Assessing the museum’s image impact on the visitor’s behavior through the Virtual

Reality technology applied to Akhenaten Museum

Thesis
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master degree
In
The global marketing
By
Eslam Alaa Eldeen Ali Mahmoud
Scholar at ESLSCA University
Supervised by
Prof. Dr. Alaa Tarek
Professor of global marketing at ESLSCA University
ESLSCA University
2023
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract..................................................................................................................5

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….5

2. Literature Review……………………………………………………………7

3. Research Methodology………………………………………………….……21

4. Results:..........................................................................................................22

5. Discussion……………………………………………………………….... 22

6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….23

7. Appendices……………………………………………………………………………….24

8. References………………………………………………………………………………24-25

1
 Abstract:
Despite the growing interest and discussions on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in
tourism, the researcher do not yet know systematically the knowledge that has been built from academic papers on
VR and AR in tourism; if and how VR and AR research intersect, the methodologies used to research VR and AR
in tourism, and the emerging contexts in which VR and AR have surfaced in tourism research. By conducting a
systematic literature review on VR/AR research in tourism and its effect on the image of museums What
methodologies/ theories are being utilized to research VR and AR in tourism specially museums? The researcher
will focus on the relation and importance of the usage of Virtual Reality technology with the perception and
cognition of the visitor which affects directly their visit decision and how they are persuaded emotionally or
rationally by this way of displaying, this is applied on some online or VR museums around the world like the
Virtual museums in China. The research presents this study to be applied on the Akhenaten museum in Minya city
in the near future as it is still under construction; hothe researcherver, it has participated and shared in many
activities to position and address the new culture of museums and how can people adapt to it.
Therefore, the virtual reality is currently used to ease the mission and address the vision of the modern
museums culture to the cognition and the perception of the visitors or visitors (customers)

Introduction:
It has been widely recognized that virtual tourism development is largely determined by the willingness of
visitors to revisit and their recommendations. Museums are considered as a suitable place where visitors gain
various experiences (e.g., emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual). Research on museum tourism was first
developed in the 1990s, linking sightseeing with museum images, which contributed to the growth of the tourism
industry and the long-term development of museums. Cultural tourism attractions include museums, art galleries
and exhibitions. Hothe researcherver, museum studies indicating cultural values of destination images in cities
have been neglected.
Virtuality image generally refers to cognitive and emotional process based on people’s perception of a
destination. With the growth of tourism research, the concept of destination image is gradually changing from
static to dynamic, with measurement of the image being made at different stages (before, during, and after the
visit). A focus on the destination image is essential because it affects not only the decision-making behavior of
visitors, but also the satisfaction level of the tourist experience. In order to measure the destination image
specifically, willingness to recommend and revisit are widely used in evaluation exercises using questionnaires
and interviews.

From the perspective of the destination, a good image affects the decision-making behavior of visitors,
leading to a positive experience, thus improving their satisfaction and loyalty.
In previous theoretical studies, tourist behavior is assessed via their perception, comparison, and selection of
tourism virtual images. The interaction mechanism betthe researcheren tourism virtual image and visitors’
behavioral intention is mainly focused on the mediating role of satisfaction. Hothe researcherver, this perspective
2
neglects the influence of emotion on the formation of a tourism destination image and behavioral intention.
Museums are unique cultural resources and ideal places to study customers’ emotions, as displays and styles of
exhibit in museums may lead to different emotions (such as delight or boredom), and thus influence visitors’
willingness to revisit and recommend destinations to potential visitors.
Advanced digital technology has been reshaping the way customers plan for their trips and search for destination
information nowadays. Customers do not have any spatial and temporal restrictions to experience their potential
destinations prior to the actual visit. Various types of intelligence technologies such as virtual reality (VR) have
transformed the traditional ways that people travel to and experience in a future destination. Through the digitally-
accommodated environment, VR allows customers to experience products, services, or places before they
purchase (Chung et al., 2015; Tussyadiah et al., 2018).

In this paper, VR refers to the use of a computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) environment, called as a
‘virtual environment’ (Guttentag, 2010). Customers are able to to navigate and interact with the virtual
environment using a mouse or touchscreen (Guttentag, 2010). For instance, customers can move around and
explore the virtual destination, and choose and arrange objects through navigation and interactive features
(Guttentag, 2010). As VR enables customers to navigate and interact with the virtual environment, it offers a real-
world feeling, called as telepresence, enhancing participants’ active engagement in all features available in the
given settings (Guttentag, 2010). Telepresence refers to “the sense of being present in the remote environment”
(Steuer, 1992, 75). Telepresence explains customers’ indirect, virtual experiences through the the researcherbsite
(Li et al., 2002). With an advanced technology, customers are able to indirectly experience their future experiences
via the mediated the researcherbsite features in a computer screen.

As one of the most innovative technologies and marketing tools, VR has been widely implemented in various
hospitality and tourism areas including theme parks, museums, hotels, and destination marketing (The researcheri,
2019). Immersing in their future travel destination, customers can realistically portray their future travel activities
and make feasible travel plans accordingly (Guttentag, 2010; The researcheri, 2019). Dependent upon whether the
virtual destination is met to offer their expected travel activities, customers can mindfully be ready to make a
booking decision of a visit or look for better options that satisfy their upcoming visit needs. VR can be a great
marketing tool for hospitality and tourism by generating more traffic and drawing customers’ attention to the
touring [Link]

VR tour gives potential customers dynamic views of the museum through the researcherbsite-based VR features
and applications, such as 3D maps, videos, sounds, 3D graphics, and aerial views. Hothe researcherver, it would
be critical and important for VR developers or industry practitioners to ansthe researcherr whether VR carries
quality features that satisfy customers’ expectations at the same time whether it fulfills their virtual desires by
being fully immersed in the place for their future visits.

3
2-Literature review:
The research has shown that the strength of a virtual experience depends on how much the users feel they are
“present” in the mediated environment rather than in their physical environment (Sicilia et al. 2005). Among the
many factors that influence this mediated experience, interactivity has traditionally been identified as a key
element affecting the level of “presence” attained by the user (Downes and McMillan 2000). From a theoretical
perspective, two main aspects have been related to the construct represented by interactivity: user responsiveness
to the system and vividness. In relation to the first, study has placed a strong emphasis on the concept of mutual
adaptation, which describes how two or more entities adapt their behaviors and actions to towards the art pieces
inside museums specially the virtual visits. This theory suggests that the degree to which users can alter the form
and substance of the mediated environment while taking into account feedback from the system or other users in
real-time (Steuer 1992). The key characteristic of this mediated setting is that users have control over the pace an
exposure to tailored information, with on-demand access to that information.

On the other hand, interactivity has long been associated with the concept of vividness or media richness (Fortin
and Dholakia 2003; Hoffman and Novak 1996), which is defined as the intensity in which a mediated environment
is able to present information to the senses (Rice 1992; Steuer 1992). This second element focuses more on the
ability of users to sense that the experience is real, based on their perception of different aspects such as sense of
place and time sensitivity (McMillan and Hwang 2002). According to Steuer, media richness relates to the number
of sensory dimensions or cues simultaneously presented by the message (sensory breadth), and the quality and
resolution of its presentation (sensory depth). Research suggests that the combination of users’ ability to control
information and media richness, the two main elements under interactivity, is what lead users to feel that they are
“in” an environment (Steuer 1992). Communication the researchers have described this sensation of being
immersed in the remote environment as “telepresence,” and it has been defined as a set of automatic responses to
spatial cues generated by mediated spaces that create illusions of being in a place (Lombard and Ditton 1997).

This sensation of being immersed in the remote environment is what determines the extent users feel compelled by
what they see, hear and feel (Lee et al. 2010); it also provides users with an enhanced sense of realism and greater
sense of presence as compared with non-3D environments (Dalgarno and Lee 2010). Consequently, by using
4
media-rich environments through simulation techniques that allow users to interact with exhibitions as if they
would be visiting a physical place, deciding what to look at, and from which distance and angle, the researcher
expect that users would become much more immersed in the environment presented by the museum, thus
perceiving their experience as less mediated and more real.

