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INSIDE THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S ATTITUDE TOWARD

VIRTUAL TRAVELING AGENCIES: CASE IN VIETNAM

Tri Duc Nguyen ABSTRACT

IP_21D04, University of
Virtual Reality - VR technology is one of the most
Finance – Marketing, Ho Chi
Minh City, Viet Nam wonderful inventions of human kind. Nowadays, we
are witnessing the rise of Virtual Reality – VR with
E-mail:
[email protected] its superior advantages in many economic sectors,
m including tourism. In Viet Nam, this technology has
Phuong Nghi Le been applied via virtual digitalization in order to
broadcast Vietnamese’s culture heritage worldwide.
IP_21D04, University of
Finance – Marketing, Ho Chi Thanks to the VR, people nowadays can entertain
Minh City, Viet Nam themselves by joining and interacting the virtual
E-mail:
environment. The aim of this paper is to examine the
[email protected] attitude of young Vietnamese customer -towards
Bao Nhi Truong
virtual traveling agencies. An online survey was
published to XXX Vietnamese youth aging from 18
IP_21D04, University of
to 26 in Ho Chi Minh city, Viet Nam. Using
Finance – Marketing, Ho Chi
Minh City, Viet Nam descriptive research design, the results show that
service quality, comfortability, social context,
E-mail:
[email protected] demand and popularity may affect their attitude. This
study is also examined the popularity of virtual
Tuan Anh Vo Nguyen
traveling agencies in Vietnam to give deduction,
IP_21D04, University of identify trend and the future of virtual traveling.
Finance – Marketing, Ho Chi
Minh City, Viet Nam
E-mail:
Keywords: virtual traveling, telepresence, customer
[email protected]
attitude, trend, COVID – 19.
Thanh Tai Pham
IP_21D04, University of
Finance – Marketing, Ho Chi
Minh City, Viet Nam
E-mail:
[email protected]
m
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LÀM ĐỊNH LƯỢNG

1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
The world has dramatically shifted to a knowledge - based economy, which made
it possible for the knowledge concentration to account for such a high proportion.
Previously, the traditional forms of tourism, associated with sightseeing,
convalescence, entertainment (sea resorts, pure ecological resorts...) were basic
terms. Nowadays, many new tourism products are being formed and developed to
approach the increasing demands of all types of tourists. Especially the trend of
adventure travel, experiential travel, smart tourism, creative tourism, workation,
medical and healthcare tourism. The 4.0 industrial revolution has posed a strong
impact on all fields of socio-economic, including tourism. This mentioned factor
has changed the way of customers’ perception, experience and choice.
Technological advancements provide engaging information through practical
experiences with the primary purpose is to persuade customers to plan a tour to the
real destination.
At present, Virtual Reality – VR is posing a great impact on the tourism industry.
The VR has appeared since the late 60s and is known by many name such as
synthentic environment, cyberspace, artificial reality. The VR has been developed
and applied in many fields including military, medical, entertainment, tourism, etc
so far. To create VR products, developers need to invest more on time and money.
VR accessing devices, content producing tools from Google, Microsoft, Samsung,
Facebook, LG,... and a variety of travel-related VR content are provided
unlimitedly to help visitors satisfy their needs. Tourism is a core industry in
Vietnam. Although VR technology is still quite new, its effectiveness has attracted
the attention of researchers in general and researchers in the tourism industry in
particular. Previous studies have shown that virtual reality tourism is still a new
model and is gradually developing because at that time face-to-face tourism was
still popular.
However, the covid pandemic has taken place and that has slowed the growth of
tourism, but there is a potential opportunity for virtual reality tourism to develop a
new breakthrough. Especially in the COVID – 19 epidemic era, the VR is
considered as an effective tourism promotion solution, which affects on tourist’s
intention to choose traveling destination. Furthermore, organizing a VR tour in
Vietnam in the context of COVID – 19 pandemic currently need some other
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aspects that have not been investigated by previous studies. Therefore, core
elements for VR tour market will be illustrated in this study.
1.2 Research Purpose
In this paper, the main priority is to examine the attitude of young Vietnamese
customer towards virtual traveling agencies.
1.3 Research Questions
This paper concern on two main problems: the attitude of Vietnamese’s youth
toward virtual traveling agencies.
So, the question is: What are the main factors that affect the Vietnamese young
customer’s attitude toward Virtual Travelling
Question 1 Are good qualities gained positive feedback from customers ?
Question 2 Are there any social factors that affect on your traveling
decision
Question 3 Does popularity is the one factor that affect your traveling
decision

