Trade show visitors and key technological trends: from a literature review to a conceptual framework

4.1.1 Pre-show

Identifying the criteria behind the choice of which event to attend constitutes a useful information for trade shows organizers and exhibitors to reach a large audience and for understanding the counterpart of their interaction (Berne and García-Uceda, 2008). In fact, trade shows have increased in number and variety; thus, visitors are offered a wide selection of exhibitions to pick from.

In each of the three considered phases, starting from the period prior to the exhibition, participants evaluate their potential participation and start interrogating themselves on a possible event to attend. Rosson and Seringhaus (1995) provided a scheme considering visitors’ questions and decisions in each of the three moments. Hence, they stated that in the pre-trade show phase visitors query themselves on issues the firm should attend, for what purpose, how many visitors and which ones should participate in the event.

When making a decision on which trade show to visit, visitors may hold different reasons/motivations, which we refer to as endogenous factors. Among these, seeking new products, sharing information regarding these products with experts, comparing alternative solutions and collecting new information have been considered as the main motives for visiting trade shows by Shoham (1992) and further confirmed by Haon et al. (2020). Indeed, the pursue of knowledge represents an essential element in motivating visitors, as both visitors who have purchasing goals and those who do not are involved in a continuous query for notions (Borghini et al., 2006). In fact, Haon et al. (2020) demonstrated that a great majority of trade show visitors are motivated only by information-acquisition objectives, for instance, comprising “to see and talk to current vendors/suppliers” or “to gain insights on industry conditions” (Haon et al., 2020, p. 12, article in press). Furthermore, information sources may vary according to the visitors’ role positions in a company (Bello, 1992).

Additional reasons for participating to trade shows include: meeting regular suppliers, updating professional skills and improve the credibility of the organization they work for, feeling part of a community, taking part in an important event in the industry, being reassured during crises through meeting suppliers and customers (Borghini et al., 2006). For such reasons, trade shows constitute a networking site. Indeed, visitors often indicate participating in social events as well as attending industry briefings as means to establish and maintain networks (Rosson and Seringhaus, 1995; Godar and O’connor, 2001; Mensah and Lestyo, 2012). Other factors such as confirming previous years participation have been described by literature as “buyers return in large numbers year after year” (Godar and O’connor, 2001, p. 79). Trust might be considered as a cardinal element in reaching a satisfactory relationship, in fact, as highlighted by Lacka et al. (2020), “trusting relationships are key in B2B international trade” (Lacka et al., 2020, p. 7). Jia and Wan (2021) explored the factors that may influence the generation of trust relationships at the trade show between exhibitors and visitors. The authors found that preconditions such as early experience, institutional trust in the environment and trust propensity may influence general trust patterns. Moreover, they have identified elements which can facilitate the establishment of trust between exhibitors and visitors, such as stakeholders’ treatment, trust transfer, on-site restraints, reward and punishment expansion and on-site personnel arrangement. Loyalty also emerges as a key element in such frame as exhibitions are a tool to foster confidence in brands and to support customer loyalty (Kirchgeorg et al., 2010).

After having identified the motivations, it is important to determine the main criteria adopted by visitors when evaluating which trade shows to attend, that we name exogenous factors. Visitors increasingly depend upon information and their perceptions of fundamental exhibition attributes (Berne and García-Uceda, 2008). Hence, visitors contemplate elements such as the type of trade show, its location and time convenience, its reputation and management, as well as the quantity and quality of attendance and of exhibitors (Godar and O’connor, 2001; Berne and García-Uceda, 2008). These elements are important to acknowledge when evaluating a trade show because they are directly related to the experience lived at the exhibition itself. Details directly linked to customer relations and trade show costs are also taken into account, including planning, budgeting and differential costs (the latter referred to the different costs that could be incurred at different venues). However, only the first two categories would be relevant for visitors (Berne and García-Uceda, 2008).