Fig1 fig2 Fig3

A-The definition of museums:

Museum is a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are
stored and exhibited. The word museum has classical origin and it has been taken from the
Greek word mouseion, means “seat of the Muses”—the nine Geek Gods and designated a
philosophical institution or a place of contemplation. Use of the Latin derivation of ‘mouseion’
is museum and it had been restricted in Roman times mainly to places of philosophical?
discussion. Thus, the great Museum at Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy I Soter early in the
3rd century BCE, with its college of the researchers and its library, was more a prototype university
than an institution to preserve and interpret material aspects of the heritage. The word
museum was revived in 15th-century Europe to describe the collection of Lorenzo de’ Medici
in Florence, but the term conveyed the concept of comprehensiveness rather than denoting
a building. By the 17th century museum was being used in Europe to describe collections of
curiosities. Ole Worm’s collection in Copenhagen was so called, and in England visitors to
John Tradescant’s collection in Lambeth (now a London borough) called the array there a
museum; the catalogue of this collection, published in 1656, was titled ‘Musaeum
Tradescantianum’. In 1675 the collection, having become the property of Elias Ashmole, was
transferred to the University of Oxford. A building was constructed to receive it, and this,
soon after being opened to the public in 1683, became known as the Ashmolean Museum.
Although there was some ambivalence in the use of museum in the legislation, drafted in
1753, after the foundation of the British Museum in 1753 the idea of museum became clear
to common people as an institution to preserve and display a collection.
Use of the word museum during the 19th and most of the 20th century denoted a building
housing cultural material to which the public had access. In Indian the concept museum
came during late 18th Century after the formation of the Asiaic Society in 1793. The society
took initiative to establish a museum with the available objects of different disciplines for the
oriental studies. In view of that in 1814 the first museum in India and south Asia was
established and now the researcherll known as Indian Museum. Later, as museums continued to
respond to the societies, the emphasis on the building it became less dominant. Open-air
5
museums, comprising a series of buildings or monuments preserved as objects, and
Eco museums, involving the interpretation of all aspects of an outdoor environment are
established. Now, virtual museums exist in electronic form on the Internet either having no
connection with its real existence or for bringing certain benefits to existing museums. In
later case, they remain dependent upon the collection, preservation, and interpretation of
material things by the real museum. A museum now, is an institution that conserves its
collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance,
exhibits its collection of objects for public viewing that may be permanent or temporary.

[Link] conception of different organisations about museums:

Many organisations across the world defined museum time to time, like by the American
Association of Museum, Museum Association in Great Britain etc. After the formation of
ICOM (International Council of Museums) in 1946, the organisation of museum professionals
across the world, they defined museum in its statues, Article 3, section 1, which is now
acceptable in all the countries. ICOM the researchernt through few amendments to modify and update
the definition of museum in accordance with the changing demands of the professionals.
The latest definition of museum by ICOM which is adopted in the 22nd General Assembly in
Vienna, Austria, held on August 24th, 2007, amended on the last definition which was
amended in 2001. According to this, museum is defined as:
‘A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its
development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches,
communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its
environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment’.
It was stated clearly in the definition of museum amended in the 18th General Assembly held
in Barcelona, Spain, 6 July 2001 that
‘The above definition of a museum shall be applied without any limitation arising from the
nature of the governing body, the territorial character, the functional structure or the
orientation of the collections of the institution concerned.
In addition to institutions designated as "museums" the following qualify as museums for the
purposes of this definition:
 natural, archaeological and ethnographic monuments and sites and historical
monuments and sites of a museum nature that acquire, conserve and communicate
material evidence of people and their environment;
 institutions holding collections of and displaying live specimens of plants and
animals, such as botanical and zoological gardens, aquaria and vivaria;
 science centers

B-The Akhenaten museum:

6
Fig4

Akhenaten Museum- that is currently being renovated- is the third largest museum in Egypt and the largest in
Upper Egypt. Modern showcases have been installed and interior work of the museum is almost completed.

Egypt Today brings the readers everything they want to know about the museum, which has been under
construction for 15 years, stopped for several years and has recently resumed again
The idea of establishment of Akhenaten museum in Minya:

The idea of establishing the museum came through a fraternity agreement betthe researcheren Minya governorate
and Hildesheim in 1979, to be one of the most important cultural aspects exposing the religious thought of King
Akhenaton and the reunification period, to tell the story of the city “Okht Aton” (sister of Aton) in Tel el-Amarna
being part of the province of Minya and the capital of Egypt at the time. The museum is considered an important
cultural beacon in Upper Egypt as it showcases one of Egypt's most important periods, the reign of King
Akhenaton, who spent nearly 17 years in Tel el-Amarna with Queen Nefertiti as part of his first call to unite the
gods.
Constructions began in 2002 and the researcherre halted after the outbreak of the January 25 revolution as it had a
negative impact on the country’s economic and security conditions. The third phase was completed after

Fig5 Fig6
President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi took office in 2014. The third phase is scheduled to be completed in 2019, to begin
the fourth and final stage.
More than LE 150 million the researcherre spent on the museum. Works the researcherre disrupted after the
January revolution and the Egyptian government resumed constructions when Ibrahim Mahlab managed to locate
LE 40 million in 2015, while the German side promised to pump another €10 million to the museum's final works.

B.2 The size of the museum

The museum is built on 25 acres, while the main building resides on a 5,000 square meters, in the form of
triangles. The main building is bordered by a group of bazars, and a restoration center, which is the largest in
Upper Egypt. The museum is the third largest museum consists of 16 distinguished halls with various showcases, a
library, a conference hall and a theater. It is surrounded by an archaeological restoration Center and 19 Bazars.

B.3. The current display scenario of Akhenaten museum:

The museum has changed its display scenario and content as it will not only include the belongings of King
Akhenaton and his royal tomb, but will also include on the first floor a gallery of antiquities from all historical
eras, in addition to several distinctive objects that the researcherre found in the tomb of the king and are currently
7
located in the Egyptian Museum, Luxor Museum and the Ashmunian stores. The artifacts include important
statues and paintings of the king who called for the worship of the sun, as the first unified god, with his wife,
Queen Nefertiti.
The museum will include an archaeological restoration center, which will help students of the Faculty of
Archeology and Fine Arts study the art of restoration on the hands of specialists, in addition to getting acquainted
with studies that aim at reviving the extinct crafts in the province.

The construction of the museum's external work is over, but final agreements are yet to be made regarding the
display scenario and showcases, as the selection of artifacts from among the thousands of artifacts in the
warehouses.

2.1. The experience of Virtual Reality in museums for Learning and Persuasion:

The sensation of being immersed in virtual environments has been recognized by researchers as a key performance
goal for many computer-mediated communication systems. The vividness with which a message communicates
interaction increases its persuasive side, generates in users more cognitive elaboration of the central arguments and
increases the user’s memory of relevant information (Wu and Shaffer 1987). The logic informing these findings is
that when users are able to experience psychological states derived from the sense of presence created by the
medium, they interpret information more likely than that obtained from their own direct experience (Li et
al. 2002). Consistent with research on direct experiences, sensory immersion in the educational area has been
found to increase student interests, understanding and creative learning (Kealy and Subramaniam 2006).

In fact, several authors have noted that virtual environments manifest a unique set of characteristics that lead users
to engage more with the content and learn as they interact with a subject. Lee et al. (2010), for instance, found that
realism and immediacy of control play a significant role in influencing the interaction and learning experience of
users. One of the main advantages of this interaction noted by researchers is that the users are able to approach
objects or settings from multiple perspectives, which stimulates their creativity (Dede 1996). Dede found that
virtual environments offer many benefits such as provisions for experimentation without real-world repercussions,
opportunities to “learn by doing” and the ability to personalize an environment. Moreover, McLellan (2004)
concluded that features of virtual environments such as 3D dimension, dynamic display and closed-loop
interaction where users have control over the contents where are visited, which motivates users to learn more
about the subject.

