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The increasing popularity of immersive activities (e.g. immersive performing art (IPA) at tourism destinations calls for the need to understand customers’ immersive experiences and its impact on their attitudes and behavioral intentions. This study aims to conceptualize customers’ interactive experience in IPA and systematically examine how interaction in IPA experience shapes customers’ word-of-mouth (WOM) intention and thus generates business values for destination managers.

A two-step mixed-methods approach was used. The qualitative study was adopted to identify the salient dimensions of interaction in IPA experience and develop a context-specific measurement scale. Structural equation modeling approach was applied to test the theoretical model using partial least squares 3.3.0.

The results indicated that the three dimensions of interaction in IPA experience (i.e. parasocial interaction, narrative interaction and environmental interaction) are positively related to customers’ experiences of narrative transportation and self-expansion related to the IPA, which further influence their WOM intention.

This study considers IPA as an emerging form of immersive tourism activities and conceptualizes its interactive nature, and contributes to the understanding of how customers’ interactive experience helps them construct meanings through narrative transportation, and offers valuable guidance for IPA designers and destination management organizations.

The live streaming of theatrical performances to cinemas has become increasingly common in recent years. The practice offers potentially positive returns for audience reach, audience development, revenue streams and global cultural exchange (Cochrane and Bonner, 2014; Nesta, 2011; King, 2016). However, the conceptualisation of live performance transmissions remains under-explored. The purpose of this paper is to review critically selected literature on event experience and apply it to the growing practice of live-streaming theatre (LST). In doing so, the paper develops a new conceptual model that can be used to guide future research on audience expectations, motivations and experience of LST.

A comparative historic case study approach combines a structured review of relevant academic literature and industry sources. Theories of live cultural experience and authenticity are critically reviewed. The opportunities and threats of LST to performing arts companies are summarised. The approach considers cognitive, affective and behavioural factors in probing themes of audience awareness, perceptions, expectations and experience of LST. The paper uses these factors to develop an original conceptual model for LST.

The research finds that the practice of cinematic live transmission of performing arts challenges existing conceptual categories and marketing strategies. Fundamental events studies factors such as “attendance”, “authenticity” and “experience” are re-evaluated. The model suggests that despite improvements in digital technology traditional theatre and broadcasted theatre are two different experiences, not substitutes.

As a conceptual paper, the results are subject to being tested in the field. The findings reveal implications for the evolving future of hybrid and mixed event experiences. The potential for LST screenings to attract new audiences requires further study.

The implications of the research reflect the changing business models and supply side dynamics of theatre production and touring. The results suggest that live streaming is of limited effectiveness in addressing the capacity limits of Baumol and Bowen’s (1966) “cost disease” in live arts performance. LST allows major brands to penetrate regional markets thereby potentially squeezing out smaller touring companies and restricting innovation.

The findings reveal implications for the evolving future of hybrid and mixed event experiences.

The influence of digital technology on live arts experience is currently under-explored and under-theorised. This paper develops a new conceptual model that captures in greater detail than previously the various factors that may determine audience engagement with, and experience of, LST. The paper contributes to knowledge by expanding the discourse on the gaps between the competing aims of access and authenticity. The analysis expands the academic understanding of hybrid and virtual event experiences.

Katipuneros RPG: Bisperas ng Himagsikan (Katipuneros RPG: The Eve of the Revolution) is an immersive and gamified theater that engages its “audiences” in the initiation rites of a secret revolutionary movement in the Philippines in 1896. This descriptive qualitative research evaluates such experiential approach to learning history by investigating the experiences and insights of a group of students from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), who participated in Katipuneros RPG.

Textual data obtained from the participants' reflection papers and focus group discussion transcripts were analyzed using open and axial coding.

Three key themes summarized the participants' learning experiences as they went through the play, as follows: (1) Katipuneros RPG as an immersive, interactive and intrinsically motivating medium for learning history; (2) the knowledge, values and skills that served as facilitating factors for their learning and (3) the insights the participants gained about history and life in general.

The research argues that in Katipuneros RPG, learners take on a more active role in studying history as the “teacher” vanishes in lieu of a learning system the allows students to think critically, reflect and collaborate. The approach integrates elements of development theater, immersive play and gamified learning, as well as the principles of constructivist, play-based and multi-sensorial learning.

As an innovative learning tool, it is a viable medium to teach history in the current socio-political context of the Philippines.

The study hopes to contribute to literature on pedagogical approaches for teaching and learning history through immersive environments.

Augmented reality (AR) is an emergent technology that has been impacting and beneficial to various industries. This is especially the case in the tourism industry since the COVID-19 crisis. To enable and enhance the museum experience, AR technology can be used as a tool to manage visitors' experiences and adapt to the digital transformation of industries. This research work aims to explore the acceptance of museum visitors for the adoption of this technology. For this purpose, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is used as the research lens.

The authors collected 316 responses from a survey handed out to prior visitors of immersive exhibitions shown via AR at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris and analyzed them through a structural equation model approach.

The study’s findings explain the behavior of visitors when attending immersive exhibitions according to the TAM and highlight two new constructs that need to be considered when using the TAM with AR technology: user satisfaction and social mimetism.

