Technology development and augmented reality (AR) applications emergence have transformed the experiential process in tourism. ar offers enormous potential and advantages to the tourism sector, especially after covid-19. However, this study aims to find and gain further knowledge of ar’s limitations. This research analysed the AR platform Imageen Tarraco (Tarragona, Spain) based on a users’ survey, in-depth interviews and a focus group (fg). The analysis showed the lack of knowledge and the technical problems as the application’s most challenging limitations and their causes. It also allowed categorizing the overall challenges by type of public and delving into the factors that promote their use or non-use. The study provides useful recommendations to ar platform creators and the destination management organizations (dmos) that implement them.