4.1.2 At-show

Trade shows usually unfold during a period of days. In this time period, visitors make decisions considering motivations such as specific booths to visit, which information to collect and interact with exhibitors while formulating impressions about them (Rosson and Seringhaus, 1995). As this section takes into consideration factors influencing trade show performance according to visitors’ point of view, it is paramount to underline that we refer to events that occurred prior to the COVID-19 pandemics, hence, a more general definition of the time period concerning the “at-trade show” phase specifically involving online or mixed modality (offline integrated with online modes) should be formulated and analyzed. At trade shows, visitors can meet in person current and potential suppliers, gain information about products, companies, industry and technology, new trends and inspiration for their activities (Bello, 1992; Berne and García-Uceda, 2008; Blythe, 2010; Rinallo et al., 2010; Gopalakrishna et al., 2010; Bettis‐Outland et al., 2012; Menon and Edward, 2014), receive advice from technical personnel (Rinallo et al., 2010), interact in a network where they feel part of a community while establishing relationships and experiencing leisure (Berne and García-Uceda, 2008; Rinallo et al., 2010; Mensah and Lestyo, 2012; Sarmento et al., 2014; Jin and Weber, 2016).

During each visit to an exhibition, there may be several factors that can make the difference in the experience accomplished by visitors. To give an example, Jung (2005) identified the determinants of visitors’ exhibition service quality perception. The author highlighted six dimensions: booth management, contents, registration, access, booth layout and function, exhibition and booth attractiveness. He particularly stressed “contents” such as number of participating exhibitors, quality of products or services exhibited, conferences, seminars and events organized as the most important item and observed that exhibition service quality perception was, unexpectedly, mostly dominated by booth layout and function. Salem et al. (2010) explored user profiling and adaptation in relation to exhibition booth. The authors adopted three criteria for the evaluation of exhibition booth: effectiveness (the amount of received information), efficiency (the measurement of time taken to collect the information) and affect (the perception of the experience and the mood booth visitors have during and after their visit). Bloch et al. (2017) investigated the relation between booth design and visitors’ behavioral response in selecting booths by considering individual differences and agenda characteristics as moderating factors. According to their findings, design elements such as shape, layout and surface decoration affect preference and the decision to visit a specific booth, but these preferences may vary depending on visitors’ agenda breadth and a design-related trait (e.g. Centrality of Visual Product Aesthetics [CVPA][2]). Sun et al. (2018) explored the consequences of booth staff’s clothing in determining visitors’ approach to such areas. The authors categorized booth staff’s clothing into conform and nonconform, referring to the general social acceptance of a way of dressing. The authors highlighted how conforming clothing leads to a greater willingness to approach the booths, hence to an increased desire of participants to enter, visit, interact and come back to an exhibition booth.

Rinallo et al. (2010) observed business visitors’ behavior at trade shows through an approach based on “experiential perception in marketing” (Rinallo et al., 2010, p. 249). This approach is based on the analysis of observations and interviews, identifying the most appreciated experience for both organizers and exhibitors. “Presence of products” and “competent personnel” were depicted by the respondents as the most valuable services provided by the organizers. Furthermore, concerning exhibitors, “selection of exhibitors and distribution of exhibitors in the exhibition space according to visitors’ search processes, trend and rest areas, and social and technical events” were depicted by respondents as the most appreciated provided services (Rinallo et al., 2010, p. 253). Jha et al. (2019) studied the effects of service-related resources on exhibitors personnel attitudes and visitor responses. They demonstrated a positive effect of service leadership (commitment of top-management of the exhibitor) and service technology (tools available for customer services) in developing a customer-oriented service strategy with satisfied exhibition employees. The study also found service-related resources influencing job satisfaction of exhibitor personnel and visitors’ responses, for instance, concerning booth interaction quality, satisfaction and word-of-mouth intentions. Zhou et al. (2020) determined that different job positions of visitors participating to trade fairs (e.g. sales staff, functional department staff, middle and senior management and personal) have an influence on visitors’ learning style. To illustrate by administering questionnaires, the authors determined that middle and senior managers used direct talks more than buyers with the aim of acquiring knowledge. Further, visiting forms carried an impact on both learning behavior and its effects since visitors that participated in groups communicated more with different exhibition participants than those visiting alone. Also, the authors found observation as a relevant mean for acquiring knowledge, more important than direct conversations; they found explanations for such factors in the limited time of the visit, numerous tasks and objectives of visitors; hence, a selection would be made by visitors on most significant communications.

