Virtual reality has emerged as a powerful tool for the design of immersive tourism experiences. Prior studies have primarily relied on externally produced 360-degree stimuli, with the potential to undermine causal inference among concepts and increase risk of flattening real-world responses. Consequently, building on design principles embedded in human–computer interaction, this paper draws on an exemplar of an iconic nature-based tourism destination to elucidate the process which underpins the development of 360-degree stimuli, with an emphasis on the manipulation of ‘presence’. Emergent findings demonstrate the efficacy of a five-step procedure: (1) concept manipulation and location selection; (2) preliminary field filming; (3) expert evaluation and preliminary test; (4) re-filming and editing; and (5) confirmatory test. Physiological and self-report measures assessed the internal and external validity of the 360-degree stimuli, confirming the effectiveness of the manipulation. This research contributes to knowledge through the transfer of core principles from information technology and tourism into the design of immersive 360-degree stimuli to facilitate rigorous manipulation and multi-measurement in experimental design in tourism. Future research should focus on enhancing validity and reliability of internally produced immersive stimuli, overcoming methodological challenges with the design and manipulation of stimuli in tourism research.