The metaverse effect: can virtual tourism experiences drive actual visits?

Purpose The rise of the experience economy has prompted tourism destinations to leverage smart technologies to attract visitors. Yet empirical evidence on metaverse-based virtual tourism experiences converted into concrete travel intentions remains limited. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the factors triggering travel intention in a metaverse environment. Design/methodology/approach Specifically, it applies and extends the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework to analyze how attributes of metaverse experiences (stimuli) affect users’ psychological states (organism) and subsequent real-world travel intentions (response), drawing on data from 700 tourists who experienced the Hoi An Metaverse. Findings The findings demonstrate that perceived metaverse attributes–informativeness, accessibility, interactivity, personalization and telepresence–significantly enhance users’ trust in and satisfaction with, the destination. Moreover, the results identify technology optimism as a critical individual-level boundary condition, whereby higher optimism toward technology significantly strengthens the effect of trust on travel intention. Originality/value The research contributes to theory by extending the SOR framework to virtual tourism contexts, aligning with and enriching emerging work on metaverse experiences, cognitive processing and loyalty by seamlessly bridging the virtual and real worlds. These findings examine the pivotal role of individual attitudes in shaping behavioral responses to tourism technologies, highlighting that technology optimism can amplify the effectiveness of metaverse-based destination marketing. For destination marketing organizations and technology developers, the results provide empirical support for the idea that strategic investment in metaverse experiences is an effective means to cultivate destination trust and satisfaction, which, in turn, stimulates sustainable physical travel and complements real-world visitation rather than replacing it.