Marketing

Theoretical sampling

Cultural heritage management

Grounded theory

Heritage tourism

Tourism geography

Axial coding

Augmented reality

Tourism

Archaeology

Coding (social sciences)

Computer science

Business

Qualitative research

Empowerment

Geography

Cultural heritage

Political science

Sociology

Human–computer interaction

Social science

Sustainability

As competition intensifies, value co-creation with tourists is essential for successful implementation of mobile augmented reality (AR) heritage applications. This study therefore aims to identify heritage tourists’ needs and involvement when developing mobile AR heritage applications using a grounded theory approach. Since AR applications are still in their infancy in the tourism industry the grounded theory approach was employed. Fifty in-depth interviews were conducted in Macau’s World Heritage Sites. The interview transcripts were analyzed by the open coding method with the NVivo software, the process of axial coding and the selective coding method. This study generated new requirements for mobile AR heritage applications that reflect the needs of the Asian tourist market, which are different from those of the European tourist market. The characteristic of tourist empowerment and the association between co-creation and tourism were also identified. This study contributes to provide a theoretical framework for designing mobile AR heritage applications and has implications for mobile AR application developers and tourism practitioners.

Mobile Augmented Reality Heritage Applications: Meeting the Needs of Heritage Tourists