Affordance, digital media literacy, and emotions in virtual cultural heritage tourism experiences

This study aims to investigate the effect of both the affordance of virtual reality (VR) technology and users’ digital media literacy on users’ emotions, which leads to recommendations to use VR experiences in cultural heritage tourism. A survey was conducted at a realistic VR studio in Gyeongju World Culture Expo Park, South Korea using high-quality and sophisticated VR content that accurately reflects users’ physical movements in real-time rendering. A total of 157 visitors participated in the study, and the measurement model and structural model were analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that the cognitive, physical, sensory, and functional affordance of VR devices, as well as user digital media literacy, had a significant effect on the visitors’ positive emotional experiences. In addition, visitors’ positive emotions had a significant effect on the recommendation intention. This empirical result shows that digital media literacy is a new major variable that affects the virtual experience of cultural heritage sites.