The Phygital Experiential Marketing Practices: The Conceptual Framework and Applications for Tourism Industry

Introduction

The world has been coming a long way, surrounded by the miracles of emerging technologies. At the beginning of this fantastic technology journey, while the technologies were just assisting humans in performing their tasks, today, societies and technologies are growing hand in hand. There is no doubt that technology will gain a dominant role on human behalf and lead societies in the nearest future. This will be the inevitable reality of human and technology cooperation in the future. Therefore, governments, business pioneers, and individuals have to be ready to respond to this disruptive transformation by redefining and reshaping all their ecosystems.

As it is known, the biggest transformations start in the societies. The new era technologies, evolving generations, and global challenges are the primary triggering factors behind the inevitable transformation of the world. These three disruptive factors globally cause the shocking mega changes directly affecting today's societies. Today's generation feels this transformation deeply which rapidly changes the way of living in the world. In particular, the emerging technologies do in fact have caused noticeable changes in the way generations look at their world. The changing expectations and preferences of individuals – especially in technology-focused new generations (evolving generations) – are driving them to rearrange their lifestyles and redefine their need patterns and consumption habits. Indeed, the expectations of generations for this future of the world undoubtedly signal a major transformation also for the industries which play a supportive and directive role in a sustainable world.

The tourism industry is under the influence of social changes and technological developments (Fayos-Solà, 2012) due to its inextricable integration with the technological and socio-economic fabric of society. Therefore, the industry has to be at the forefront of integrating its whole ecosystem players into technological transformations. Moreover, due to being a highly information-intensive and human-centered industry, technology-focused generation and their changing demand are the primary drivers of the transformation of the tourism industry. Hence, the evolution of the tourism industry is closely connected to the advancement of customer-centered technologies. Therefore, with the development of disruptive technologies - artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), etc., tourism industry develops a broad range of innovative solutions to transform conventional experiences and result in the emergence of new types of tourism experiences.

AR and VR are two of the most functional technologies that create value for customers and will deeply influence the service industries in the near future. Although they have not yet become mainstream, increasing awareness of VR/AR technology and coming into use of VR devices by individuals have been boosting the applications of these technologies in various industries in recent years. In the world of tourism, the integration of AR and VR technologies into the industry has created new instruments for quite different tourism experiences by integrating the digital and physical worlds. They have changed the physical tourism experience concept to one that enables individuals to immerse themselves in a hybrid world experience concept with possibilities for virtual interaction. Thereby, this phenomenon, blending the physical and digital world, is described as ‘phygital’ by the technology pioneers. Indeed, the impact of the Phygital approach is being felt throughout the entire tourism ecosystem. Nowadays, rebuilding the destinations and rebuilding their strategy requires a joined-up approach with Phygital technologies. In this regard, a new phenomenon ‘phygital’ is being discussed in the tourism industry to create significant experiences for their customers in a hybrid world. Today, business pioneers need a clear understanding of which technologies will shape the tourism business environment in this hybrid world.

Therefore, the focus of this paper is an examination of AR and VR technologies and also their applications in the tourism industry, concerning the ‘phygital’ approach. It is also aimed to shed light on AR/VR technologies for tourism pioneers to confront themselves with the future of the tourism industry and adapt innovative technologies, especially in a destination management context.