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The immersive nature of 3D virtual worlds presents significant opportunities for tourism businesses as an optimal marketing platform to provide travel information and interact with potential tourists as well as a useful management tool to develop brand awareness and gain competitive advantage in the global market. Several travel and tourism organizations have used Second Life as a collaborative and commercial tool for communicating with travelers as well as tourism enterprises (e.g., Tourism Ireland; Philippines Department of Tourism; STA travel agents; Starwood Hotels; Crowne Plaza). Given the growth and potential of technologies within the tourism industry and particularly the rising interest in virtual worlds such as Second Life, this study focuses on the extent to which the virtual world of Second Life has been used in tourism industry. Specifically, this study describes what types of spaces tourism businesses are creating or simulating and the types of tourism activities being conducted in the 3D virtual environment. An overview of the definition of virtual worlds and information about the virtual world of Second Life is provided. The potentials of Second Life in the context of tourism marketing and tourism management are discussed, and the article concludes with potential future research related to the use of 3D virtual worlds.
Huang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.