Social Virtual Worlds´ Success Factors: Four Studies´ Insights for the Tourism Supply and Demand Side

This study summarizes success factors of virtual worlds (VWs) examined in scientific studies. One success factor attracting users is that VWs comprise a critical mass of residents. The most popular social VW Second Life (SL) struggles to reach this criterion. Nevertheless, businesses put time and money into virtual representations. This research aims at revealing reasons for this effort by conducting four empirical studies in the field of tourism. The first two studies examine the supply side, evaluating representations and looking at drivers for doing business in SL, the other two studies focus on the demand side. The aim is to detect reasons for using SL as an information source and to reveal underlying values SL provides to its residents. Results show that the supply side uses SL to arouse emotions, to target new customers, and for relationship management. Travelers are attracted by added values the social VW provides.