The Impact of Virtual Reality in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) on Visitors’ Attitudes towards the Museum

Abstract

According to Ilhan and Celtek (2016)1, nowadays, technology is no longer considered as a subsidiary tool, however, it’s becoming something necessary and required in our everyday routine; as it plays an important role people lives enhancement through faster, effective, efficient, and accessible processes (Han et al., 2019)2. Technological developments positively affect tourists’ experience in a museum, which results in affecting their attitude as well. That’s the reason why advanced technologies have been developed in order to overcome that problem; augmented and virtual realities reality they are (Vermeeren et al., 2018)3. Of the various up and coming technologies, those considered the most altering and revolutionary are virtual and augmented reality technologies. They stimulate the senses of the user by the use of images generated by computers. These sense stimulating images are meant to engross the user’s mind in the experience. During that time, our minds accept virtual or augmented reality as another real versions of real life (Nayyar et al., 2018)4. During the past few decades, unstable environments and increased levels of competition have forced cultural heritage sites and tourism destinations to consider adopting technologies in order to enhance their visitors’ experiences. These technologies include social media, smart phones, interactive websites, and mobile applications, among others. But more recently, the technologies increased to encompass virtual and augmented reality applications (Errichiello et al., 2019)5. In regards to tourist destinations, galleries, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations have exhausted the search of various ways of exploiting these technologies’ potential so that they could enhance their tourists’ experience before, during, and after their visit. Accordingly, virtual reality applications have started outstretching in the industry of hospitality and tourism and are assumed to revolutionize the way tourists experience cultural tourism sites by offering them diversified experiences and added-value propositions (Errichiello et al., 2019)1. Today, the numerous applications of augmented reality are being utilized in the field of tourism. These applications help recreate historical artifacts that are found in museums digitally. It is expected that several tourism organizations will benefit from these applications by gain competitive advantage in contrast to other tourism enterprises and satisfying their visitors (ÖZKUL & Kumlu, 2019)2. In this research, the effect of implementing Virtual Reality in museums, specifically the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), on visitors’ experiences and attitudes towards the museum will be investigated.