1.4 Structure
In the next section, the literature of young tourist’s attitude toward virtual traveling
is reviewed and variable proposed. Then in Section 3, research methodology and
framework are presented. Toward the end, Section 4 analyses the gathered intel
then followed by Section 5 wherein the authors group present their conclusion and
advices.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Virtual Reality

According to Joe Bardi (2020), Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer
technology to create a simulated environment. Unlike traditional user interfaces,
VR places the user inside an experience. Instead of viewing a screen in front of
them, users are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds; it is the use of
computer technology to create the effect of an interactive three-dimensional world
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in which the objects have a sense of spatial presence (Steve Bryson, 2016), The
virtual environment, and the reality existing within, cross the borders between time
and space. Mentioned virtual space is created by digital technologies (Jursova,
2015: 261). There were various background theories used for the rise of virtual
reality.

2.2 Virtual Traveling

The definition of Virtual Traveling can be combined by these two factors: virtual
experience (VE) and virtual Reality (VR).
According to Steur (1992), a virtual experience is essentially a human experience,
which makes use of technology, as opposed to being a technological hard-ware
experience. In addition. Shih (1998) expanded on this and described a VE as ‘The
extent to which consumers feel their existence in the virtual space’.
Meanwhile, the virtual reality can be defined as a group of people that primarily
interact via communication media such as forum, blog, chat room, instant
messaging and that are interested in sharing information about tourism or travel
(Ferri et al, 2009). Plus, VR is also described virtual reality as “the computer -
generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment to create a
simulated environment which can be explored in 360 degrees” (Valdes, 2014).
Due to these two mentioned key factors, virtual traveling (VT) can be described as
‘The use of technology to artificially enhance or create a tourism experience’
(Stainton, 2022), or “a type of user interface that stimulate a presence in a physical
space allow customer to tour an environment without travelling there”
(Laubheimer, 2020).
Particular speaking, all you need is a VR goggle or an AR device to experience the
digitalized environment. Virtual Traveling is launched when travelers use their VR
goggles to travel around the world. Although Virtual Traveling has a lot of
superior advantages, there are still limitations (lack of VR goggles, comfortable
devices,…)

2.3 Market Comparison

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Virtual traveling has been developed strongly in many countries around the world.
For example, In October 2020, Indonesia’s most prominent travel portal,
Traveloka, has collaborated with a tourism technology company, PT Atourin
Teknologi Nusantara, to launch the Virtual Tour from Online Xperience that offers
experiences of local and overseas destinations. In Japan, since the travel restriction
due to the epidemic, the number of bookings of magic tours has increased by about
50%. Recently, First Airlines Company launched a virtual tour in a model aircraft
cabin. Accordingly, visitors are welcomed in first class with food and drinks and
through the actual glasses, they can set foot in great tourist cities in Italy, USA,
France..., enjoy the whole experience. A lively, authentic tour. Cambodia is also
attractive with a virtual tour of the moving population of Angkor, bringing guests
back to the past to see ancient architectures… recently, virtual tourism has begun
to appear in the country.

Since March 2020, Vietnam has stopped welcoming international visitors, leaving
only domestic tourism activities. But the domestic tourism market has also been
affected by social distancing measures during the outbreak. The Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism said that, under the influence of the Covid-19 epidemic,
the world tourism industry in general and Vietnam's tourism in particular suffered
heavy damage, many plans were almost impossible to implement. The number of
international visitors in 2020 is estimated at only 3.8 million, down nearly 80%
compared to 2019; domestic tourists also decreased by nearly 50%; In the face of
increasingly complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism
industry will continue to be severely affected in the first 6 months of 2021,
possibly throughout the year. In Vietnam, many travel agencies have also launched
some virtual tourism for travelers. Especially in 2021, Da Nang has successfully
launched its virtual tourism that offers travelers an opportunity to explore popular
destinations in the city. In particular, the typical trip to discover Son Doong
(Quang Binh). Recently, for the first time in the Northwest, a tour to discover Moc
Chau was carried out, providing interactive experiences, interesting sightseeing,
lifelike with lists that have been digitized in a 3D environment such as waterfalls
and waterfalls. Dai Yem, Ang information forest... Some different famous
addresses such as Hoan Kiem lake, City Post Office. In Ho Chi Minh City,
museums and monuments have also been digitized to increase new experiences for
visitors with virtual technology. But the fact that virtual reality tourism in Vietnam
has not gained much attention and it is still developing more slowly than in other
countries. Although most people have heard about the online travel experience, a
substantial percentage of people are not have opportunities to use this kind of
traveling.
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Khung câu hỏi

