Metaverse use intention as a function of psychographic segmentation: the VALS scale applied to tourist behavior

Purpose To understand the factors that influence Spanish national tourists’ intention to use the metaverse with the integration of constructs of technological adoption and psychographic profiles, and to draw new conceptual and methodological lines concerning immersive virtual reality experiences in the tourism sector. Design/methodology/approach Nowadays, the travel industry has turned its attention to metaverse systems and the opportunities they offer for tourism experiences that circumvent physical limitations. This research develops a model integrating technology adoption constructs and psychographic profiles determined by the Values and Lifestyles Scale (VALS) to identify the intention of Spanish tourists to use metaverse systems. The model is tested using fsQCA asymmetric methodology and NCA (necessary conditions analysis), developed with fsQCA 3.0 and RStudio v.4.2.2 software, respectively, with data collection from 429 national tourists in Spain. Findings The results indicate that curiosity and novelty, together with the psychographic dimensions of innovators and intellectuals, are significant antecedents for the intention to use the metaverse. Perceived ease of use of the metaverse, combined with the psychographic dimension of manual skills and a liking for mechanical devices, are the core conditions for intention to use the metaverse, while leaders and conservatives are negated or absent psychographic dimensions. Originality/value Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have increasingly encouraged people to move their lifestyles into virtual environments while companies in the travel industry prepare for the many opportunities they offer. Although the metaverse promotes social interaction among users, there is a lack of understanding regarding the factors that will affect its intended use by tourists. This gap arises from insufficient conceptual and methodological approaches, as the relationship between individual and social behaviors has not been adequately considered within information systems (IS).