More studies and researches by scholars in social psychology have consistently found that attitudes based on direct
experience promote greater attitude–behavior consistency than those based on indirect experience (Fazio and
Zanna 1978). In elucidating the mechanisms through which direct experiences increase greater attitude–behavior
consistency, research has shown that direct experiences can enhance the accessibility in memory of the guiding
mental representation of the object or product with which individuals interact, helping individuals to recall more
details about it, which in turn triggers stronger attitudes toward the object, thus predicting behavior (Fazio and
Zanna 1978; Kraus 1995). Others have found that direct experiences also affect the conviction with which an
evaluation toward a product is held (Smith and Swinyard 1983). Studies in advertising, for instance, have
concluded that individuals who engage in extensive evaluation behaviors (e.g., product demonstrations, free trials)
increase their certainty about the validity of their preferences toward the product because belief in the validity of
sensory experience is so fundamental that it is rarely questioned (Smith and Swinyard 1983). Since in
8
experiencing a virtual tour, visitors can recreate many aspects of a physical visit and navigate through accurately
depicted (“real”) rooms of a museum, and exerting a greater control over exposure to the collections, the
researcher predict that users will consider these experiences as more direct than reproductions of artworks that are
displayed as images in a flat, HTML form. Consequently, similar to the effect of direct experience on attitudes
confidence and accessibility, the researcher expect that users who experience 3D immersive tours will develop a
more positive attitude toward the museum and, as part of that more positive attitude, be more willing to visit
physically.

2.2. The importance of Telepresence and Cognitive Involvement as Mediators:

Earlier research has offered some insights to explain how changes in the degree of telepresence influence users'
reaction with regard to the processes through which greater levels of telepresence and direct encounters may have
an impact on the intensity of attitude towards goods and services. Several other psychological processes that
customers engage in when assessing products via an engaging virtual experience, such as decision-making, can be
influenced by exposure to mediated depictions of goods and services, according to studies in advertising (Li et al.
2002). (Kleinmuntz and Schkade 1993). Hoffman and Novak (1996) discovered that in rich-mediated settings,
when users can influence the flow, there are cognitive and emotional impacts on consumers. In contrast the
researcher has represented information interacting with a product, users consider the item as unmediated, allowing
them to react directly to the items as if they are physically present. This process augments users’ cognitive ability
to integrate, retain and understand the information presented. That allows virtual environments to foster more
active involvement in the learning process, leading visitors to a better understanding of the content under
consideration.

Therefore, based on constructivist theory, the researcher expects that cognitive involvement will mediate the
association bet the researcher telepresence and attitudes toward museums. The researcher believe that the greater
the similarity of an experience will be to a direct exhibition, the stronger will be the mediated perception of the
“museum” environment observed by users. This would lead visitors to focus on the exhibition presented,
developing a higher cognitive involvement. This in turn will produce more intense attitudes and beliefs toward the
collections, influencing users’ intentions to visit the real museum. Further, exploring the beneficial outcomes that
visitors seek and obtain from a museum visit, Pekarik et al. (1999) found that individuals whose involvement in
visiting museums is enhanced by contextual presentations tend to describe cognitive experiences (such as gaining
knowledge or enriching understanding) as the most satisfying. Similarly, Packer (2008) concluded that these types
of visitors find their primary satisfaction in the interpretive aspect of the experience.

Therefore, consistent with findings about experiences with real museums, the researcher predicts that the
cognitive involvement acquired and enriched by the virtual museum touring experience would lead to more visits
not virtual but real(physical) on-site future visits.

2.3. Internet Use and Cultural Interests:

9
Although there are many reasons why someone might decide to tour a particular museum, the literature provides
two explanations (Bickford 2001). One is that museum visits are stimulated by visitors' interest in exhibition
themes, objects, and related educational experiences (Doering 1999). The other consistently shows that
educational level is the best indicator of museum attendance: People with higher levels of education are more
likely to study more, watch classical music performances, and go to art museums (Bickford 2001).

As mentioned above, users must plan their movements using the spatial knowledge they acquire to effectively
navigate in computer-mediated environments, but this knowledge develops slowly and users may not be willing to
invest the necessary time (Burigat and Chittaro 2007). Similar to this, new users may find it challenging to engage
in virtual environments, necessitating to invest processing resources in managing the information acquired while
also making simultaneous decisions to control that information in virtual tours (Sicilia et al. 2005). On the other
hand, in today’s digital society where a growing proportion of human activities rely on the incorporation of virtual
characters into virtual and augmented reality environments (Holz et al. 2009), some companies and organizations
are using avatars to increase consumer interaction, support students in learning environments and engage users
with more personalized service (Chittaro et al. 2003). Therefore, the researcher expect that users with more
experience using the Internet and those who have interacted in virtual environments such as Second Life will also
manifest more experience with the interfaces provided to interact with the virtual applications, facilitating their
navigation and achieving higher involvement than users with less experience. Therefore, the researcher expect:

2.4. The concept of V.R. museums:

Fig7 Fig8
Virtual exhibits have been an idea for more than 20 years. Even though some institutions recognised their
advantages early on, they the researcherre not broadly embraced. Many considered them to be costly endeavours
with choppy navigation and inconsistent quality that created awkward and unimpressive results. Hothe
researcherver, substantial progress has been made in providing accessible and trustworthy virtual tours and
viewing options for museum collections as the years have gone by and technology has advanced. Since
technological advancement made virtual tours more practical, numerous museums around the globe have taken the
lead and keep producing more virtual content. Virtual art viewings the researcherre originally intended to provide

10
online access to some of the world's top institutions. Despite the fact that digital representations cannot completely
replace the feeling of seeing in the real world, they do play a vital role in bringing the experience to life.
2.4.1. The main goal of V.R. museums:
By providing a level of personalization, interactivity, and content richness that is impractical in the real world, the
virtual museum aims to improve, complement, and augment the museum experience rather than to compete with
or replace traditional museum visits. They are therefore valuable digital instruments with a wide range of
multifaceted advantages.
Information was first made available by museums via the text-based Internet tool Gopher in 1993. Hothe
researcherver, the World Wide The researcherb and the user-friendly browser Mosaic represented the
breakthrough (MacDonald and Alsford 1994).
Hothe researcherver, on their way into this new digital environment, museums the researcherre often outdone by
cultural enthusiasts who put museum information online before the museums had a the researcherbsite of their
own. A noteworthy example was the The researcherb Louvre, created by the French student Nicolas Pioch. In
March 1994, Pioch started his private online museum to make cultural content accessible to all, and to protest
against the monopolization of art and culture by commercial providers such as Corbis Corporation that digitized
museum content and acquired rights to the images. Soon his initiative encountered resistance from the Louvre, and
finally he had to change the name of his the researcherbsite to The researcherb Museum. This example illustrates
two important facets. First, while it is easy to verify the legitimacy of a brick-and-mortar museum activity, there
are no equally clear means for verifying the legitimacy of a virtual museum (Karp 2004: 5). Second, it
demonstrates how museums insisted on their “unassailable institutional authority” as Peter Walsh (1997: 69, 71)
calls it, and did not readily open up to the new ways of communication and collaboration on the The researcherb
where the mono logical “unassailable voice” of the institutional museum was out of place. Hothe researcherver,
Walsh (1997: 71) acknowledges that museums the researcherre in a difficult situation because at that time “current
search engines do not discriminate the gems from the dregs.” In addition, there was the challenge to make museum
content not only searchable but “findable.” In 1994, to improve the visibility of museum content, the British
computer scientist Jonathan Bothe researchern started the Virtual Library of Museums, consisting of a collection
of links (Bothe researchern 1995: 24f). Due to the rapid development and the high level of acceptance by users,
ICOM took over management of the Virtual Library of Museums in 1996 (Bothe researchern 1999: 6). In this way,
virtual museums the researcherre supposed to deliver content to individual homes, literally creating “museums
without walls,” and serve as “a deliverance, not just a delivery vehicle,” as David Bearman (1992: 126, 130)
stated. Hothe researcherver, there the researcherre also skeptics who considered the Internet to The Museum
Review, Volume 4, Number 1 (2019) SCHTHE RESEARCHERIBENZ become a permanent bottleneck, as
increasing bandwidth would always compete with a continually increasing “demand for more bandwidth created
by the use of sound, motion and more complicated graphics” (Shane 1997: 193). Nevertheless, the Internet was to
become the favorite medium for museums with rapidly increasing numbers over the next decades (cf. Bothe
researchern 1995; Valetov 2005).
While in theory, virtual museums could bring together museum content from all over the world, in practice there
the researcherre and still are considerable limitations. This is due to issues such as quality of data (for example,
common standards and vocabularies) (cf. Parry, Poole and Pratty 2010), multi-lingual content (especially within
multilingual communities such as the European Union), and copyright, to name a few. In addition, there are
organizational challenges inside museums such as a “lack of sustained resources, complexity of the collections,
rapid changes in technology, and the need to adapt museum culture to the expectations of a digital world.” (Clough
2013: 49) Meanwhile, the museum community continued to discuss controversially what constitutes a virtual
museum, and how it could be distinguished from other online museum activities. Erkki Huhtamo 2010: 122)

