Mediating Place Attachment through Handheld Mobile AR: Toward Regenerative Tourism Experiences

2024-2027

Project Summary

This research investigates how on-site handheld mobile augmented reality (AR) experiences can enhance deeper emotional connections between tourists and destinations, particularly through the key concept of place attachment, and then contribute to regenerative tourism.

Rather than treating AR as a generic engagement tool, the project focuses on how specific AR design conditions influence tourists’ experiences through measurable mediators. A staged Research Through Design programme is adopted, integrating a systematic literature review to map existing measured variables and select candidate mediators, followed by iterative prototyping and evaluation through several experimental and field studies using the ScenicAR prototype to test mechanisms under real tourism conditions.

Tourism is emerging from a global crisis while still facing persistent pressures on the environment, local communities, and culture. In Aotearoa New Zealand, this creates an opportunity to rebuild around regenerative tourism, an approach that aims to “give back more than it takes” by restoring places and generating positive environmental, social, and cultural outcomes.

The expected contributions include a “AR Design – Mediators – Place Attachment” path model that combines all empirically supported AR design conditions and mediating mechanisms leading to place attachment, and a set of practical AR experience design guidelines for designers, application developers, and tourism stakeholders to foster place attachment and support regenerative tourism outcomes.