New perspectives of experiential tourism: an exploratory analysis of live virtual tours during the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose: This paper aims to find out if it is possible to consider live virtual tours, in the connotation assumed during the COVID-19 outbreak, as experiential tourism products. The paper focuses on Holbrook's “four Es” (“experience”, “entertainment”, “exhibitionism” and “evangelising”) to study the experience of live virtual tours. Design/methodology/approach: This article develops an exploratory analysis and presents a content analysis of 1052 reviews of 108 live virtual tours posted on TripAdvisor and Viator. Findings: The findings show that live virtual tours are perceived as experiences, all “four Es” are covered and two more sub-categories emerge. Research limitations/implications: The analysis is limited to the perception of tourists that are confident with the technology, to a small sample and a period of travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Practical implications: Live virtual tours create a new segment, which “travels from home”. This does not preclude tourists from deciding to physically visit the places seen virtually. Originality/value: Research on the analysis of the reviews of live virtual tours has not yet been carried out