With the rapid development of immersive digital technologies, location-based entertainment (LBE) exhibitions have emerged as a new medium for cultural dissemination, particularly in cross-cultural contexts. While prior research on immersive experiences has predominantly emphasized immersion and virtual presence, limited attention has been paid to how audiences develop a sense of place within digitally constructed, culturally foreign environments. Drawing on sense of place theory and environmental psychology, this study develops the concept of cross-cultural virtual sense of place and proposes an S–O–R framework to examine the psychological mechanisms underlying immersive experiences. Specifically, entertainment, education, aesthetics, and escapism are conceptualized as stimuli (S), perceived restoration and place attachment as organism states (O), and continued engagement intention as the behavioral response (R). Data were collected from 383 participants who experienced an LBE immersive digital exhibition in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results indicate that escapism has the strongest effect on perceived restoration, followed by education, entertainment, and aesthetics. Perceived restoration significantly enhances place attachment and continued engagement intention, and place attachment partially mediates the effect of perceived restoration on continued engagement intention. The findings contribute to the literature by reframing immersive digital exhibitions as processes of experiential place-making rather than mere content delivery, and by identifying perceived restoration as a critical psychological pathway linking immersive stimuli to sustained engagement in cross-cultural digital environments.
Zhang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.