Interactive Narrative-Enabled Immersion in Virtual Destination Promotion
Halim Budi Santoso, Nila Armelia Windasari, Jyun‐Cheng Wang, Andhika Galuh Prabawati, Laphasrada Changkew · Journal of Computer Information Systems · 2025
Delving into Virtual Reality (VR) and tourism, this study explores another transformative direction of VR and destination promotion through modality interactivity and narrative styles. Modality interactivity provides user control, while narrative styles describe how the narrator tells the story. According to the theory of interactive media effects, interactive media, such as VR, can influence how people communicate with technology. This study investigates how modality interactivity and narrative styles influence destination attractiveness and attachment. A randomized experiment was conducted with four groups. This study found that a high modality of interactivity can influence higher mental imagery. Meanwhile, nonlinear narratives can increase the evaluation of destination attractiveness. This effect is getting more substantial when combined with high modality interactivity. This study contributes to extend the theory of interactive media by demonstrating how interactivity interacts with storytelling for virtual destination promotions, proposed as interactive narrative-enabled immersion.