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Proceedings of the

3rd

Corfu Symposium on

Managing & Marketing

Places

18th - 21st April 2016

Corfu Mare Boutique Hotel

Corfu, Greece

3rd Corfu Symposium on Managing & Marketing Places 18th – 21st April 2016

18

Day 3 – Wednesday 20th

April

10:00 – 11:00 Session 6: Facilitator – Dr Heather Skinner

Place and heritage

Thinking and Re-thinking about Places: Dark Heritage Sites

Audrey Gilmore Ulster University, N. Ireland

Roxana Magee Ulster University, N. Ireland

Andrea Reid Ulster University, N. Ireland

Lisa Harkness Ulster University, N. Ireland

Conceptualising the Value of Mixed Reality for Enhancing Visitor Experience at

Heritage Places

Timothy Jung Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Mandy Claudia tom Dieck Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee

11:30 – 13:00 Session 7: Facilitator – Professor Cathy Parker

Special Session - Writing for Publication: linking academics

and practitioners: Introduction to the Institute of Place

Management, and the Journal of Place Management and

Development

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch

14:30 – 17:30 Coach departs from the Symposium Hotel for our visit to the

Ropa Valley where we will visit Mavromatis Distillery and

the Theotoky Estate.

17:30 Coach departs Theotoky Estate for our return to the Symposium

Hotel.

19:00 Trip to Corfu Town - Delegates may take up the opportunity of

joining us in Corfu town where we will take an evening guided

walk around this historic UNESCO World Heritage Centre

(dinner is not included but there are plenty of cafes, tavernas and

restaurants in the town).

3rd Corfu Symposium on Managing & Marketing Places 18th – 21st April 2016

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Session 6

Place and Heritage

3rd Corfu Symposium on Managing & Marketing Places 18th – 21st April 2016

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Conceptualising the Value of Mixed Reality for Enhancing Visitor

Experience at Heritage Places

Dr Timothy Jung and Dr M. Claudia tom Dieck

Manchester Metropolitan University

Corresponding author:t.jung@mmu.ac.uk

Pine and Korn (2011, p. 1) are on the forefront identifying opportunities of mixed realities,

combination of augmented reality and virtual reality, for consumers’ value enhancement and

revealed eight realms in the Multiverse including “reality, augmented reality, alternate reality,

warped reality, virtuality, augmented virtuality, physical virtuality, and mirrored virtuality”.

In each of these realms, consumers receive value from some type of technology that enhances

their lives and thus businesses and places need to reach through these realms in order to

identify new opportunities of adding more value to consumers. In the visitor experience

context, mixed realities are changing the way tourists experience environments when visiting

places. Augmented reality has previously been proven to enhance experiences through the

overlay of digital information into visitors’ immediate surroundings (Han et al., 2014; Jung et

al., 2015; tom Dieck et al., 2015) whilst virtual reality was found to provide tourists and

visitors with rich information and experience with a focus on trip planning before visiting

destinations (Huang et al., 2015). However, a focus on the experience of mixed realities while

visiting places is scarce (Jung et al., 2016). Particularly in the context of heritage places such

as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Cranmer et al. (2016) found latest technologies enable an

enhancement of the visitor experience through interactive, informative and enjoyable

information without interfering with nature and traditional landscapes. Therefore, the aim of

this paper is to conceptualise how a heritage place such as UNESCO World Heritage Site can

add value to the visitor experience through the inclusion of mixed realities.

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In 2011, Pine and Korn proposed the realms of multiverse (Figure 1), a model which

proposed that experiences occur around space, time and matter axes. Each of the eight realms

of the model has its roots in reality which is positioned in the real place at the actual time and

matter. The present study focuses on augmented reality, which is according to Pine and Korn

(2011), moves a bit further ahead to the no matter spectrum due to the provision of digital

information at the actual time of experience within a real space as well as virtual reality

which moves a bit further and provides visitors and consumers with experiences in a virtual

space in a more autonomous time. According to Stone (2015), there has been a wide range of

studies describing the potential contributions of new and innovative interactive digital

technologies to the preservation, understanding and interpretation of sites, artefacts and

events over the past decade. In this paper, it is proposed that in the case of UNESCO World

