Can Augmented Reality Enhance to a Greater Visitor Satisfaction of Historical Landmarks?

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) is gradually becoming more common for marketing of tourist locations to enhance the visitor experience. But do visitors of historical events value the use of this technology and if so, are they willing to pay extra for the experience? As a case study, Calshot castle, part of British Heritage and situated in the New Forest was selected to research if visitors of an event at a historical location identified the use of Augmented Reality as an improvement to their visitor experience and were willing to pay extra for the experience. As the basis for the research an AR prototype was developed that allowed a 3D representation to be projected on top of the screen of a mobile device and as such delivering computer-generated perceptual information in a constructive way on a selected topic both visually and textually. The overlaid sensory information made use of a QR code. Analysis of the results revealed differences in perception between different age groups.