11
accentuated the debate whether “straightforward museum the researcherbsites merit the title ‘virtual museum’,”
while Sorin Hermon and Susan Hazan (2013: 626) emphasize that work has still to be done “for better
understanding the (perhaps sometimes subtle) difference between digital collections, online archives and virtual
museums.” The endeavor of defining the virtual museum Defining the virtual museum is not an easy task as a
general agreement about the correct name does not even exist. Several terms are used in parallel such as digital
museum, electronic museum, online museum, hypermedia museum, The researcherb museum, or Cyberspace
museum (Schthe researcheribenz 2004: 3). This wide range in terminology is due to the variety of involved
disciplines: computer science, library and information science, museology and the museum related disciplines such
as archaeology, art, history, and natural sciences, which often developed specific and independent ideas of the
virtual museum. This fragmentation also shown in Anne Laforet’s statement (1999: 133): “It is very perplexing to
define the term ‘virtual museum’, it seems to have as many definitions as there are people interested in the topic.”
A similar perspective was taken by the team of authors who wrote the report “Virtual Museum (of Canada) – The
Next Generation” (Besser et al. 2004: 21): “The definition of the ‘virtual museum’ remains under practical
construction.” What makes this process of construction quite complex is the lack of common ground: “If ‘wired’
virtual museums have a common denominator at all, it is a very general one, referring to almost any kind of
collection of material (supposedly of ‘historical’ or at least ‘cultural’ value) put on general display on the
Internet.” (Huhtamo 2002: 121). To make things even more complicated, there is no clear-cut separation from
other cultural heritage organizations online such as virtual libraries or virtual archives (Huhtamo 2002: 121). The
terminology for the virtual museum – a historical perspective Despite the variety of terms, the phrase “virtual
museum,” was able to establish itself because it was used in a number of publications dating back to the early
1990s. However, alternative names the researcherre and still are in use, for example “online museum” or “digital
museum.” One of the earliest publications was an article by Dennis Tsichritzis and Simon Gibbs.
In the traditional sense, a museum collects a variety of valuable objects to primarily support
scientific research and social education.

Going beyond the traditional methods for exhibiting material, as technological innovation and transitions in
institutional function allow,
museum displays are becoming increasingly diversified, and there has been a development
focus on interaction, with a recent focus on enhancing the relationship between human and
objects (exhibits). With the development of science and technology, museums are, in turn,
developing and applying a variety of new digital technologies and thus greatly expanding the
ways of displaying collections across time and space and creating brand-new new experiences.
In 2019, International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) promulgated London’s
Charter, which considered the digitization of cultural assets (including museum galleries)
and noted that the accuracy of this approach needs careful and rigorous consideration. Different
digital visualization methods and results need to be evaluated to ensure understanding of
the assets through interpretive materials and to obtain the best results for the museum and its
visitors. Thanks to the inherent advantages of academic authority and objectivity, museum
resources have become a quality resource for online academics and education; an audience centered
experience should, hothe researcherver, play a real and important role in the evaluation of these
and related resources.

2.5. Online museums:

12
Fig9 Fig10

Another name for an internet museum is a virtual, digital, or electronic museum. Although built on network
technology, online museums are an extension of the traditional museum.

hypermedia and compositions in multiple dimensions. Online museums can continuously update past collections,
research, displays, and instructional resources, breaking the physical time and space constraints that conventional
museums have.
Online museums greatly increase audience autonomy by challenging the traditional museum display view, which
is focused on objects, and the traditional display space view, which is based on buildings as containers. Virtual
tour is essentially a branch of virtual reality (VR) technology and has been widely used in the medical, building,
and transportation industries. Unlike VR, the virtual tour space environment really exists. Through the use of
panoramic image technology, which acquires information about the real space environment and generates a
remarkably similar VR space, people who cannot visit the museum in person can engage in an immersive
experience of the museum collection through a phone or computer interface.
After extensive engagement with the museum exhibits, media, and space, the exhibition's ultimate goal is the
audience's cognitive development as the researcherll as the perceptual and intellectual awareness of people as
experiencing subjects. An online museum's virtual tour can be seen as an addition to the online museum and as an
organic fusion of the real and online museums. This entails turning the museum's building or exhibition area into a
virtual tour that can later be made available to the public via the online museum. Many famous museums have
launched online museum virtual tours in recent years, including the Louvre Museum in France, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in the United States, the Virtual museums in China, and the Hermitage Museum in Russia.

2.6. Evaluation of the VR museums:

Donghai (1988) stated that the study of the museum visitors is a critical trend in the development of contemporary
museology and has become one of the standards for museum modernization, sometimes even determining the fate
of the museum.
The effectiveness of virtual museum tours has been the subject of notable study. Bastanlar addressed user
preferences for navigational features, control options, and data gathered during the virtual museum tour based on
the creation of a virtual tour application for the Ispata Museum in Turkey. Based on the creation of a virtual
museum system for Cetraro in Italy, Barbieri (2017) assessed two types of virtual museum systems for their
usefulness, entertainment, and learning. Although the research's scope was somewhat constrained, the evaluation
technique was fairly straightforward. By combining the VR evaluation scale created by Sutcliffe and Gault with an
evaluation of a virtual tour of Italian museums, Kabassi et al. came to the conclusion that the three most crucial
aspects of virtual museum visits are coordination of movements, interactivity, and accessibility. However, this

13
paper used experts as the main evaluating body, ignoring the fact that the majority of virtual museum users are not
experts but rather the general public.
This is problematic, as some studies have shown that, in the evaluation of the application experience, the opinions
of experts and general users sometimes differ There are no direct relevant research results on user experience
evaluation of virtual tours in online museums. Styliani et al. analyzed the relationship between user experience and
online museums and proposed the importance of “real user” experience evaluation.
Pagano, Roussou, et al., through user-experience research, discussed the path and communication
Paradigm of improving the user interaction experience in virtual museums. However, the
scope of their research was based on digital interactive services in the physical environment of
the museum, rather than on online services.

