What I like the most? Physical and Virtual tours side by side

Food producers are increasingly prone to enhance the customer experience letting people visit their food production sites. They started arranging physical tours but now, pushed by the pandemic, virtual reality is a possible option too, allowing users to experience physical ambience by remote stations. Within this context, the paper compares the physical and virtual experience of visiting a Parmigiano Reggiano (PR) dairy on consumers intentions to buy the cheese. Through two structured questionnaires fulfilled by users after their physic visit of the dairy and / or after a 360° virtual visit of the dairy, we verify the effectiveness of the two experiences, highlighting their similarities and differences. Findings contribute to the emerging literature on the use of virtual reality in creating value for companies by evidencing the strengths and weaknesses of the virtual instrument compared to the real context.