2.4 Service quality
Generally, service quality plays an important role on increasing profits for
companies in both quantitative and qualitative ways. According to Singaraj et al
(2019), service quality is an assessment of how well a delivered service conforms
to the client's expectations. Additionally, Cockrell et al (2018) also defined
customer service as “A long-term strategy that tries to differentiate a firm’s
products or services by assessing of how well a delivered customer service meets
or exceeds a client's expectations of that good or service”. As a result, the
importance of service quality is never greater than when customers are dissatisfied
(Sherman, 2019).

2.5 Comfortability
Comfort can be described as “the state of having met basic human needs for ease
relief, and transcendence” (Kolcaba, 1991, p.239). Plus, comfort does not require a
complete absence of discomfort, but rather ease, relief or an acceptable level of
comfort (Cameron, 1993; Kolcaba; Kolcaba&Kolcaba, 1991; McIlven&Morse,
1995; Morse, Bottroff&Hutchinson, 1994). Also, Morse (1992) pointed out that
comfort may be a temporary or a long-term state, depending on the discomfort or
need addressed. Kolcaba (1993) described that comfort is an outcome defined
within the physical, psychospritual, social and environmental context. Due to the
psychospritual aspect, comfortability plays an important role on satisfying
customer’s need.

2.6 Social context

Social context (also known as milieu) refers to the specific setting in which social
interaction takes place. Social context includes specific, often unique meanings and
interpretations assigned by people within the given group (Given, 2008). The
specific circumstance or general environment that serves as social framework for
individual or interpersonal behavior (APA Dictionary).
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Plus, AlleyDog.com also defined social context as someone’s react to something

depending on their immediate social or physical environment. Furthermore, social
context can influence people’s perception, which plays an important role on
affecting customer’s traveling method decision.

2.7 Demand
According Amadeo (2022), demand in economics is the consumer's desire and
ability to purchase a good or service. It's the underlying force that drives economic
growth and expansion. Without demand, no business would ever bother producing
anything.
Additionally, demand can also be described as an economic principle referring to a
consumer's desire to purchase goods and services and willingness to pay a price
for a specific good or service. Holding all other factors constant, an increase in the
price of a good or service will decrease the quantity demanded, and vice versa.
(Investopedia team, 2021; fact checked by Kimberly Overcast)

2.8 Popularity
In term of sociology, popularity is how much a person, idea, place, item or other
concept is either liked or accorded status[1] by other people. Liking can be due
to reciprocal liking, interpersonal attraction, and similar factors (Wikipedia). The
quality or state of being popular; especially, the state of being esteemed by, or of
being in favor with, the people at large; good will or favor proceeding from the
people (Wiktionary).
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References

Amadeo, 2022, “Demand, Its Explanation and Its Impact”,

Demand: Definition, Explanation, Effect (thebalance.com)

Stainton, 2022, “Virtual Tourism explained: What, why and where”.

Virtual tourism explained: What, why and where - Tourism Teacher

Bardi, 2022, “What is Virtual Realitty?”.

What is Virtual Reality? VR Definition and Examples | Marxent
(marxentlabs.com)

Lou Siefert, 2002, “Concept Analysis of Comfort”

(PDF) Concept Analysis of Comfort (researchgate.net)

Ramya.N, 2019, “Service Quality and its dimension”

(PDF) SERVICE QUALITY AND ITS DIMENSIONS (researchgate.net)

Susan Cockrell, 2018, “Offshoring IT”

Offshoring IT: Computer Science & IT Book Chapter | IGI Global (igi-global.com)