Online tourism experiences: exploring digital and human dimensions in in-remote destination visits

Fully online tourist experiences remain a largely unexplored area of inquiry, as a valuable and meaningful traveling modality per se, beyond any connection with conventional tourism. This explorative study aims to advance knowledge on the role of human and technology dimensions in shaping the online tourist experience during the pandemic. A sample of 9,300 Airbnb Online Experience reviews of thirty-four online destination experiences was analyzed. A typology of four fully online tourism experiences is presented, such as individual escape and personalized learning, meeting the destination, meeting the host and social bonding. The research reveals the dynamic evolution of the fully online tourist experience during the pandemic, highlighting the strengthening role of the human dimension and the human-to-human interaction, despite the digital mediation of the in-remote destination visit. Avenues for destination management and marketing research and practice spring from the analysis of fully online tourist experiences as a form of virtual tourism.