ICT Pandemic Time Adoption and Immersive Technologies: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

The tourism industry is a driving force for the global economy. Immersive technologies create powerful opportunities for the products and services of the tourism industry. The convergence of tourism products with advanced technology has a notable impact on business growth, lowering the operational marketing and training costs, and finally, remarkably influencing the consumers’ perception of their choice of destinations. Technology is also an essential instrument for the travel and hospitality industry during hard times, such as the novel COVID-19 pandemics, which caused a sudden and sharp interruption in business and private environments. The business owners and labor force have suffered drastically owing to the pandemics. Immersive technologies have vast potential for sectoral growth and present an alternative digitalized tourism environment for all but especially tourism-dependent destinations. Early adopters of advanced technology have had a greater opportunity to recover from the severe economic damages. Yet, there is an urgent need to discover how immersive technologies helped companies survive the pandemic. Hence, it is essential to understand the immersive technology's epistemological aspect to rip the benefits of the technology-enabled marketing solutions and create alternative tourism approaches when faced with unprecedented challenges.