Using ZMET to explore consumers’ cognitive model in virtual reality: take the tourism experience as an example

Due to its growing application in various industries as a marketing tool, the travel industry is increasingly perceiving the potential of virtual reality (VR) in the tourism arena. Although VR has been widely discussed in practice management research, there is, however, little knowledge on how VR technology can be applied in themed tourism environments. Hence, in this study, we use the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) to empirically study how visitors express their inner values and meanings through VR-themed tourism. We invited 26 respondents to participate in a VR-themed tourism experience, and we organized our results based on three key themes. First, characteristics of VR-themed tourism such as ‘freedom of virtual reality’, ‘escapism of virtual reality’ and ‘anxiety of virtual reality’ were summarized. Second, an objective consensus map was created using the ‘conservative’, ‘average’ and ‘optimistic’ calculation procedures. Third, we determined the relevance of the integrated linking constructs. We found that ‘imagination’ and ‘fantasy dream’ have the highest relevance value, followed by ‘illusion’ and ‘illusionary situation’. These themes could thus provide new insights into the possible intertwined integration and complexity of ‘virtual’ and ‘physical’ issues that may arise when tourists experience VR-themed tourism.