Virtual reality video predicts travel intention to sustainable Thai tourism community

A 180-degree three-dimensional virtual reality video of Phuket Old Town significantly predicted tourists' intention to travel to the historic Thai community, according to a study by Pornpun Prajaknate published in Discover Sustainability. The research recruited 481 participants to watch the immersive video, which presented Phuket Old Town as a sustainable cultural tourism community, and then modelled how their responses shaped their stated intention to visit the area. All three were found to significantly and positively predict two further factors: perceived ease of use, a dimension drawn from the Technology Acceptance Model, and place attachment, the emotional bond viewers formed with Phuket Old Town.

These mediating factors, in turn, predicted the participants' intention to travel to Phuket Old Town. In other words, the VR video did not act simply as a direct prompt to travel; rather, its influence ran through viewers' sense that the technology was easy to use and through the attachment they developed to the place itself. The findings therefore position presence, entertainment and information as upstream drivers, with ease of use and place attachment as the proximate predictors of travel intention in the modelled paths.

The author argues that the study offers insight into how a sustainable concept can be integrated with the perceived ease of use dimension of the Technology Acceptance Model, together with uses and gratifications perspectives and the sense of presence, when designing 180-degree 3D VR video. According to the paper, this combination can facilitate place attachment and travel intention toward sustainable cultural tourism communities. The published version is an early-access release, shared to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research.

It carries a permanent DOI and is citable, but remains subject to further edits before the final Version of Record replaces it automatically. Readers should therefore treat the reported figures and paths as findings from the accepted manuscript rather than the final typeset article. The measured relationships indicate that the experiential qualities of a 3D VR video, and the psychological responses they trigger, form a predictive chain that ends in stated travel intention.

The outcome measured in the study was intention to travel, and the participants were viewers of a single video of one destination. Within that scope, the research identifies presence, entertainment and information as experiential variables that flow through ease of use and place attachment to reach travel intention in the model, offering a basis for future work on VR content aimed at sustainable cultural tourism communities such as Phuket Old Town.

Subject of Research: The role of 3D virtual reality video in predicting tourists' travel intention to a sustainable cultural tourism community in Thailand

Article Title: The role of three dimensional virtual reality video in predicting tourists intention to travel to a sustainable cultural tourism community in Thailand

Article References: Prajaknate, P. (2026). The role of three dimensional virtual reality video in predicting tourists intention to travel to a sustainable cultural tourism community in Thailand. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04625-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04625-4

Keywords: role, three, dimensional, virtual, reality, video, predicting, tourists, intention, travel, sustainable, cultural