Information doesn’t work? Testing experiential drivers of VR application in heritage tourism by affective-cognitive pathways

Purpose To resolve the tension between virtual reality (VR)’s potential for heritage engagement and its low sustained adoption, this study aims to uncover how experiential drivers trigger affective-cognitive processes that foster long-term VR usage. Design/methodology/approach A controlled field experiment involved 320 target tourists who fully immersed themselves in the Mogao Grottoes’ VR content using VR headsets. Using partial least squares-structural equation modeling analysis of an integrated updated IS success and expectation-confirmation model (ECM), this study measured the impacts of system/visual/information quality on confirmation and subsequent affective (immersion, emotional involvement, enjoyment, presence) and cognitive (perceived value) pathways to satisfaction/reuse intention. Findings Visual quality and system quality drive confirmation, but information quality is nonsignificant. Enjoyment is the strongest emotional outcome of confirmation, surpassing presence and immersion. Confirmation fuels reuse intention through dual pathways: emotional and cognitive. Research limitations/implications Findings reflect VR-novice responses to narrative-rich heritage; generalizability to mature users/non-narrative contexts requires verification. Originality/value This study identifies visual immersion as the pivotal adoption driver in heritage VR, challenging the updated IS success model’s information-centric orthodoxy; proposes a dual affective-cognitive framework by embedding emotional constructs into ECM and cognitive constructs (perceived value), revealing hedonic gratification as the core mechanism; and provides the first experimental evidence that VR sustains engagement through emotional resonance rather than informational utility.