New for old? How does augmented reality encourage tourist engagement towards a heritage site?

Purpose This study aims to examine how an experience enhanced by augmented reality (AR) encourages tourist engagement through the sense of telepresence and flow experience in the heritage tourism context. Design/methodology/approach An in situAR experience was used to empirically examine the multivariate relationships between augmented reality application quality, sense of telepresense, flow experience and tourist engagement. The target sample was international tourists visiting Kaleiçi heritage site of Antalya, Türkiye. Findings The results show that the perceived quality of augmented reality influences the sense of telepresence and flow experience, which strongly determines the tourists’ engagement towards the heritage site. Originality/value Despite the increasing use of augmented reality in heritage sites, scant research exists that investigates how it affects tourist behaviour. Thus, the findings contribute to tourist engagement and heritage tourism literature. Moreover, this research incorporates mediation theory to clarify the dynamic nature of tourist engagement enhanced by interactive technologies.