Sarmento et al. (2015a) focused on the relational aspect of exhibitions. The authors observed a shift from a transactional to a relationship marketing perspective by combining observation of relational dynamics among participants and research interviews. In fact, according to the authors, “the transactional approach no longer responds to the current business context” (Sarmento et al., 2015a, p. 591). Through their research, Sarmento et al. (2015a) demonstrated that interaction and networking at trade shows help developing relations among multiple subjects, thus going beyond the point-to-point exhibitor-visitor relationship. Furthermore, the authors stressed that thanks to interchanging points of view of many actors in the exhibition environment, trade fairs constitute a place for generating innovative solutions to problems. Sarmento et al. (2015b) further investigated the issue of socialization in the trade show context by examining buyer-seller interactions. The authors highlighted that socialization at exhibitions is encouraged by the trade show atmosphere that facilitates the creation of bonds and commitment. Further, Sarmento et al. (2015c) explored the reasons for participating in B2B trade shows and for visitors’ interaction with suppliers; their study shows that visitors “do not highlight buying at these events and the most experienced visitors are the ones who devalue most buying at trade fairs” (Sarmento et al., 2015c, p. 273).

The knowledge sharing and learning at trade shows has been investigated by Reychav (2009), Sarmento et al. (2015b) and Zhou et al. (2020). Reychav (2009) explored supplier learning and knowledge acquisition in trade shows through knowledge sharing. By depicting exhibition as “an important source for creating learning and continuous processes with external sources for both suppliers and customers” (Reychav, 2009, p. 143), the author observed that knowledge sharing about customer adaptation (defined as efforts to adapt to the other part to engage into more effective relationships) and knowledge sharing about joint actions (namely, moves toward mutual customer and supplier adaptation) are critical to knowledge acquisition in both visitors and exhibitors’ perspectives. Furthermore, customer and supplier learning would be boosted by sharing knowledge concerning joint actions. This highlights the importance of customer-supplier relationships at trade shows. Also, the more knowledge on joint actions is shared by suppliers, the more likely they are to enhance their process of knowledge acquisition at exhibitions. Moreover, by distinguishing different types of exchanges, Sarmento et al. (2015b) observed that when a relationship between buyer-seller is in its infancy, social exchange is more critical than information exchange. On the contrary, when the relationship gets older, the focus of the liaison would lie in sharing reciprocal knowledge. Finally, Bettis‐Outland et al. (2012) conducted an exploratory study of “Return on Trade Show Information” (RTSI) variables. RTSI summarizes the information that visitors gather during the trade shows and can be valuably used in their organizations. The authors underline the intangible, long‐term benefits of introducing the acquired information to the firms after participating in a trade show and collecting information (Bettis‐Outland et al., 2010; Bettis‐Outland et al., 2012).

Lacka et al. (2020) called the attention on previous research concerning key elements in trade at multiple levels and, at the international level, the authors have corroborated the role of culture in B2B exchanges and its impact on satisfaction in buyer-seller relationships. Hence, we deduct that differences in cultures between exhibitors and visitors, in parallel to ways of dressing, may impact visitors’ stay at the exhibitions.

Finally, Li et al. (2021) focused on visitors’ perceptions toward environmental sustainability (ES) in the context of exhibitions. The study found that visitors’ ES perception of an exhibition is generally based on the following aspects: technology-based consumption reduction, reduction of exhibition supplies, recycling and emissions reduction, green food and beverage and strengthening the concept of sustainability.

