ACHILLES AS A MARKETING TOOL FOR VIRTUAL HERITAGE APPLICATIONS

Virtual Reality technology has made it possible for people to visit places and enjoy different exciting experiences while remaining at home. It gives an opportunity to enjoy the past at its best. Virtual Reality was introduced in 1929 with interactive training devices that simulated fighter planes. In 1957, the Sensorama simulator was designed which could generate city smells and wind sensations. The need for tourism to become virtual becomes more urgent than ever before. Virtual Reality applications provide this chance, not only in place, but in time as well. This paper presents a guide to the heritage applications' builders and marketers to reach more online users. The paper helps the builder to understand the consumer behaviour for marketing research. The paper illustrates eight levels, with each one leading to the next. The author named the eight levels A.C.H.I.L.L.E.S. Each letter represents a level; beginning with the awareness and ending with the sustainability. ACHILLES represents a sequence that shows three main phases of mobile application usage. It aims for a better management for the online visitors' engagement. This aim can be accomplished through the understanding of the different stages that the online visitors go through. In addition, it shows the correlation between the users and the mobile application.