Virtual Reality Applications for Experiential Tourism - Curator Application for Museum Visitors

The possibility to create an additional or alternative experience for tourists using Virtual Reality (VR) has considerable potential in marketing, as an alternative to physical visits, as well as an enriching factor of a real-world experience. However, the positive experience in VR can be quickly marred by lack of usability, unmerited task load, or an onset of cybersickness. This paper presents the findings from a study of an application for museums allowing visitors to curate their own virtual rooms. The findings show that even such a simple VR application can still pose usability challenges to the users. Moreover, a considerable proportion of the study participants developed cybersickness symptoms despite a comparatively short use. We conclude that the design of experiential VR applications for tourism must pay attention to user-centred development in order to realise the promise of the content.