An Empirical Study on the Impact of Online Travel Consumers' Brand Loyalty: The Mediating Effect of Flow Experience

Abstract

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) technology has developed vigorously, and how to make good use of virtual reality technology to create virtual tourism has become an important topic for tourism ecommerce. Previous studies have shown that creating a good online experience for consumers is an effective way for e-commerce to establish consumer brand loyalty, but there are few literatures focusing on the special group of online travel consumers. Based on the flow theory, the article uses Chinese online travel consumers as a sample to conduct empirical research, focusing on exploring the relationship between consumer perception of VR technology and brand loyalty, and testing the mediating effect of flow experience. The results show that: (1) the perceived usefulness and ease of use of VR technology have a significant positive impact on consumers' online experience; (2)the flow experience of travel consumers has a significant positive impact on their brand loyalty; (3) the perceived usefulness and ease of use of VR technology have a significant positive impact on consumers' brand loyalty;(4)the flow experience has a mediating effect between the perception of VR technology and brand loyalty of travel consumers.