Heritage Sites, the model of the realms in the multiverse can be applied to stage augmented

and virtual experiences while visiting the real heritage places in order to enhance visitor

experiences. In particular, non-accessible sites can be made accessible through the staging of

a virtual experience. This is proposed to add value to the heritage places through an enhanced

service offering providing enhanced information without compromising on original places

(tom Dieck & Jung, 2016) as well as visitors experience and perceived value (Cranmer et al.,

2016). In particular, augmented reality as a tool can be used to provide digital (no-matter)

content on heritage places and natural objects (matter) in real-time and real places. On the

other hand, virtual reality can provide a digital experience in real-time or in autonomous time

on real space using a virtual space. Hence, heritage places are enabled to utilise the full

spectrum displayed in Figure 1 to provide their visitors with an enhanced experience of their

place.

In this short paper, the case of Geevor Tin Mine museum, a UNESCO World Heritage

recognised site, is used as an example to show how the realms of multiverse can be used to

enhance the visitor experience with a specific focus on reality, augmented reality and virtual

reality and how these three interlink. Geevor Tin Mine museum is located in Cornwall, UK,

and has a broad target market from school groups to senior visitors. Consequently, the need

for the creation of enjoyable and interactive as well as accessible content is one of the

priorities in terms of visitor experience.

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Fig.1. The Multiverse (Pine and Korn, 2011)

Geevor Tin Mine museum as a place spreads over a large natural area directly at the ocean

and the experience include the exploration of old machinery and mines. However, due to the

World Heritage Status, information signs are limited for preservation purposes. Augmented

reality provides an ideal tool to provide enjoyable, informative and interactive information

overlaid into visitors’ direct vision without compromising on the museum and its natural

surroundings while adding to the value creation process. Virtual reality can be used to help

explore non-accessible sites such as mines as well as enable young children, senior visitors or

disabled visitors to explore the underground mines which otherwise would be hidden.

Overall, the use of mixed realities while visiting heritage places can help to overcome

accessibility issues, preserve natural places as well as enhance the visitor experience allowing

for a fuller and more immersive way of visiting places. The present study proposed how

mixed reality could add value to enhance the experience at heritage places. Implementing a

mix of digital technologies is expected to create value for visitors and therefore, future

research and case studies are required to develop mixed (augmented and virtual) reality

applications to test the enhancement of the visitor experience.

No-Time

(Autonomous) Autonomous

Events

No-Matter (Bits)

Digital Substances

No-Space

(Virtual) Virtual Places

Time

(Actual) Actual Events

Matter (Atoms) Material

Substances

Space

(Real) Real Places

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References

Cranmer, E., Jung, T., tom Dieck, M.C., & Miller, A. (2016). Understanding the Acceptance

of Augmented Reality at an Organisational level: The Case of Geevor Tin Mine

Museum, In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, Springer:

Heidelberg.

Han, D. I., Jung, T., & Gibson, A. (2013). Dublin AR: Implementing Augmented Reality in

Tourism. In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014 (pp. 511-

523). Springer International Publishing.

Huang, Y.C., Backman, K. F., Backman, S. J., & Chang, L. L. (2015). Exploring the

Implications of Virtual Reality Technology in Tourism Marketing: An Integrated

Research Framework. International Journal of Tourism Research.

Jung, T., Chung, N., & Leue, M. C. (2015). The determinants of recommendations to use

augmented reality technologies: The case of a Korean theme park. Tourism

Management, 49, 75-86.

Jung, T., tom Dieck, M.C., Lee, H., & Chung, N. (2016). Effects of Virtual Reality and

Augmented Reality on Visitor Experiences in Museum, In Information and

Communication Technologies in Tourism, Springer: Heidelberg.

Pine, J., & Korn, K. (2011). Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital

Frontier, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.

Stone, R. (2015). Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies for Applications in Cultural

Heritage: A Human Factors Perspective. Furnace, 2, 1-18.

tom Dieck, M. C., & Jung, T. (2015). A theoretical model of mobile augmented reality

acceptance in urban heritage tourism. Current Issues in Tourism, 1-21.

tom Dieck, M. C., & Jung, T. (2016). Value of Augmented Reality to enhance the Visitor

Experience: A Case study of Manchester Jewish Museum, eReview of Tourism

Research, 1-5.