In recent years, a number of technological advances have led to significant improvements in technology utilizing virtual reality because it is a technology and a term often used in tourism research and practice [22,23]. These developments are crucial due to the growing interest of tourists in technology. Various authors have dealt with the similarities and differences between augmented and virtual reality, suggesting that VR is often described as a concept related to augmented reality [12,24,25,26]. Other authors have presented VR as a visualization technique in which the real environment disappears completely, and the client is immersed in a completely digital world [27,28]. Some authors have also discussed mixed reality (virtual reality and augmented reality), which describes the combination of a real environment with digital content with the help of technical devices and can vary from the real environment without the complete digital immersion [29,30,31].

In contrast, VR is a fully computer-generated 3D environment that users can navigate and interact with using one or more of the five senses [32]. In fact, the reinvention of virtual reality destinations has become popular [33,34,35]. Every VR system requires an input device so that the actions of the potential tourist can be interpreted and with which they can interact in the virtual environment. In complete isolation, the potential tourist is holistic in the VR world and has no interaction with the real world. Understandably, there is an additional need for research and development to include a sense of balance, which is important, e.g., for determining posture and orientation in the room or telepresence [36], i.e., inclusion of the characteristics of physical immersion and psychological presence [37,38,39].

Many applications used in VR offer tourists access to reliable and accurate information with a fraction of the cost, time, and effort, which allows for the elimination of elements of uncertainty related to the intangible nature of products and tourist destinations [40,41]. According to Guttentag [42], especially in tourism, sensor technology is very important, and VR applications are widely used in this industry to create and plan models. They offer the opportunity to observe the surroundings from countless perspectives. Equally, VR-based marketing and, especially, advertising applications are usually addressed to several sensory organs of tourists. Thus, it is easier for advertisers to arouse the desire to relax, adventure, or explore, and VR offers the future tourist better opportunities to experience and sample the holiday destination and is, therefore, more effective than traditional print advertising.

VR provides more accurate information about interesting places to visit, but these destinations are perceived subjectively and differently by each person because users have the opportunity to use their own spatial perception to explore the world of VR in a natural way [43,44,45]. Moreover, “overtourism” can be counteracted with the help of VR as a virtual copy of the original in the case where a destination gives the visitor the opportunity to explore freely. The use of new technologies in destination marketing can help break down physical barriers through the virtual experience of destinations inaccessible to certain people who have limited opportunities or are unable to travel due to the pandemic.

All these aspects combined will contribute to the creation of the profile of the tourist who uses VR, to their motivation for choosing a tourist destination in a virtual way, and to the strategic planning in the marketing of tourist destinations. At the same time, all those involved must account for a number of factors, as follows:

• Political factors relating to property rights;
• Economic factors involved in changing business models or their innovations and marketing activities;
• Sociocultural factors examining the behavior and market trends of consumers and tourists.

Another major aspect of VR technology in tourism is the potential change in tourism behavior and demand structure [46,47,48]. Specific market segments could consist of Generation Y and Generation Z—generations who prefer to use this technology to virtually select the destinations and accommodation providers they want to travel to directly from home [2]. However, for this target group, the integration of sensory perceptions (things that can be touched or felt) is one of the key aspects to fully develop the great potential of VR [49]. These generations also appreciate creating content for comprehensive physical immersion (animating a 3D environment or creating a 3D environment with the integration of photos and videos). Therefore, the use of VR technology in marketing strategy could influence the decision in favor of a certain destination and should attract new tourists or encourage existing tourists to consume more.

This business model, which is based on the principle of experimenting virtually with VR technology and subsequently purchasing, could become the business model of the future for the tourism industry. Due to the attractiveness and high potential for destination marketing, travel organizations have begun to use virtual worlds as a marketing tool.

The study of tourist behavior is a fascinating journey into the world of human behavior [31]. The main advantage for which the authors used the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model in this study lies in the fact that it allows for the investigation of the factors determining the adoption, acceptance, and use of new technologies and may also surprise the behavior of using that technology. Hence, the UTAUT model comprises many other theories such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Motivational Model (MM), Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), Model of PC Utilization (MPCU), Hybrid Model, and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and can be a valuable tool for examining the possible future of VR technology and its influence on destination marketing.

The UTAUT model used in this study was adjusted with the constructs set by previous researchers [50,51,52]. According to Venkatesh et al. [51], the four key constructs of UTAUT are social influence, effort expectation, performance expectation, and facilitating conditions. The expectation of performance is to ensure users’ increased competitiveness and tourism performance by adopting information technology. The waiting effort offered by the adoption of VR technology makes the choice of tourist destination more precise and faster for the realization of the targeted tourist activities. Social influence supports VR technology users to gain support in choosing tourist destinations with the help of social networks. The facilitation conditions speak about the assistance of current and potential tourists in using the VR infrastructure to carry out their visions on the selected tourist destinations more effectively. These constructs are motivated by behavioral intention to use VR technology and are moderated by the purchase intention of a tourist package, the (re)visit intention of a tourist destination, and usage interests’ VR technology as often as possible.

UTAUT factors (social influence, effort expectation, performance expectation, and facilitating conditions) could affect the behavioral intention of tourists to become aware of a tourist destination through VR technology. Thus, the use of VR by tourists is influenced by effort expectancy and performance expectancy. To make the VR experience as realistic as possible, it is necessary to ensure a real-world view. Videos or images are usually supplemented with additional computer-generated information or virtual objects by fading or overlapping.