Abstract
The sense of tourism encapsulation/decapsulation is increasingly determined by the level and type of connectivity enabled by advanced Information Communication Technology (ICT). This study explores tourists' online and face-to-face social contacts and their effects on travel experiences. A six-fold tourist typology is established, namely: Disconnected Immersive Traveller, Digital Detox Traveller, Diversionary Traveller, Dual Zone Traveller, Daily Life Controller and Social Media Addict. A contact–immersion nexus is also developed to indicate the attachment tendencies of different tourist types between their home and away zones. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

Introduction
Information Communication Technology (ICT) has been integrated into our daily lives, and tourism is not an exception (Buhalis, 2000; Wang, Xiang, & Fesenmaier, 2016). Traditionally, tourists try to escape during holidays keep a distance from their original social networks when they travel (Cohen, Prayag, & Moital, 2014; Iso-Ahola, 1982; Krippendorf, 1986). Such physical and mental detachment contributes to their desire for relaxation and recovery when travelling (Lehto, 2013). The rapid development of technology connectivity enables people to dynamically engage with their home environment and networks, in real time regardless of distance and time (Buhalis & Sinarta, 2019). The encapsulation and decapsulation of tourism must be reconsidered given the unavoidable intervention of the online presence.

The investigation of online social contact is still immature, considering the dramatic change of modern travel intensified by the emergence of social media platforms. Buhalis and O'Connor (2005) stated that technology developments have changed tourism greatly by revolutionising information gathering, communication, storage and dissemination. The technological mediatisation has broken the traditional social bubble for tourists by providing dynamic online communication channels (Jansson, 2002, Jansson, 2013, Jansson, 2018). The digital empowerment and the proliferation of smartphones have effectively merged tourists' network at home with the network at the destination. Hybrid social networks emerge, where tourists have simultaneous access to both online and physical networks. This presents tourists with a complex, functional and connected world.

The rapid development and dynamic nature of technology determine that most well-established tourist studies have yet to consider online social contact as an important part of the tourist destination experience. There are numerous studies exploring tourist typology (e.g. Cohen, 1972, Cohen, 1979b; Pearce & Lee, 2005; Smith, 1989). However, few studies examine the rich behavioural patterns of social contact and relate them to tourists' destination immersion. How different kinds of social contact influence tourists' destination experience and their attachment to the destination/home remains unclear. Moreover, limited efforts have been made to consider online social contact together with face to face social contact in tourist typology studies. The lack of updated and accurate grouping regarding social contact also creates difficulties for practitioners to draw effective marketing strategies for diverse segments. Traditional tourism experience related theories, such as tourist immersion and experience mode were developed prior to the emergence of the digital world. Their explanation power and applicability among connected tourists are vague and therefore a refined examination of existing theories and tourists' emerging social patterns is required. This study aims to establish a tourist typology that considers both online and face-to-face social contact behaviours during travel. It also explores the destination immersive level for different tourist types. Chinese overseas tourists are targeted for the current study, not only because China is the largest outbound tourist market (UNWTO, 2017), but also due to the salient usage coverage of the Internet, e-commerce and social media (China Internet Network Information Center, 2017).

Section snippets
Literature review
At the era of connectivity, online social contact has become a norm among travellers and greatly influences tourists' travel behaviour and experience (Buhalis & Sinarta, 2019). Hitherto tourist studies have not considered online social contact as an important part of the tourist destination experience. Tourists are no longer isolated in a completely away zone when they travel, due to their connectivity with their original social networks. Tourists have the autonomy to decide whether, when and

Conceptual framework formation
This study aims to develop a tourist typology that considers both online and face-to-face social contact behaviours during travel. A typology is derived conceptually and deductively (Marradi, 1990; Nickerson, Varshney, & Muntermann, 2013). In the conceptual typology approach, a typology of categories is based on a theoretical idea or model. The researcher can define or further refine an ideal type that is used to examine empirical cases in terms of how much they deviate from the ideal (Weber,

Methodology
The study adopts an interpretivism paradigm. Interpretivists believe that reality is created by individuals in a society (Rossman & Rallis, 2003) and understand a phenomenon as it is from the perspective of individual experiences. Therefore, an in-depth, face-to-face interview method was adopted as the main technique to generate rich primary data.

Qualified informants were Mainland Chinese tourists who had overseas travel experience in the last two years and used online platforms to contact

Tourist typology of social contact
Based on the 51 interviews, six tourist types are generated according to their unique behavioural, social and psychological patterns identified in the conceptual framework, including travel motivation, online social contact, face-to-face social contact, tourist destination role and tourist experience mode. The following depictions attempt to portray each tourist type by delineating its behavioural characteristics (Fig. 3). The six tourist types are as follows: Disconnected Immersive Traveller,

Discussion and implications
Different tourist types were compared with reference to established literature. The Disconnected Immersive Traveller and Digital Detox Travellers are mostly experienced international travellers and motivated by self-fulfilment and self-development needs, such as self-improvement, self-reflection and self-detoxifying. However, the Daily Life Controller and Social Media Addict often hold less overseas travel experience and are mainly motivated by their physiological needs, for relaxation,

Conclusion
This study refines the understanding of destination immersion phenomenon in tourism. It applies a qualitative research approach with 51 in-depth interviews. A six-fold tourist typology is developed in accordance with tourists' online and face-to-face social contact during travel, namely: Disconnected Immersive Traveller, Digital Detox Traveller, Diversionary Traveller, Dual Zone Traveller, Daily Life Controller and Social Media Addict. Each tourist type represents a unique profile that reflects

Acknowledgements
Bournemouth University, UK. Grant no. MZEK21

Dr. Daisy Fan is a Lecturer in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at Bournemouth University, UK. Her research interests include tourist-host social contact, tourists' ethnocentrism, cultural distance and cruise travel. She is a Ph.D. graduate of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and worked in a hotel consulting company in Hong Kong prior to her academic career.