age

Sweet to bitter: Dissonance of scuba diving experience

This paper investigates cognitive dissonance in the scuba diving experience. Recent studies show that despite the positive attitudes of scuba divers, negative behaviour and unsupervised practices have had undesirable effects on the ecosystem and its experience economy. Therefore, this paper examines the sweet and bitter sides of experience from scuba divers' perspective, and the role of cognitive dissonance. Using Benner's interpretive phenomenology approach, this paper explores how scuba divers experience cognitive dissonance when confronted with sustainability issues. The findings highlight that while scuba divers have positive feelings about their experience, once sustainability issues are addressed, the experience becomes unfavourable, and the experience economy turns into unpractised; joylessness; unesthetic; and realistic

Framing the visitor experience in sacred places

The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensional structure of visitor experience in a sacred place based on the framing process. Mix-method research was conducted in Turkey - Virgin Mary House (VMH), which featured a sacred and popular tourist destination. Qualitative research, including interviews and expert panels, was used to create a set of knowledge for further analysis. Quantitative research, two field study comprising 842 participants, was used to validate the framing of visitor experiences in a sacred place providing reliability and construct validity. The six dimensions were found within three framing axes of religious, environmental and organizational: inner experience; religious experience; physical environment; hi-story; tour organization; service experience. Current studies on visitor experience in a sacred place have mainly focused on emotions, motivations, or physical dimensions. By synthesizing the framing process and theoretical approaches, this study contributes to literature and practitioners by representing the unique characteristics of experiences that visitors live in sacred places regardless of their religious identities

Moving pilgrimage into the virtual realm: Understanding of the advantages and complexities of immersive technologies

Immersive technologies, including mixed realities (MR), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), have gained rapid development and presented more interactions for visitors with innovative solutions. Although the degree of immersive technologies enriching the visitor experience has been well studied, little attention has been given to the pilgrimage tourism experience in the current literature despite being a significant part of the global tourism economy and attracting millions of travellers annually. To better understand how visitors respond to the use of immersive technologies and fill this gap, this chapter offers a conceptual framework by examining the overall role of immersive technologies on the pilgrimage experience in cognitive, emotional, spatial and social behavioural aspects. This chapter also discusses the challenges and limitations of implementing immersive technologies in pilgrimage tourism. It concludes with recommendations for the future of pilgrimage tourism and practical implications in light of these findings

Seeking the unusual but sustainable: scuba diving experience

Scuba diving tourism is one of the fastest-growing recreational tourism activities and draws a great amount of people’s attention towards coastal destinations from all over the world since the 1940s. However, this vogue has also brought pressure on fragile underwater surroundings. This chapter aims to explain and search for scuba diving experience through current literature review and present contemporary trends in discussions. Moreover, as this chapter indicates, scuba diving activities should be translated by sustainability principles as scuba diving relies on not only providing enriched scuba diving experiences for scuba divers but also diminishing adverse effects on marine environments, ensuring economic stability and improving social-economic benefits for local communities