4.1.3 Post-show

This stage of the process usually entails further efforts by exhibitors who engage visitors through follow-up activities, leveraging on techniques including personal e-mail thank-you note, a personalized letter with further information, a personal visit, a reminder of the final expiration date for a special offer, etc. Thus, these elements are the ones affecting post-show phase and have been found crucial by Chu and Chiu (2013), who argued they entail a positive influence on image-building, sales-related and information-gathering performances of exhibitors.

Furthermore, after the participation to a trade show, visitors establish how to report their experience, question themselves over the evaluation of the event and decide how to react in terms of what actions to take (Rosson and Seringhaus, 1995).

4.3.1 Social media in the trade show domain

Social media is commonly defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that enables the creation and exchange of User Generated Content” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). Digital communication platforms and social media allowed a much cheaper and faster communication, besides broadening the range of potential recipients of messages transmitted; hence, social media may be seen as a “technology that helps individuals achieve their social goals and fulfill their social obligations” (Baldwin, 2021, p. 19).

In our analysis on visitors of trade shows, we noticed that, surprisingly, little scientific research had been dedicated so far to the issues of social media usage in such context. Social media platforms can help gaining direct information about trade show participants’ behavior during the pre-, at and post-trade show (Tafesse and Skallerud, 2017). Tafesse and Skallerud (2017) argue that, although trade show organizers have been increasingly using such platforms for multiple reasons (e.g. grant information on their events and communicate with current and potential customers), these are still scarcely implemented in the trade show domain to gather information regarding visitors’ perceptions and future intentions. Kitchen (2017) conducted a research to explore how organizers project the networking at trade shows. Their work also focused on visitors’ possible gains from participating to such events. Findings revealed that objectives were different based on the type of attendee; furthermore, they found that attendees typically followed up with 20%–30% of contacts after the exhibition. Accordingly, the authors suggested that the adoption of networking technologies could eventually allow profitable connections.

4.3.2 In-place visitors’ profiling

Especially in cases where trade show industry is more mature, the analysis and appraisal of visitors’ information become significant, and trade fair companies should take advantage by extracting valuable information for improving visitors’ relationship management and enhancing the overall quality of the exhibition (Shen and Huang, 2011).

Developing knowledge on spatial processes during events is useful in gathering visitors’ behavior and in promoting companies’ marketing strategies (Chongwatpol, 2015). Moreover, it allows to enhance visitors’ experience by helping exhibitors understanding visitors’ interests and purchasing conduct (Chongwatpol, 2015). Besides that, such practices lay grounds to better manage the trade show itself through the monitoring of the areas and support logistic planning providing information for optimizing critical aspects such as overcrowding (Blanke et al., 2014) and pricing. In fact, literature has consistently studied crowd behavior at large events by means of dedicated mobile applications or sensor tags (Mashhadi et al., 2016). Methods to acquire visitors’ location mainly rely on mobile applications that exploit Global Positioning Systems (GPS) or Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Cellular signals or a mix of them; on the other hand, sensor tags have been recorded by researchers mainly through Bluetooth devices (Mashhadi et al., 2016). Through our review, we found evidence of explorations entailing observation of the spatiotemporal paths through the definition of heat-maps derived from trajectories in the context of the trade shows. For the sake of completeness, we consider to be important to extend our analysis to the entertainment industry, e.g. festivals (Blanke et al., 2014) or sport events (Pettersson and Zillinger, 2011) where computer vision is extensively exploited to gain insights about the usefulness of such techniques and to gather knowledge on the way these could be exploited in the context of trade shows.