2.7. The importance of virtual museums:

One of the most significant benefits of virtual museums is that your location does not constrain you. Museums
worldwide offer digital tours, shows, and exhibitions that allow you to immerse yourself in their art regardless of
location and geographical boundaries. Some museums go a step beyond and add images or simulations of different
times. Imagine looking at works of art or artifacts from all over the world and being able to see a simulated version
of the time they the researcherre made in.
2.7.1. The attraction of more visitors:
Virtual tours the researcherre initially opposed by many institutions because they thought they would stimulate
visitors' interest but discourage them from coming in person. Hothe researcherver, nothing could be further from
the reality in this case. Many museums have observed that digitization boosts the researcherbsite traffic and raises
visitors to the actual museums. Many people who the researcherren't interested in travelling there or the
researcherre against it added it to their bucket list after taking a virtual trip. People's interest has been piqued and
they have been motivated to visit the locations in person one day by the museums' displays of masterworks and
lesser-known works of art with additional context, history, and techniques.
2.7.2. The educational and entertainment role of VR museum:
More understanding, independence, and exposure to art have been made possible by virtualization. The ability to
experience and engage with exhibitions at their own pace makes people of all ages more receptive to learning.
Young people can be attracted, educated, and entertained in this manner, and older, more experienced art
enthusiasts can also benefit by receiving more knowledge, freedom, and insight.
Traditional museums have certain limitations. These can be classified into time, information, and arrangement.
 Time: When people attend physical locations, they can only stay for a set amount of time. They might have
to rush through the museum to see as much as they can or schedule additional trips to gain a deeper
understanding of the artwork as a result.
 Information: The amount of knowledge that museums can display in their exhibitions has a limit. They
are frequently compelled to include only the basics, which gives viewers a limited understanding of the
artworks.

 Arrangement: Every museum adheres to its own "flow"—a system of categorization and order. This
implies that visitors will always be required to adhere to the curator's layout and courses, regardless of how
much effort is made to allow unrestricted roam of the exhibition halls.

14
 Virtual museums eliminate these hindrances by providing a more intimate and personal voyage through exhibitions.
Visitors are able to browse through art they find interesting at a pace that meets their needs. In addition to that, they
have access to more information about the pieces. Virtual tours enable people to study items from multiple angles
(360° images, internal images, zoom capabilities), and they also offer more research and context to items showcased.
2.7.3. The Conservation aspect of museums:
Curators frequently struggle with balancing the need to preserve things in the right conditions with their desire to
display them to the world. This issue and restriction are removed with digital emulation. Important works of art
that need to be properly conserved can be digitally displayed while still undergoing conservation procedures.
2.8. The experience of virtual tours:
It is understandable that some of the biggest and most impressive museums have adopted the virtual world given
the many advantages that virtual museums offer. Consider these virtual tours and internet collections if you're in
lockdown and want to broaden your knowledge.
 British Museum – London.
 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art – Seoul.
 Louvre – Paris.
 MASP – São Paulo.
 Guggenheim Museum – New York.
 The J. Paul Getty Museum – Los Angeles.
 Uffizi Gallery – Florence.
 Van Gogh Museum – Amsterdam.
 Pergamon Museum – Berlin.
 Rijksmuseum– Amsterdam.
2.9. Museums and the museum distant virtual image:
The significant position of culture in tourism activities has been recognized for long time, particular
museums, galleries, and other tourist attractions of cultural value helped regeneration of certain characteristics of
destinations in some cities. Museums can not only promote regional economic growth, but also serve as a unique
attraction for tourist destinations. In addition to some functions of museums in the past (e.g., exhibition, education,
research), new functions of museums based on visitors’ characteristics have been expanded today. Hence, from the
past to the present, museums have witnessed a change in people’s perception of a region, helping local residents
and foreign visitors to identify with and understand the local culture. Thusly, museums can show and represent the
destination image of a region, in part from the cultural level. While people are traveling, an affective image
develops simultaneously in the image formation of the destination. Recent research has found that negative
emotions and stereotypes will remain unchanged in the travel experience, which negatively affects destination
image.
By using life satisfaction, eudemonia, and affect as the explanatory variables to measure visitors’ happiness,
Akhenaten museum concluded that positive emotions change more than negative affect towards the destination
image.
2.10. The Emotional effect of real and virtual Museums:
The latest studies show that the method of using intuition and cognition to define the concept of image has
been gradually replaced by the consumer’s interpretation of destination logic and emotion. In earlier times,
because of the importance of the affective component in visiting museums, museums the researcherre considered
as an ideal place to conduct research about customer emotion. In museums, visitors can participate in a variety of
activities, which can be physical, emotional, or psychological; formal or informal. When choosing sites with
warfare relics as tourist destinations, the primary intention of visitors is to undergo an emotional experience, rather
than for the sole purpose of education or entertainment. Liu pointed out that museums need to carry out pertinent

15
research on visitors to provide better exhibitions and suitable services and apply the knowledge gained in practice.
According to Liu’s research, exploring visitors’ opinions and emotions, and studying visitors’ reactions are
conducive to optimizing research on the tourist market. Besides, psychological and emotional changes of visitors
will bring different responses, even if applied to the same scenic spot. Today, museums have been transformed:
from providing visitors with tangible collections and facilities to adding intangible experiences, emotions and
memories.
In tourism activities, the virtual image is an important stimulus for the emotions of visitors. Visitors will
conduct cognitive evaluation according to the experience brought by the virtual image. Generally speaking, a good
image will stimulate visitors to have positive emotional perceptions. Researchers have included the theory of
emotion in the study of tourism, focusing on exploring the influence of the museum’s environmental atmosphere
on visitors’ emotional responses (Figure 11).
2.10.1. The behavioral intention:
To formulate appropriate marketing strategies, the first step is to clarify the relationship between different
types of visitors. In particular, it is important to understand the behavior and preferences of visitors. In order to
improve the quality of museum experience, many researchers have studied visitors’ behaviors, attitudes, cognition,
and expectations from the perspective of the demand side: visitors. Adding behavior and psychology to different
time points in experience studies is a complementary way to understand the tourist sphere. Many studies have
analyzed the relationship between consumer behavior and experienced value, which outlines the perception value.
The kinds of museum exhibits, to a large extent, can determine the experience and behavior of visitors.
Specifically, an individual’s attitude towards a behavior will be affected by the objective beliefs and subjective
emotions of this behavior.
Barbieri and Mahoney discussed the relationship between the live performing arts and tourist behaviors and
concluded that cultural omnivorous behaviors are related to cultural tourism. The behavior after actual experience
will be restricted by factors such as lack of free time, forgetting and being influenced by others. Therefore, Antón,
Camarero, and Garrido studied co-creation experience by collecting visitors’ first intention before tourism
activities and they proved that recommendation and revisit behavior of visitors can be driven by active experience.
Previous studies have confirmed that positive tourist experience will increase people’s willingness to visit again,
thus increasing their positive WOM (word-of-mouth) recommendations.
2.10.2. Visitors satisfaction:
Satisfaction and loyalty often accompany the travel experience. In the context of utilitarianism, emotions
have a positive or negative impact on the visitor’s satisfaction and loyalty. Low emotions lead to a negative effect
on satisfaction. In fact, loyalty can also be understood as a behavior exhibited by visitors after experiencing a
certain service. As an important field of tourist behavior research, the relationship betthe researcheren satisfaction
and loyalty has been widely tested. Satisfied customers are not only likely to come to the tourist destination
repeatedly in the future, but also deliver favorable comments about the destination in their social circle.
The researcher proved that positive emotions have a stronger effect on satisfaction than negative emotions,
which do not inspire visitors to recommend a destination. Gieling and Ong used a social identity theory structure
to verify whether identity and visitors’ emotions are connected and found that the emotion and satisfaction of
visitors varied considerably for a warfare museum. Enrique, Mattila, and Andreu examined museums and theme
parks and found that emotions explained consumer reactions to hedonic services. To be more concrete, positive
emotions (e.g., happiness, pleasure) are positively correlated with both satisfaction and loyalty. Jin et al and Tsai
have verified that satisfaction, perceived image, tourist participation, and experience are antecedent variables of
behavioral intention, and in tourism activities, these variables are highly correlated with behavioral intention.
There are few studies on visitor satisfaction and behavioral intention in museums. Most of the existing studies
have confirmed that satisfaction in the museum context has a direct and positive impact on behavioral intention.

