Evaluation of virtual tour in an online museum: Exhibition of Architecture of the Forbidden City

Online virtual museum tours combine museum authority and an academic approach with the diversity and interactivity of online resources; such tours have become an essential resource for online scientific research and education. Many important museums around the world are developing this type of online service. Comprehensive evaluation of such tours is, however, urgently needed to ensure effectiveness. This paper establishes a heuristic evaluation scale based on the literature. Taking the online virtual tour of the Exhibition of Architecture of the Forbidden City as a case study, confirmatory factor analysis was then carried out to improve the scale. Interviews were conducted to discuss and analyze the research results. The developed evaluation scale has four dimensions: authenticity, interaction, navigation, and learning. The results from the case study showed, first, that the exhibition had visual authenticity, but the behavioral authenticity was insufficient; second, the exhibition was generally interactive, but this aspect could be improved by enriching the links; third, the lack of effective navigation design for the exhibit was the main factor affecting experience quality. Fourth, the exhibition was informative and supported learning, but needs further improvement to the quantity and quality of information provided. Finally, the interviews revealed that the online exhibition did not entirely support people of different ages and abilities, so it needs further improvement to be wholly inclusive.

DESIGN AND BUILD VIRTUAL TOUR PANORAMA 360 HOSPITALITY CENTER UNP AS PROMOTIONAL MEDIA

The UNP Hospitality Center virtual tour application aims to help promote to potential visitors, and as an interactive promotional media. Hospitality Center UNP is an inn located in the Padang State University area and has various types of rooms and meeting facilities. Based on interviews with the UNP Hospitality Center internal parties, the promotions used are still using brochures. This tool only provides a little information to potential visitors about the rooms and facilities, namely only with photos and writing, this makes limited information that can be conveyed because with a brochure prospective visitors can only see one picture of each existing facility. The data collection stage was carried out by the method of interviews and direct observation. The next stage for developing the author's application uses the Multimedia Development Life Cycle (MLDC) method. consists of Concept, Design, Material Collecting, Assembly, Testing, and Distribution. The main features of this application are: hospitality profile, panorama list, location, floorplan and usage information. With these main features, it is found that by using the UNP Hospitality Center virtual tour application, it can make it easier to promote to prospective UNP Hospitality Center guests.

Identifying the Main Service Elements for Customer-Oriented Live Guided Virtual Tours

Virtual tourism allows people to see and experience the world without physically travelling to the destination. The objective of this study is to identify service elements critical to the development of customer-oriented live guided virtual tours. A total of three focus group discussions were conducted, with 4–5 participants in each group. All the participants were Japanese who had previously participated in live guided virtual tours. The data was analysed with qualitative content analysis, where an inductive approach was used. The findings reveal that the main expectations of the participants are related to experiencing the local culture and way of life, feeling of actually being in the destination (sense of connection), social interaction and active participation. These factors make the virtual tour feel realistic and attractive and the tourism businesses need especially to focus on these when designing virtual tours for example by providing ample opportunities for the virtual tour participants to discuss with each other and learn from each other. This study brings valuable insights into the virtual tours research from the customer perspective, especially in a non-Western context.

Comparativa de características de software para la creación de recorridos virtuales 360 en Web

The use of 360 virtual tours has become a technology that allows viewing from different angles, places, or spaces that, due to various circumstances, it is not possible to visit physically. Due to different restrictions existing today; of a physical, economic or health type, virtual visits to museums, archaeological sites, parks, and facilities of various kinds have become an alternative to disseminate, promote, or bring users closer to places, that through 360 panoramic images, make them feel immersed in them. Currently, creating a 360 virtual tour is available to more people, as the software and hardware tools used are increasingly accessible. However, deciding on the most appropriate software platform to publish virtual tours on the web can be a trial-and-error process, delaying obtaining these virtual products.

Examining Experience Economy Dimensions on Virtual Tour Satisfaction and Destination Visit Intention

Virtual tour is an emerging phenomenon in the tourism industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this technology is accelerated and utilized as media to market tourism sites that are mainly closed to contain the Coronavirus spread. This study aims to investigate the relationship between virtual tour experience economy dimensions and outcome of the experience, particularly satisfaction, followed by intention to visit the actual site. Utilizing the PLS-SEM method, this research found that three of the four experience constructs, namely entertainment, esthetics, and escapism positively relate to satisfaction, which leads to participants’ intention to visit the destinations. This finding further supports the role of virtual tour as a strategy to market tourism destinations, as well as emphasizing the significance of immersion and entertainment effect in a virtual content. The result can be of assistance to virtual tour providers or tourism marketers in understanding customer perspective. Keywords: experience economy, satisfaction, tourism, visit intention, virtual tour

UAV-BASED 3D VIRTUAL TOUR CREATION

Lately, improvements in game engines have increased the interest in virtual reality (VR) technologies, that engages users with an artificial environment, and have led to the adoption of VR systems to display geospatial data. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and thus the necessity to stay at home, VR tours became very popular. In this paper, we tried to create a three-dimensional (3D) virtual tour for Gebze Technical University (GTU) Southern Campus by transferring high-resolution unmanned air vehicle (UAV) data into a virtual domain. UAV data is preferred in various applications because of its high spatial resolution, low cost and fast processing time. In this application, the study area was captured from different modes and altitudes of UAV flights with a minimum ground sampling distance (GSD) of 2.18 cm using a 20 MP digital camera. The UAV data was processed in Structure from Motion (SfM) based photogrammetric evaluation software Agisoft Metashape and high-quality 3D textured mesh models were generated. Image orientation was completed using an optimal number of ground control points (GCPs), and the geometric accuracy was calculated as ±8 mm (~0.4 pixels). To create the VR tour, UAV-based mesh models were transferred into the Unity game engine and optimization processes were carried out by applying occlusion culling and space subdivision algorithms. To improve the visualization, 3D object models such as trees, lighting poles and arbours were positioned on VR. Finally, textual metadata about buildings and a player with a first-person camera were added for an informative VR experience.