Research Article

Immersive Cultural Tourism as an Experience-Based Mode of Cultural Communication: Impacts and Boundaries

Fangfei LinUniversity of New South Wales*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Immersive cultural tourism has become a discussed issue in terms of cultural-tourism integration, but the formation of the meaning mechanism and boundaries of its spread remains to be explored thoroughly. This essay reviews the immersive cultural tourism experience-based cultural communication, with reference to communication studies. The paper adopts the perspectives of media geography, embodied communication, geographical narrative, and thematic as arguments that perception of the historical culture is converted into experience by spatial organization, involvement of the body, and structuring through themes. The results indicate that immersive cultural tourism cultures make cultural places more accessible through the conversion of past events, thus improving audience comprehension and cultural belonging. Meanwhile, experiential design might focus on emotional appeal and recognizable elements, which might make the complexities of history simpler and reduce the variety of understandings. Thus, the concept of immersive cultural tourism can be regarded as a rather broadly participatory and structurally tense communication. According to this, this essay asserts that it needs to strike a balance between emotional appeal and cultural responsibility in designing and sharing practices and enhance the ethics of communication and the contextual preservation of the historical context.

Keywords: Immersive Cultural Tourism; Experience-Based Communication; Cultural Translation
Published: March 30, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.32513
Volume: CHR Vol.103
pp. 71-77
Download PDF

References

  1. Bowen, Z., Yue, R., Tang, Y., & Zan, S. (2026). Elements of tourist demand for tourism-related performing arts based on online reviews and the Kano model. Entertainment Computing, 56, Article 101081.
  2. Zhang, Z., & Liu, Y. (2022). The core meaning of "immersion" and its cultural logic. Nanjing Journal of Social Sciences, (2), 165–172.
  3. Wang, H., & Liu, S. (2018). Immersion and narrative: A study of immersive cultural experience design in museums under new media imaging technologies. Art Hundred, 34(4), 161–169.
  4. Hillis, K. (2015). Mediated Geographies and Geographies of Media.
  5. Borghi, A. M., & Cimatti, F. (2010). Embodied cognition and beyond: Acting and sensing the body. Neuropsychologia, 48(3), 763–773.
  6. Semin, G. R., & Smith, E. R. (Eds.). (2008). Embodied grounding: Social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientific approaches. Cambridge University Press.
  7. Bedford, L. (2001). Storytelling: The real work of museums. Curator: The Museum Journal, 44(1), 27–34.
  8. Lukas, S. A. (2007). The themed space: Locating culture, nation, and self. Lexington Books.
  9. Yang, Y., Zhang, X., & Liu, H. (2025). From immersion to identification: The mechanism of cultural IP experience on tourists' value internalization. Advance Online Publication.
  10. MacCannell, D. (1973). Staged authenticity: Arrangements of social space in tourist settings. American Journal of Sociology, 79(3), 589–603.
  11. Richards, G. (2018). Cultural tourism: A review of recent research and trends. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 36, 12–21.
  12. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). (2018). Tourism and culture synergies. UNWTO.
  13. Cheng, Q. (2025). Immersive experiences and cultural identity construction. Journal of Tourism, Culture & Communication. Advance Online Publication.
  14. Zhang, M., & Zhao, Y. (2025). Authenticity in gamified experiences of historical and cultural districts: A case study of immersive script-based tourism. Renwen Dilixuebao (Journal of Human Geography).