Evidence on the use of GPS technology for tracking visitors at large-scale events has been provided by Pettersson and Zillinger (2011) and Blanke et al. (2014). To observe the time-space movements of visitors during a sport event, Pettersson and Zillinger (2011) used a combination of three methods: GPS devices, questionnaires and overview camera recordings. The researchers were able to synthesize differently colored trajectories depending on the satisfaction expressed by visitors’ by associating the GPS devices to a button through which visitors could express positive or negative feelings. Similarly, Blanke et al. (2014) associated GPS devices to a survey as they aimed at capturing crowd dynamics through the development of a mobile phone app for a Swiss festival. The authors captured the location of the user continuously so that they could share their position with friends on Facebook who had installed the app. Results highlighted crow density and produced flow display maps expressing such patterns.

The authors examined further techniques to “track” visitors’ behavior. To illustrate, D’Amico et al. (2012) presented a prototype of multimodal system for multimedia experiences in artistic exhibitions, comprising an indoor environment where visitors interact with a natural interface system and an outdoor module based on a cross-platform mobile application. The authors developed an interactive installation for visitors where the sessions of interaction were recorded by a Computer Vision system and then associated with visitors’ smartphones. When people exited the exhibit, collected data are analyzed to propose personalized paths and multimedia enriched information via the smartphone based on visitors’ location. On the other hand, Guo et al. (2016) developed a recommendation system to guide visitors of an automobile trade show toward their proper exhibition hall. The authors used spatiotemporal features and clustering techniques to construct profile visitors’ interests. The analysis generated three modules: relevance module, quality module and integration module which were finally used to create personalized and recommended exhibition halls for visitors. Chongwatpol (2015) adopted the radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology by distributing badges with RFID tags to build a traceability framework to better manage information at exhibitions. Chongwatpol (2015) aimed at answering exhibitors’ questions regarding what exhibitions or booths are most interesting for visitors, how much time the visitors spend at each booth, how many times visitors visit the booth before deciding to purchase and how do visitors explore the exhibition before deciding to purchase a product. Through a five-step approach, the authors laid out guidelines on how to use RFID data for analytics processes. In particular, they claim that first, an assessment of visitors’ movements must be made; second, customer behavior should be studied by observing the obtained data [e.g. by calculating “frequency distributions and descriptive statistics” (Chongwatpol, 2015, p. 668)] and third, RFID data should be integrated within the existing database on the customer profiles for analytical purposes. This would allow shaping predictive models useful for elaborating effective marketing strategies. Mashhadi et al. (2016) studied the impact of the spatial configuration on the formation of network relations, specifically in a large-scale industrial exhibition. Through the design and development of Wi-Fi analytics solution comprising wearable Wi-Fi badges and gateways, the authors underlined that certain areas are functional in favoring sociality among attendees. Moreover, the researchers observed two special groups of visitors: investors and entrepreneurs, concluding that spatial-related reasons may explain different behaviors of the two groups. Bartoli et al. (2016) proposed a method to profile the attention of people moving in a known space. The authors used coarse gaze estimation and a model based on optical flow to improve attention prediction, without using a tracker, so that the method could be applicable also to crowded events. They tested the approach on a Museum Visitors data set and were able to make an accurate estimation of visitors’ profiles Zakia et al. (2016) relied on long-term evolution technology of visitors’ personal devices to:

• enable advertisement for traders;

• alert visitors in case of emergency; and

• allow visitors to track each other during the event.

