Sensory marketing in the metaverse for tourism preview and tourism pre-experience: the effect on the intention to visit tourist destinations

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the effect of vision, hearing and haptics on tourism metaverse previews and pre-experiences and compares the effects of metaverse previews and pre-experiences on the intention to visit. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 172 individuals answered an online survey about their previous interaction with the tourism metaverse – 104 had tourism metaverse previews, and 68 had tourism metaverse pre-experiences. Then, a case study of a tourism metaverse pre-experience was analysed to strengthen and further understand the quantitative study. Findings While vision and hearing are significant in tourism metaverse previews, only vision and haptics contribute to obtaining a sense of presence in tourism metaverse pre-experiences, although the potential of hearing. Tourism metaverse pre-experiences have a stronger positive impact on the intention to visit the destination than tourism metaverse previews. Practical implications Practitioners should integrate the sense of haptics in the metaverse pre-experiences, despite the costs involved, because the immersive sense of presence has stronger effects on visit intentions than metaverse previews. However, the dependence on sensorial stimuli and the effect on tourism growth may limit the advantages of metaverse as an alternative for impaired tourists and to reduce overtourism. Originality/value This paper clarifies the different effects that each sensory stimulus has in the sense of presence, depending on different levels of immersiveness, requiring congruence. The value of metaverse pre-experiences is highlighted with the evidence of strengthening the intention to visit.