16
 In particular it is deeply investigated the satisfaction of visitors to museums through an emotion semantic
scale, and also obtained a positive relationship with the satisfaction and behavioral intention (Figure11).

2.11. The pilot study:

In-depth interview:
A- Customers interviews:
According to the different interviews with some interested people or museum lovers and virtual visitors (for
existing opened museums in Egypt) can walk around the galleries at their own pace and zoom in on the exhibits
and the information panels. The researcher asked also expected visitors about their experiences and what they
think of the digital space.

Overall, the response was positive. On average, people enjoyed their time and journey through the digital
museums. Through a variety of questions, participants who are asked to rate their enjoyment rated from 0-10.
museums received an average score of just under 8, which is optimistic but near from perfect.

The researcher states a few questions about museums. Physical space and the difficulty of making changes and
moving things on the exhibition floor has been a headache for curators. V.R. digital museums are a whole new
experience.

B- Experts interviews:

As the researcher reached this conclusion, he stated that experts believe that one of the greatest challenges with
virtual museums is that not everyone can easily access them. Everyone can visit physical museums, regardless of
their location or level of internet access. On the other hand, virtual museums are only available online, so anyone
without internet access cannot visit them. – no physical sensation and the absence of a tactile experience are the
biggest differences between a real museum and a virtual one. In a physical museum, objects, works of art, and
exhibits can all be touched and interacted with by visitors. Visitors can only view and engage with copies of the
originals in virtual museums. They are unable to encounter the genuine article. Visitors can touch and interact with
the artifacts, art, and specimens in a physical museum. In virtual museums, visitors can only see and interact with
replicas of the originals. They’re unable to experience the real thing. – Lack of collaboration: Collaboration is a
significant part of the museum experience. This is not possible in virtual museums, where visitors are isolated
from one another.

However, they believe that using virtual reality in museums can be a fantastic way to give distant learners access
to unique artefacts and specimens. Additionally, they allow museums to reach a larger audience with more
programming at a lower expense. The use of virtual institutions for conservation initiatives is also possible. They
are extremely useful for tracking climate change and other environmental variables that have an impact on
museum objects because they can be used to monitor artefacts and specimens in real-time. Finally, artefacts from
endangered civilizations can be stored in virtual museums. They can be used to showcase items that might be too
sensitive to ship to real museums or that might be threatened by war or political unrest. So, all of the above stated
opinions confirm that there is a strong significant relation between the virtual museum image and the behavioral
intention of visitors which is affected by this new kind of technology.

3. Research methodology:

1-Problem statement and study aim:

17
How can the VR technology affect and shape the museum image and its relation with the perception and behavior of
the visitors in order to convert them into clients?
In this thesis, it aims to address the following:
1- Explore the attributes of virtual image of museums;
2- 2- Study the influence of the museum image on the bipolar emotions of visitors.
3- 3-Analyze the emotional mechanism generated from visitors’ behavioral intention.
4- 4- Compare emotional strength of the mediating effects betthe researcheren image of museum attractions
and visitors’ behavioral intention.
5- The analysis and comparison of cognitive motivation (satisfaction) and emotional motivation (positive and
negative emotions) can help reveal their mediating effect on “destination image–behavioral intention”.

3.2Research importance

3.2.1. Theoretical importance:

This study is a contribution to address and show the importance and influence of the Virtual Reality
technology on the museum image which drive and affect directly the customer or visitor’s behavior towards
visiting museums.

3.2.2. Practical importance:

The study helps the museum’s staff to understand the different emotional and cognitive drivers of the
customer or visitor to be able to enhance the visiting rates virtually and physically. Additionally, it can also
enrich and perfect the study of the virtual image pertinent to the impact on visitors’ behavioral intention,
broadening the understanding of the social psychology of cultural tourism.
3.3. conceptual model:

Fig.11

3.4. Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis:

As mentioned above, it is clearly presented the following hypotheses:

Hypotheses 1 (H1):
Museum image has a positive effect on visitors’ positive emotions.
Hypotheses 2 (H2):
Museum image has a negative effect on visitors’ negative emotions.
(Figure 11).
18
Hypotheses 3a (H3a):
Positive emotion has a positive effect on behavioral intention of visitors.
Hypotheses 3b (H3b):
Negative emotion has a negative effect on behavioral intention of visitors.
Hypotheses 4 (H4):
Museum image has a positive effect on visitors’ behavioral intentions.
Consequently, the researcher proposes the following hypotheses:
Hypotheses 5 (H5):
Museum’s image has a positive effect on visitor’s satisfaction.
Hypotheses 6 (H6):
Visitors’ satisfaction has a positive effect on behavioral intention.
Hypotheses 7a (H7a):
Positive emotion has a positive effect on satisfaction of visitors.
Hypotheses 7b (H7b):
Negative emotion has a negative effect on satisfaction of visitors
3.5. Research questions:
3.5.1 Major question:
What is the direct impact of the museum image on the visitor’s behavioral intention?
3.5.2. Minor questions:
1- what is the mediating factor that affect the relation between the museum image and the
visitor’s emotions?
2- what are the independent variables of the relation between museum image and behavioral
intention?
3-what is the effect of the dependent variable on the visitor’s satisfaction?

3.6. Research population and sampling unit:

Research Population: museum’s real and virtual visitors

Sampling Unit: global virtual museums and Akhenaten museum.

3.7. Research Limitation:

3.7.1. Sector limitation:

This study is applied on museums that apply the Virtual Reality technology.
3.7.2. Place limitation:
This study was carried and applied globally across the world. Thus, the researcher claims that the research finding
can provide guidance. Thus, that would help in developing the future services offered by Akhenaten museum to
acquire new customers or targeted visitors.

4. Results:
Digital and virtual museums need to be seen as coequal to traditional museums. The experience can never replace
the real experience of standing in front of art, but it can add another dimension to the experience. The goal is to
19
enhance a palette of possibilities for people looking to feel more. After all, there is much more to “art” than what
hangs on the museum walls. The experiences, ideas, techniques, and principles used to create it are as important. If
the researcher can give people a glimpse, even digital, into the sublimity of art, then the researcher have done our
part, for the whole.
[Link]:
Through the analytical and deep systematic literature review the researcher has reached and found some facts
about the different dimensions of the relation between the museum’s image and the emotional drive that affect
positively and negatively the behavior of the intended visitors or visitors. This will the researcher clarify in the
next following points.
5.1. The positive museum image:
Museum image has a significant positive influence on visitors’ positive emotions. On the premise of
controlling the influence of demographic characteristics, dimensions’ variables of museum; the factors of the
regression model was significantly improved, indicating that there was a significant correlation between museum
image and visitors’ positive emotions. All dimensions of museum image have significant positive effects on
visitors’ positive emotions, ranging , including exhibition quality, accessibility of transportation, staff service,
catering and online rewarding, interpretation system, display and exhibition, ticket service, and facilities and
environment in the museum. Thus, hypothesis 1 has been verified.
5.2. The negative museum image:
Museum image has a negative influence on visitors’ negative emotions. It can be seen that in the attribute
dimensions of museum image, staff service, traffic accessibility, exhibit quality, facilities, and environment in the
museum have a significant negative effect on visitors’ negative emotions.
On the other hand, the attribute dimensions of display, ticket service, interpretation system, catering, and online
rewarding have no significant effects on visitors’ negative emotions, which indicates that the staff service,
facilities, and environment are mainly negative factors for visitors. Thus, research hypothesis 2 was partially
verified.
5.3. The significant museum image:
Museum image has a significant positive influence on overall satisfaction and behavioral intention. It can be
seen from that all the eight dimensions of museum image have a significant positive effect on visitors’ overall
satisfaction. Thus, research hypothesis 5 is verified. Interpretation system, catering and online rewarding, staff
service, traffic accessibility, display and exhibition, exhibit quality, and ticket service all have significant positive
effects on visitors’ behavioral intention. Research hypothesis 5 is therefore supported.
In order to better check visitors’ emotions with overall satisfaction and behavioral intention, sex, residence, age,
occupation, education, and income are set as control variables; visitors’ positive emotions and negative emotions
are set as independent variables. Then overall satisfaction and behavioral intention variables are added into the
regression model for analysis. The results are shown in. Visitors’ emotions significantly affect their overall
satisfaction and behavioral intention. After controlling the demographic characteristics variables and adding the
positive and negative emotion variables of visitors, the both models significantly increased, indicating that there is
a significant correlation between visitors’ emotion and visitors’ overall satisfaction and behavioral intention.
Among them, the visitors’ overall satisfaction and positive emotions significantly positively influence behavioral
intention, and visitors’ negative emotions significantly negatively impact overall satisfaction and behavioral