Further studies have been developed by Joppi et al. (2018) and Gentilin et al. (2019). The former one laid out an original perspective for the investigation of exhibition visitors’ profiling. The innovative proposal by Joppi et al. (2018) relies in combining the geolocation data collected on visitors with the Web information obtained through a platform constituted by social applications. The authors argued that all three trade shows participating categories, namely, organizers, exhibitors and visitors, could benefit from such analysis by assessing rich multimedia profiles, as well as personalized recommendations, effective innovative behavioral predictions and optimal fair space planning could be implemented. Indeed, by improving visitors’ experience, exhibitors’ revenues could be increased. The adoption of Bluetooth technology as a valid technique to collect data about the movement of visitors has also been explored by literature (Delafontaine et al., 2012; Gentilin et al., 2019). Gentilin et al. (2019) analyzed pilot trajectories collected during an exhibition via locators communicating via Low Energy Bluetooth to visitors’ smartphones. Through a transformation of the raw trajectories into undirected graphs and by applying the dominant set clustering technique, the authors were able to determine overlapping clusters of trajectories. These could be used for setting a visit recommendation system, examining booth assignment effectiveness and laying out a performance indicator, allowing exhibitors to evaluate the participation at the event. On the other hand, Chien et al. (2019) used a face recognition software combined with a server linked to the internet. People flow tally and data collection were carried out in six empirical cases of Asian trade shows. The authors coupled observations with video and scanning systems at exhibition exits and entrances. They disclosed that the face recognition system could provide a precise and timely distribution data on the number of people at an exhibition site, as well as their age, gender and time of stay. Through such information, exhibitors may be able to adjust their marketing activities according to data acquired on visitors’ movements.

4.3.3 Virtual trade shows

Digitalization has made its way into multiple fields (Flavián et al., 2019) and exhibition industry is just one of those involved in the challenges posed by such trend. In their pioneering work, Su et al. (1998) illustrated that virtual exhibitions have often been considered as an extension of physical trade fairs. Lee‐Kelley et al. (2004) portrayed virtual exhibitions as exhibitions held in cyberspace; later, Geigenmüller (2010) proposed a definition by stating that: “virtual trade fairs are Web-based platforms where customers, suppliers and distributors can get together virtually at any time and from any place” (Geigenmüller, 2010 p. 286). Moreover, Foo (2008) argued that virtual exhibitions offer the opportunity to overcome restrictions of space, time and location. They suggest that virtual exhibitions can represent a valid alternative to the “real thing” and constitute improvements for visitors’ experiences encompassing learning, interacting with more contents beyond physical exhibits, active participation through forums and uploads, online shopping, etc. In fact, “users can be captivated, engaged and even contribute toward the continual update of the exhibition” (Foo, 2008, p. 33). Indeed, exhibitions may take place under physical or through computer-mediated platforms (Sarmento and Simões, 2019). Besides, virtual trade fairs may be accounted by visitors as engagement platforms, useful for becoming part of bigger business networks (Sarmento and Simões, 2019). The internet and the world wide web constitute the grounds for electronic trading in which exchanges takes place (Lee‐Kelley et al., 2004) and online trade fairs represent an innovative service that both exhibitors and visitors can exploit (Geigenmüller, 2010) as it entails a good number of advantages, allowing to overcome the limitations of the physical exhibition (Lee‐Kelley et al., 2004).

