An exploratory study of the role of pervasive environments for promotion of tourism destinations

The aim of this research is to investigate how virtual reality, with emphasis on pervasive environments, might affect tourism choice of a destination, in order to exploit it as marketing tool to promote tourism destination in a global perspective. In particular, we analyzed the case of Calabrian territory (Southern Italy), due to the high archaeological value, heritage of the ancient Magna Graecia culture (VIII cent. B.D.-I cent. A.D.). Despite this heritage, Calabria has been not fully exploited its resources in a tourism perspective. The research methodology is based on a qualitative approach, focused on a questionnaire promoted along with tourists. In particular, we asked them to explore the pervasive environments which reproduce some Calabrian scenarios, and answer some specific questions related to the experience. The interviews have been processed with the MaxQDA software for the content analysis. Two aspects of our results emerge from a theoretical standpoint: (1) the role of pervasive environments for improving tourism contents communication, and (2) the influence of pervasive environments on the tourists’ destination choice. Furthermore, the use of pervasive environments is efficient especially for the territories with a high archaeological value.