20
intention. This indicates that H7a and H7b, and H3a and H3b are supported. There is a significant positive
relationship between visitors’ overall satisfaction and their behavioral intention. Hypothesis 6 is thus verified.
5.4. The mediating effect of museum image:
The specific steps of the mediating effect model are as follows: the first step is to take the different
dimensions of museum image as independent variables and behavioral intention as a dependent variable for
regression analysis. The second step is to take the eight dimensions of museum image as independent variables,
and take visitors’ positive emotions, visitors’ negative emotions, and overall satisfaction as dependent variables.
The third step is to take the dimensions of museum image, visitors’ positive emotions, visitors’ negative emotions,
and visitors’ overall satisfaction as independent variables and the behavioral intention as the dependent variable.
The results show that visitors’ positive emotions have a partial mediating effect on the relationship betthe
researcheren behavioral intention and explanation systems, staff service and behavioral intention, traffic
accessibility and behavioral intention, ticketing services, and behavioral intention. Visitors’ positive emotions
have a mediating effect between exhibits’ quality and behavioral intention, catering and online rewarding and
behavioral intention. The negative emotions of visitors have a partial mediating effect on the relationship between
staff service and behavioral intention, and negative feelings have a completely mediating effect betthe between the
exhibits’ quality and behavioral intention. The overall satisfaction of visitors has a partial mediating role effect on
the relationship between the interpretation system and behavioral intention, staff service and behavioral intention,
traffic accessibility and behavioral intention, and ticket service and behavioral intention. The overall satisfaction
has a completely mediating effect between online rewarding and behavioral intention, and exhibit quality and
behavioral intention.

[Link]:
This study explores how visitors' emotions impact their behavior and provides a theoretical foundation for
boosting visitor loyalty and satisfaction. It also has some repercussions for improving the reputations of museums
overseas. The results show that visitors' feelings directly relate to how a museum's reputation affects their
happiness and loyalty. This study combines the research on emotion and museum image, satisfaction, and
behavioral purpose in order to offer some managerial implications for museum tourism.
The findings indicate that visitors' emotions are largely influenced by museum image, which also has a direct
and strongly positive impact on tourists' positive emotions. More tourists can be drawn to a museum with a
positive reputation, and those visitors will be more inclined to support it and feel satisfied with their experience.
Particular focus should be placed on enhancing booking services. The results from this study show that, out of the
extra dimensions, the average value of the online ticket service dimension of museum image. This implies that
consumers are not familiar with the online ticket service. High ticket prices and ticket cancellation/refund policies,
to some degree, limit the growth of museum tourism and have an impact on the development of the institution's
positive reputation. Besides, a comfortable environment and atmosphere should be created. The study found that
the average value of facilities and environment in the museum was slightly higher than that of the ticket service,
indicating that visitors have a low evaluation of facilities and environment of the museum. Upgrading and
updating various service facilities can create a good visiting environment. Lighting and color are two important
factors that influence the design effect of museum displays. Light not only improves the brightness of a room, but
also combines the colors of the exhibits. This is conducive to creating a more suitable visiting environment for
display objects and stimulates the optic nerves of visitors, so that they can be positively affected by the
environment and atmosphere of the museum while appreciating the display objects. Color is a kind of language
21
that can bring vigor and affect people’s mood. The Shaanxi History Museum is mainly brick grey, perhaps making
people feel depressed. Museum administrators should match the colors with the theme of the display to create an
immersive effect for visitors. For example, red and other warm colors should be used to stimulate the excitement
of visitors.
Through color collocation, lighting adjustment, and music, a suitable environment can be created in the museum
for visitors. The soothing music and bright and warm colors can give visitors auditory and visual enjoyment thus
improving their pleasant feelings.
Moreover, the types of cultural and creative products should be enriched. The researcher also emphasizes the
value of museum shops in enhancing brand perception. The average cost of catering and mementos is, However,
marginally higher than that of the facilities, setting, and ticketing services. It was discovered during the field
investigation that most visitors thought the costs of food and drink, as the researcherll as online rewarding, the
researcherre too high, and the variety was too small to satisfy their requirements. In contrast, the Virtual Museums
have created a "cultural and creative flagship shop of the Virtual Museums" on the Internet with a wide variety of
richly varied product categories. The museum's collections are superior to those of the other institutions. Attracting
numerous visitors from abroad. Therefore, cultural and creative products, symbols of local history and culture,
should be more abundant and diversified, especially for foreign visitors.
The refinement of the positive emotions of visitors should be strengthened. The conclusion of this study
shows that visitors’ positive emotions, satisfaction and behavioral intention have significant positive effects,
indicating that visitors’ positive emotions can generate positive behavioral tendencies. Therefore, it should be a
key point of museum management to stimulate and induce positive emotions within visitors. More specifically, the
quality management of exhibits should be improved. Research analysis shows that the exhibition quality is
significantly correlated with positive and negative emotions of visitors, and the correlation is the highest among all
dimensions. This shows that the quality of exhibits is the most important factor for inducing both positive
emotions and negative emotions in visitors, while Su and Teng believe that the long queue caused by low
convenience quality is the main reason for visitors’ complaints. The museum should conduct regular market
research, obtain information on market demand and exhibit resources, and hold some themed exhibitions to meet
the needs of visitors. At the same time, the manager should analyze and evaluate the quality of the exhibits
regularly, collect tourist evaluations on the quality level of the exhibits through questionnaires and make
continuous improvements.
6.1. The comfortable visiting environment:
Real visits follow virtual visits, so it is important to manage visitor flow scientifically and provide a welcoming
atmosphere for reflection. According to data analysis, traffic accessibility is the second most important factor that
influences visitors' positive and negative feelings. As a result, it is important to maintain efficient internal and
external traffic to the museum. Free entry to some museums has significantly increased visitor volume, resulting in
a crowded exhibition hall (especially during holidays). Strengthening infrastructure construction will ensure
proper distribution of infrastructure. There is a lack of rest facilities in museums and visitors can only sit on the
steps and in the halls, which increases the sense of crowding. Measures such as the addition of a ticket barrier have
been adopted to shorten the psychological waiting time of visitors. Waiting in line in scenic spots is an important
factor influencing visitors’ perceptions of crowding. Therefore, museum managers can ease the crowds by setting
up scattered ticket inspection outlets and widening the entrance. In addition, additional services can be added to
the waiting area, such as providing free tea and distributing brochures, so as to ease the anxiety of queuing and the
researcheraken the perception of crowding for visitors.
6.2. The quality of the museums’ staff:
22
 According to the findings, visitor feelings are both positively and negatively influenced by staff service,
which means that staff service levels need to be raised. According to earlier studies, museums are locations that
offer a service to the general public, and a range of tourism services will significantly impact how satisfied visitors
are. Visitors' feelings, perceptions, and levels of happiness are directly impacted by the calibre and expertise of
front-line staff. For this reason, museum managers should first strengthen the corporate culture education, enhance
the sense of identity and belonging of employees, and encourage them to work and serve more positively to arouse
the positive emotions of visitors. Secondly, the training of staff with service skills should be highlighted. Finally,
emphasis needs to be placed on oral expression and body training to ensure that staff can provide better service to
visitors in a wholehearted manner. In addition, understanding visitors’ motivations for visiting can also help
managers to improve service quality and find the right remedy.
Moreover, the research shows that the different dimensions of museum image have a significant positive
impact on visitors’ positive emotion. This corresponds with Dr. Reda Salah’s argument that a favorable image
promotes positive emotional perception. In terms of visitors’ negative emotion, staff service, traffic accessibility,
exhibit quality, facilities, and environment in the museum show significant negative effects with negative emotion,
and the remaining dimensions are not significantly associated with negative emotion. In fact, staff service and
other significant variables are dimensions closely related to visitors, which will directly affect visitors’ perception
of museums and thus affect their emotions. The effect of the way to display and interpret systems on visitors’
emotion depends on the educational level of the visitors.
The researcher also found that different emotions have different mediating effects on museum image and
behavioral intention. In particular, the two dimensions of catering, and souvenir and exhibit quality are more likely
to affect visitors’ emotional perception and thus influence their behaviors. As a whole, the mediating effect of
visitors’ positive emotions is higher than that of visitors’ negative emotions to overall satisfaction. In the
relationship between museum image and behavioral intention, the mediating effect of visitors’ positive emotions is
the strongest follow researcherd by overall satisfaction, and the negative emotions are the the researcherakest. The
types and levels of the museums are quite different, and future studies may consider dividing the sample into
groups for regression according to the museums they visited. In addition, it is essential for future research to
examine the emotional path of foreign visitors to the museum image from a cross-cultural perspective.

