The influence of Virtual tour user‘s experiential value on local brand attachment, positive emotions, willingness to pay for tourism: The moderating effect of digital literacy

Recently, the tourism industry has been expanding the use of online tours as part of non-face-to-face content, and identifying ways to utilize them effectively for the tourism development has emerged as an essential task for an essential strategic task. However, empirical research on the impact of online tours on the regional economy and tourism industry is still insufficient. Therefore, this study aims to identify the impact of experiential value (utility value, aesthetic value, playfulness value, and informational value) on regional brand attachment and positive emotions for viewers of online tours, and to verify the ultimate impact of regional brand attachment and positive emotions on willingness to pay for tourism. In addition, this study focuses on the fact that responses and behaviors toward tourism consumption may differ according to the level of digital literacy, and analyzes the moderating effect of digital literacy to identify these differences. The results of the analysis showed that among the four factors of experiential value, utility value and aesthetic value did not show a significant effect on local brand attachment and positive emotions, whereas playfulness value and informational value had a significant effect on both local brand attachment and positive emotions. In addition, both local brand attachment and positive emotions were found to have a positive effect on willingness to pay for tourism. These research results show that online tours can lead to attachment and positive emotions for the brands of the viewing region, which can then lead to actual tourism behavior, acting as a catalyst to promote tourism behavior and consumption. Therefore, the experiential value of LAN tours can reinforce positive experiences with local brands, thereby increasing visitation and willingness to pay for tourism, providing implications for establishing marketing strategies to revitalize the local economy and increase local tourism consumption.