Geigenmüller (2010) stressed the main elements of difference of physical versus virtual trade fairs. According to her view, virtual trade fairs offer IT-mediated interaction that “may expand visitors’ privacy and reduce the perceived pressure to communicate personally” (Geigenmüller, 2010, p. 286). In addition, virtual trade shows foster interaction through multiple channels (such as e-mail and chats) and avoid geographical or time limit to the fruition of the event. Thus, virtual events pose an interesting potential. In fact, among the key features that make virtual exhibition appealing venues for buyers and sellers, the possibility to relax spatiotemporal constraints by following the 24/7 principle and by displaying in multiple languages (Su et al., 1998; Lee‐Kelley et al., 2004; Geigenmüller, 2010), can reduce expenses, especially for smaller firms that would otherwise struggle to participate due to cost barriers (Lee‐Kelley et al., 2004; Geigenmüller, 2010; Gabisch, 2015; Baldwin, 2021) and made available reliable tools (e.g. passwords and authentication codes) that would allow exhibitors to discriminate less qualified visitors from high-end ones (Geigenmüller, 2010). According to Getz (2004), what virtual trade shows miss “is the sense of place, the dynamics of crowds, and the emotions associated with being physically a part of something special” (Getz, 2004, p. 414). Researchers have rather underlined the complementary nature of the two types of trade shows (Lee‐Kelley et al., 2004; Sarmento and Simões, 2019). Exploratory research by Lee‐Kelley et al. (2004), carried through a questionnaire to European and Middle Eastern senior managers participating to trade fairs as exhibitors, observed the potential of the virtual exhibitions and demonstrated that such events are likely to be a useful medium for the following items of the marketing mix: “product,” “promotion” and “price,” whereas it did not as strongly for “place.” They explained the weaker response to place may be due to preference in the use of virtual exhibitions to transfer information in place of distributing goods. Wolf et al. (2018) investigated pros and cons encountered by visitors win attending virtual museum exhibitions compared to their original. The authors studied ways to improve visitors’ attendance at virtual museum by conducting two experiments. To start with, they compared virtual reality (VR) versus real museum and, second, they realized interviews with museum professionals. According to their results, pure VR presents the following pros in comparison to real museums: space, time, location and possibility to save money. Differently, elements such authenticity and sensation of space are not favored by VR. The study revealed “content accessibility from everybody, everywhere, and at any time” as the major advantage of VR (Wolf et al., 2018, p. 85). However, there are some contents that cannot fully be virtualized as original products. Sarmento and Simões (2019) stressed the dual nature of exhibitions as, in their view, trade fairs represent “engagement and learning platforms consisting of physical and virtual touch points between actors in a service ecosystem” (Sarmento and Simões, 2019, p. 1787). They defined virtual trade shows as a tool “to foster interactivity and connectivity before and after the physical trade fair” (Sarmento and Simões, 2019, p. 1782). The fundamentals of such debate seem to lie in solutions that may allow virtual trade fairs to overcome two critical aspects: first, alternatives to the sensory experience lived at the trade show should be provided, as physical exhibition is a “single, intense, and frequently memorable human experience absorbed by emotions and human senses” (Sarmento and Simões, 2019, p. 1795). The second key aspect under discussion is the way virtual trade fairs may be used in developing and maintaining valuable interpersonal relationships (Geigenmüller, 2010; Gopalakrishna and Lilien, 2012).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemics, even if temporarily, the virtual has replaced the in-person exhibitions (Hoffman, 2020); consequently, many sectors, comprising the trade shows and the museums’ had to quickly adapt themselves to a new online-reality. However, according to Hoffman (2020), the way we perceive physical space is still nowadays directing the creation of online spaces. To illustrate, Itani and Hollebeek (2021) developed a model to examine drivers of visitors’ COVID-19-induced social distancing behavior and its effect on their intent to use virtual reality-based (vs in-person) attraction site tours during and post-COVID-19. The research revealed visitor:

• perceived threat severity (COVID-19’s perceived seriousness);

• response efficacy (beliefs related to the effectiveness of the coping response); and

• self-efficacy (beliefs about whether individuals can perform recommended coping response) raise social distancing behavior.

Besides, social distancing has been found to increase visitors’ intentions to participate in virtual reality tours during pandemics. In the case of the postpandemics, results by the research illustrated that social distancing has no consequent impact on potential visitors’ intent to use virtual reality vs in-person tours.

Finally, Gani et al. (2021) conducted a literature review on the topic of virtual exhibitions. By arguing that conceptual studies on virtual trade shows are lacking, the researchers focused on those aspects of virtual trade shows presenting open questions and potential fields where theoretical development is needed. According to their findings, several areas have remained under-explored by literature; hence, they claim that the trade show domain presents a relevant potential for theoretical improvements. The study suggested managers of virtual trade shows to pay attention to the role of IT and new technologies in their field of business; especially by analyzing and defining specific paths to reach a sustainable relationship with clients. Relevant technologies should be considered by trade fair organizers and exhibitors, as these could greatly impact virtual exhibitions at each stage.