The effect of mobile augmented reality application on the relationship between tourist experience, satisfaction, place attachment and storytelling intention: A quasi-experimental research

Creating and presenting a unique tourism experience has become more important day by day. Nowadays tourism researchers and practitioners use augmented reality (AR) applications to make tourism experiences unforgettable and unique, enabling tourists to repeat these experiences and recommend them to others. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, this study aimed to determine the effect of mobile AR applications on the hypothetical relationship between tourist experience (TE), place attachment (PA), satisfaction (S), and storytelling intention (SI) with the help of experimental design (static group comparative design). For this purpose, an AR application was designed for three cultural areas in Antalya/Kaleiçi, which was determined as the stimulus of experimental design. Accordingly, tourists were placed in control or experimental groups non-randomly, and experimental procedure (AR application) was applied to the experimental group. Afterwards, a post-test was applied to both groups. A total of 398 questionnaires, of which 201 were in the control group and 197 in the experimental group, were included in the analysis. First, descriptive analyses were carried out with the data obtained. Then, the mean scores of the control and experimental groups on TE, PA, S, and SI were compared with independent sample t-tests. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the groups for all variables. After that, the PLS-SEM method was used to test the relationship between the variables in the model. The relationships between the variables are first presented in the outer model and then in the inner model. Except for the relationship between PA and S in the inner model, all other relationships were observed to be significant. Moreover, it was concluded that PA and S respectively, partially (complementary) mediated the relationship between TE and SI. In the last stage of the study, the Inner model was analyzed in terms of control and experimental groups. Also, multiple group analysis was carried out to determine the moderator effect of AR application on the relations between these variables. It has been determined that there are significant differences between AR users and non-AR users, except for the relationships between "TE→SI", "TE→PA", and "PA→S" ("TE→S", "TE→PA→SI", "TE→S→SI", "PA→SI" ve "S→SI" accepted). However, it was observed that the moderator effect was higher in the control group for each relationship that was found to be different (control group > experimental group). In the light of all these findings, theoretical and practical contributions were made to the literature, and recommendations for future research are presented within the limitations of the study.