Value Creation in Tourism and Digital Technologies

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR), a digital technology, is a virtual 3D environment where the perception of reality is blended with virtual elements. It is known that this digital technology, which has been widely used in tourism, is also used for purposes such as finding a place, accessing a tourist center & attraction center, and destination. In this study, access planning was made to the Atatürk House Museum in Thessaloniki through AR technology. For this purpose, AR contents were created by synchronizing Adobe Aero and Google Earth Pro. Photographs taken by the researcher on-site constitute the input to the AR ecosystem. The application developed after the demo and test studies was ready for use by making the necessary corrections. Adopting experimental design principles, two groups of 346 people, an experimental and a control group, were asked to evaluate access to the museum before and after the AR application. Findings show that AR application was accepted as a useful tool for the four selected factors (arousing curiosity, usefulness, effort, and functionality). The study increases curiosity and excitement about the region and the museum. In addition, this research differs from other studies in that for the first time, a public application has been developed in which real images of the region are transferred to a 3D environment, and real and virtual AR contents are used together by using digital twins.

Keywords

• augmented reality
• digital technologies
• digital content
• tourism

Turizmde Değer Yaratma ve Dijital Teknolojiler

Abstract

Dijital teknolojilerden biri olan Artırılmış Gerçeklik (AG), gerçeklik algısının sanal öğelerle harmanlandığı, gerçek-sanal 3 boyutlu ortamlardır. Turizmde de çok sık uygulama bulmuş bu dijital teknolojinin yer bulma, bir turistik merkez & cazibe merkezi ve/veya destinasyona erişim gibi amaçlarla da kullanıldığı bilinmektedir. Bu çalışmada Selanik’teki Atatürk evi müzesine AG teknolojisi aracılığıyla erişim planlaması yapılmıştır. Bu amaçla AG içerikleri, Adobe Aero ve Google Earth Pro senkronizasyonuyla oluşturulmuştur. Araştırmacı tarafından yerinde çekilen fotoğraflar, oluşturulan AG ekosistemine girdi oluşturmaktadır. Demo ve test çalışmalarından sonra geliştirilen uygulama gerekli düzeltmeler yapılarak kullanıma hazır hale getirilmiştir. Deney tasarımı ilkeleri benimsenerek, 346 kişilik deney ve kontrol grubundan oluşturulan iki gruba AG uygulaması öncesi ve sonrası için müzeye erişimi değerlendirmeleri istenmiştir. Bulgular göstermektedir ki AG uygulaması seçilen dört faktör (merak uyandırma, kullanışlılık, çaba ve fonksiyonellik) için kullanışlı bir araç olarak kabul edilmiştir. Çalışmanın bölge ve müzeye olan merak ve heyecanın artmasını sağlaması adına önemlidir. Ayrıca, bu araştırmada ilk kez bölgeye ait gerçek görüntülerin 3B ortama aktarıldığı, dijital ikizlerden faydalanılarak, gerçek ve sanal AG içeriklerinin bir arada kullanıldığı herkese açık bir uygulama geliştirilmiş olması adına diğer çalışmalardan ayrılmaktadır.

Keywords

• Artırılmış Gerçeklik (AG)
• Dijital teknolojiler
• Dijital İçerik
• Turizm

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