7. Appendices:
7.1. The in-depth interview’s questions of regular customers:
1-How can the virtual museum tours affect the visitors’ revisit decision either physically or
virtually?
2- What is the impact of the virtual tours on the visitors’ satisfaction?

23
3- What are the setbacks and disadvantages that the virtual and physical visitors face along with
their visit?
7.2. The questions of the experts:
1- What is the correlation between the emotional museum’s image and the cognitive intention of
the visitors?
2- What are the advantages and disadvantages of applying the Virtual Reality technology in
museums?
8. References:

-Museum & Society, July 2018. 16 (2) 112-123 © 2018, Nuala Morse, Bethany Rex, Sarah Harvey Richardson.
ISSN 1479-8360
- John Law ‘Making a Mess with Method. Centre for Science Studies’, Lancaster University 2003,
[Link]
accessed 1 July 2018.
-A Dictionary of the Internet. 2013. “Virtual museum.” Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Allison, D.K. and T.
Gwaltney. 1991. “How people use electronic interactives: ‘Information Age – People, Information & Technology’.”
Hypermedia & Interactivity in Museums. Proceedings of an international conference. --------- _Archives and Museums
Informatics, Pittsburgh, PA. pp. 62-73.
-Clough, G. W. 2013. Best of Both Worlds. Museums, Libraries, and Archives in a Digital Age. Smithsonian Press,
Washington D.C. [Link]
Alsford, S. 1991. “Museums as Hypermedia: Interactivity on a museum-wide scale.” In Hypermedia & Interactivity in
Museums. Proceedings of an international conference.
-Archives and Museums Informatics, Pittsburgh, PA. pp. 7-16. Anderson, M.L. 1994. “Perils and Pleasures of the Virtual
Museum.” Museum News, 73 (6) 1994: 37-38, 64. Anderson, M.L. 2008. “The Future of Museums in the Information Age.”
In Marty, P.F. and K. Burton Jones (eds.).
-Museum Informatics. People, Information, and Technology in Museums. Routledge, New York, NY. pp. 293-299.
Andrews, J. and W. Schthe researcheribenz. 1998. “New Media for Old Masters.
-The Kress Study Collection Virtual Museum Project.” Art Documentation, 17 (1) 1998: 19-27. The Museum Review,
Volume 4, Number 1 (2019) SCHTHE RESEARCHERIBENZ Avenier, P. 1999.
-Latham, K.F. and J.E. Simmons. 2014. Foundations of Museum Studies. Evolving Systems of Knowledge. Libraries
Unlimited, Santa Barbara, CA.
- “Putting the Public First: The French Experience.” Museum International (UNESCO), No 204: Museums and the Internet
(1), 51 (4) 1999: 31-34. Baker, C. 1993. “A marriage of high-tech and fine art.
-The National Gallery’s Micro Gallery Project.” Program, 27 (4) 1993: 341-352. Bandelli, A. 1999. “Virtual Spaces and
Museums.” Journal of Museum Education, 24 (1+2) 1999: 20-22. Battro, A.M. 1999. “From Malraux’s Imaginary Museum
to the Virtual Museum.”
- In Parry, R. (2010, ed.). Museums in a Digital Age. Routledge, London. pp. 136-147. Bearman, D. 1992. “Interactive
Multimedia in Museums.” In Stone, S. and M. Buckland (eds.).
- Studies in Multimedia: State-of-the-Art Solutions in Multimedia and Hypermedia. Proceedings of the 1991 Mid-Year
Meeting of the American Society for Information Science San Jose, California, April 1991.
-Learned Information, Medford, NJ. pp. 121-137. Bearman, D. 1993. “Interactivity in American Museums.” -_Museum
Management and Curatorship, 12 (12) 1993: 183-193. Benjamin, W. 1936. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction.” In Arendt, H. 1985, ed. Illuminations.
-Walter Benjamin - Essays and Reflections.

24
 -Andrews, J. and W. Schthe researcheribenz. 1998. “New Media for Old Masters. The Kress Study Collection Virtual
Museum Project.” Art Documentation, 17 (1) 1998: 19-27.
-G. Zeng et [Link] online reviews meet virtual reality: effects on consumer hotel booking Ann. Tour. Res.(2020)
-Mark Yi-Cheon Yim et al. Is Augmented Reality Technology an Effective Tool for E-Commerce? An
Interactivity and Vividness Perspective J. Interact. Mark. (2017)
-Zhilin Yang et al. Development and validation of an instrument to measure user perceived service quality of
information presenting the researcherb portals Inf. Manag. (2005)
-Yi-Shun Wang et [Link] and validating a mobile catering app success model.”Int. J. Hosp. Manag. (2019)
-Iis P. Tussyadiah et [Link] reality, presence, and attitude change: empirical evidence from tourismTour.
Manag.(2018)
-Nathalie Spielmann et [Link] Virtuo: how user-driven interactivity in virtual tours leads to attitude change J. Bus.
Res. (2018)
-Woo Mi Jo Phillips et al. Investigating the effect of country image and subjective knowledge on attitudes and
behaviors: U.S. Upper midthe researchersterners’ intentions to consume korean food and Visit Korea Int. J. Hosp.
Manag. (2013)
-Stacie Petter et al. A meta-analytic assessment of the DeLone and McLean IS success model: an examination of
IS success at the individual level Inf. Manag. (2009)
-S.M.C. Loureiro et al. 20 years of research on virtual reality and augmented reality in tourism context: a text-
mining approach Tour. Manag. (2020)
-Hyeon Cheol Kim et al. Predicting the Use of Smartphone-Based Augmented Reality (AR): Does Telepresence
Really Help? Comput. Human Behav. (2016)
Understanding Virtual Reality in Marketing: Nature, Implications (2016)
-Francesca Bonetti et [Link] reality and virtual reality in physical and online retailing: a review, synthesis
and research agenda

25