Recalibrating Risk Through Immersive Technologies: A Hybrid Systematic Review and Conceptual Framework for Adventure Tourism Decision-Making

Abstract

The nature of adventure tourism itself is linked with both uncertainty and a perception of risk, and these contribute greatly to the decisions regarding participation and intentions to buy. Today, perceived risk is mostly conceptualised as a stable phenomenon; however, emerging immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality allow tourists to interact with simulated environments before they interact with the real ones. In this study, the researchers explore the reconfiguration of perceived risk and the restructuring of behavioural intentions in an adventure tourism setting due to the use of the immersive technologies. Using a sample of 147 peer-reviewed studies determined from the Scopus database via PRISMA-based screening, 108 bibliographic studies were identified and mapped, and 29 theory-driven thematic studies were undertaken, resulting in a hybrid systematic review. A thematic coding was performed by using iterations of open and axial coding of literature following the TCCM to bring out the concept, which occurred in the literature over and over again, and to indicate conceptual relationships. The results suggest that by cognitively familiarising children with the situation, immersive exposure helps to decrease uncertainty, and by engaging them with the procedures, perceived behavioural control increases. When integrated, the study constructs the Immersive Risk Calibration Model, which considers perceived risk as a mobile cognitive process that is created in an interactive manner before the intention is given. It offers a study theory perspective and extends the knowledge of behaviour decision-making in a high uncertainty tourism environment and in the context of technology mediated cognitive calibration processes.