Who Wants to Travel Digitally, and Why? – An Analysis of Personal Traits and Vicarious Sense of Place in a Virtual Environment

Who is interested in digital travel? In particular, what are the personal traits of individuals who use digital alternatives to physical travel? In this chapter, we aim to arrive at accurate answers to these questions. Our earlier work had shown that two characteristics distinguish people who are positive about digital travel versus those who are not: optimism, which we assessed using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and resistance to peer influence (RPI), which we assessed using the Steinberger and Monahan RPI-questionnaire. Our previous study took place during a time of travel restrictions introduced in response to the spread of the Covid-19 virus. To expand on those findings, we commissioned a new and larger national survey with 604 travellers to analyse whether these two characteristics can be used to identify those with a positive view of digital travel in general. This was conducted after Covid-19 restrictions had been removed. We asked our participants to express their views about travelling digitally by answering questions about the use of digital travel for guided tours, museum visits, and distant attractions. Our results showed that resistance to peer influence scores could indeed be used to predict the likelihood of users accepting digital travel technologies, but user optimism could not.