The study’s findings support that implementing AR technology in the museum industry provides great opportunities for the tourism industry to recover from the economic crisis that followed from the COVID-19 health crisis. The authors identified new thriving concepts in the 21st century with the rise of social media, such as social mimetism, that propels visitors to have a positive attitude and intention to attend immersive exhibitions.

Building on the forms of immersion in computer games, this chapter argues that games, whether played alone or with others, require a level of engagement equal to that of immersive artworks. Drawing on concepts from Ernest Adams, Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen, the chapter explores how games and digital worlds engage and immerse the viewer through sensory-motoric, cognitive, emotional and spatial elements. These digital spaces position the audience as both participants and co-creators, similar to immersive art forms dating from the 1950s and 1960s, where the shift from passive spectator to active participant, as seen in the works of Allan Kaprow and the Light and Space Movement, is mirrored in contemporary digital practices. This chapter examines how digital tools and new thinking enable unique opportunities for representation, display, engagement and interpretation, where the concept of an expanded narrative, incorporating active spaces and cross-disciplinary collaboration, is crucial for contemporary digital and new media practice. This chapter explores the intersection of art and VR gaming, using Half-Life: Alyx as a case study to demonstrate immersive engagement. Highlighting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this chapter also discusses how cultural and heritage institutions have adopted technology to engage remote audiences. By linking research with practical examples, the chapter illustrates how VR and gaming push the boundaries of immersive experiences, creating novel opportunities for audience interaction and engagement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to embrace digital ways of producing work and reaching audiences in the hard-hit sectors such as performing arts. In the context of post-pandemic recovery, this paper explores the notion of digital performance and proposes a framework for categorisation of digital skills currently associated with the digital making and sharing of performance work. It also aims to review the current digital skills offering in the performing arts training at Scottish universities and suggests strategies to drive accelerated digital skills development in performance education.

Literature on digitalisations, digital skills and digital performance have been reviewed to provide the context and inform the proposed Digital Skills for Performance Framework. Subsequently, a pilot desk-based study selected 15 Scottish Higher Education Institutions in the area of performance and analysed their publicly available programme documentation for the presence of digital skills.

While all of the programme specifications mentioned the use of “digital portfolios” and “digital performance”, there was little specific detail concerning “baseline” (transferable) and “specific” (technical) digital skills such as competency in the use of specific technologies. More notably, there was a complete absence of content relating to digital aesthetic identity.

Upskilling future performance makers in digital competencies seems particularly important at present. This paper offers a useful categorisation of the digital skills in performing arts context, which higher education programmes can use to update their curricula, prepare the work-ready graduates and explore technological opportunities for the sector's long-term post-pandemic recovery.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute a framework that explains how value is formed during the usage of immersive technologies in industrial contexts.

Drawing on activity theory and a customer-dominant logic, the authors tentatively develop an activity-centric framework for value formation enabled by physical and mental activities conducted by users of immersive technologies. The authors evaluate the framework through a case study focusing on the use of virtual reality (VR) in an industrial setting.

The findings from the case study illustrate the tentative framework and specify how it is enacted by users in the studied context through three physical activities constituted by a set of actions and reflected in five emotional responses.

Both researchers and practitioners may use the framework presented in this paper as a guide for further academic and practical developments concerning the value of immersive technologies such as VR and augmented reality.

The activity-centric framework contributes a novel perspective to the literature on value formation enabled by immersive technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current impact of virtual worlds on librarianship and identify significant gains in a new mode of information delivery and immersive learning.

Through exploratory research and observation, the prospective study addresses a very new trend in information delivery and technology within library services.

Provides evidence of global collaboration among information scientists, significant contributions to library collections, and potential for educational opportunities through immersive learning environments.

A small number of librarians are participating in virtual world librarianship in relation to the profession, due to the mode being a very new one. Future research should include studying the needs of library patrons and information seeking behaviors in virtual worlds along with accessibility, security and sustainability.

The study implies many educational opportunities and potential for information organization, information delivery, multimedia, and immersive learning on a global scale.

This study presents significant evidence that virtual worlds have provided a new medium of information delivery and educational opportunities that librarians are currently embracing and sharing with other fields, including medicine, art, science, and education.

The development of artistic services is often unsuccessful because quality artistic services are characterized by offering new experiences to customers and pursuing excellence of the performing services in the details. To successfully facilitate developing artistic services, this study builds an ambidextrous service innovation and service effectiveness (ASISE) model that describes the processes and steps of art-oriented services development.

A case study was conducted on Relais & Châteaux (R&C) hotel membership in Taiwan to better understand the steps and activities that describe service innovation processes. Triangulation was performed by compiling secondary data (e.g. official R&C notebooks and documents relating to Volando) and conducting field investigations and semi-structured interviews (with managers, employees, customers, artists).

This study combined the ambidexterity perspective with the Plan-Do-Check-Action (PDCA) principle and expanded the application range of the model from improving the service process to addressing the overall service innovation process, and included the gradual construction of the eight steps of scanning, linking, designing, performing, assessing, feedback, improving and adjusting.

Hotels can use the ASISE model developed by this study to simultaneously create new artistic service activities and enhance the effectiveness of current artistic services.

Based on the ASISE model, which emphasizes an art-oriented and continuous cycle, this study thoroughly analyzed the obstacles of integrating art into hotel service processes, and successfully established a series of steps for developing art-oriented services.