Applying virtual reality tourism to cultural heritage sites: A case study on Al-Diriyah

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has existed in various forms since the 1960s and has been known by different terms such as artificial reality, simulator technology, and synthetic environment. The technology used to realize VR has continued to develop applications in discrete domains. In the travel and tourism industry, VR enables tourists to interact with their destinations in great detail, provides travelers with abundant information, and allows users to satisfy diverse motives by participating in activities that accord them with a rich digital experience of locations, including heritage and cultural sites. This paper attends to the general application of VR technologies in tourism, focusing particularly on heritage-based cultural sites to understand the advantages and threats of VR, given the contemporary global circumstances. The article is grounded in the descriptive-analytical approach and combines theoretical as well as field studies through the administration of a questionnaire on tourism and heritage to a wide range of respondents. The questionnaire pertains to virtual tourism at the Al-Diriyah heritage site and probes related expectations, possibilities, and obstacles.