Real vs. Virtual: A Theoretical Framework for Assessing the Role of Authenticity in Visitor Interactions with Museum Technologies

People travel and increasingly engage in cultural activities, a phenomenon that has been called cultural tourism. Two principal reasons for these trips or visits are the need to break with monotony and the search for enjoyment and authentic experiences. Conversely, cultural places such as museums tend to rely on Information Technologies (IT) to support their exhibition and communication to the public. Although technology has undeniable advantages for museums and their visitors, it is not evident that IT contributes both to more enjoyment and to an experience of authenticity. Indeed, prior research has focused on authenticity without taking into account the presence of technologies in cultural settings. Conversely IS research has not really studied perceptions of authenticity in entertaining contexts. As a result, the consequences of visitors’ interactions with IT during their cultural trip are not clear. The research’s objective is to propose a framework assessing affective and cognitive reactions of museum visitors when interacting with IT, and more particularly virtual reality systems. This framework is based on Sun and Zhang’s (2006) model of Individual Interaction with IT (IIIT). This paper also relies on the concept of authenticity, and more particularly on the constructivist view of authenticity.