Exploring the digital transformation of heritage tourism

This study focuses on the latest achievements in the intersection of heritage tourism and emerging technologies to clarify the mainstream trends, research gaps, and future research directions. First, regarding the impact of emerging technologies on tourists’ immersive experiences, existing research mainly focuses on visual and auditory experiences, while the exploration of tactile experiences remains relatively limited. Second, regarding tourists’ acceptance of emerging technologies in heritage tourism, current research views authenticity as a prerequisite in the technology acceptance process, while few studies consider it as an intermediate step. Finally, regarding the issue of value co-creation in heritage tourism, existing research mostly focuses on the results of value co-creation, while few studies integrate the prerequisites, mechanisms, and results of value co-creation into a comprehensive model. In this context, the present study suggests future research directions and research ideas.