The potential of virtual and augmented reality on the Finnish tourism market
Jaatinen, Moona; Kinnunen, Jenni (2017)
Jaatinen, Moona
Kinnunen, Jenni
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 1.0 Suomi
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017110916792
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017110916792
Tiivistelmä
This thesis focuses on the transition and the impact of combining technology and tourism. It is viewed from the aspects of marketing, customer behaviour, purchasing as well as experiences in the context of Finnish tourism market. The research is conducted with the use of qualitative methods. The most important data acquisition practises are desk research and interviews. The interviews are conducted to 10 Finnish consumers and four tourism operators from different sectors. The process took place from June 2017 to the end of October 2017.
Businesses globally are going through major changes due to the intertwining of IT and tourism. New technologies allow tourism to be extended from the physical world to a virtual one as services are no longer limited on-site. This thesis focuses on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). VR is a computer generated artificial replication of, e.g. a real-life environment, which is provided with a headset. AR, on the other hand, is created by overlaying a real-life scene with virtual information, which can be transmitted with a smartphone.
The theoretical framework discusses tourism experiences through experience frameworks, such as The Experience Realms and The Experience Pyramid. Additionally, other topics that are presented are marketing tourism experiences, experiential marketing, customer behaviour and customer journey. The thesis also covers the research methods that are used and background theories that are relevant to our research, for instance phenomenological research and phenomenography as well as interviewing as a data acquisition method. In addition, reliability, credibility and validity are scrutinized. The research progress is illustrated with a timeline as well as the interviewees are presented with a couple of tables.
The results and conclusions are displayed and presented from the point of view of both consumers and businesses. The results show that the current demand of the technologies is rather low, for instance due to the lack of general awareness regarding the technologies as well as their weaknesses. They are expected to have potential in the future, if they are developed. VR and AR could somewhat assist creating meaningful experiences, yet their characteristics have loopholes, which is why experiences cannot reach the absolute sweet spot where all elements bind together evenly. The thesis highlights the development ideas for the technologies and for further processing of the research.
Businesses globally are going through major changes due to the intertwining of IT and tourism. New technologies allow tourism to be extended from the physical world to a virtual one as services are no longer limited on-site. This thesis focuses on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). VR is a computer generated artificial replication of, e.g. a real-life environment, which is provided with a headset. AR, on the other hand, is created by overlaying a real-life scene with virtual information, which can be transmitted with a smartphone.
The theoretical framework discusses tourism experiences through experience frameworks, such as The Experience Realms and The Experience Pyramid. Additionally, other topics that are presented are marketing tourism experiences, experiential marketing, customer behaviour and customer journey. The thesis also covers the research methods that are used and background theories that are relevant to our research, for instance phenomenological research and phenomenography as well as interviewing as a data acquisition method. In addition, reliability, credibility and validity are scrutinized. The research progress is illustrated with a timeline as well as the interviewees are presented with a couple of tables.
The results and conclusions are displayed and presented from the point of view of both consumers and businesses. The results show that the current demand of the technologies is rather low, for instance due to the lack of general awareness regarding the technologies as well as their weaknesses. They are expected to have potential in the future, if they are developed. VR and AR could somewhat assist creating meaningful experiences, yet their characteristics have loopholes, which is why experiences cannot reach the absolute sweet spot where all elements bind together evenly. The thesis highlights the development ideas for the technologies and for further processing of the research.