The study examines how virtual reality tourism experience from a gamification perspective affects tourist flow experience and satisfaction by examining a chain mediation model including arousal, focused attention, enjoyment and time distortion. Gamification was integrated into a long-duration virtual tourism experience (50-60 mins) for 60 participants. The results show that gamification can significantly positively affect arousal in virtual tourism experience. Arousal positively affects focused attention, enjoyment. The influence of arousal on satisfaction could be mediated by focused attention, enjoyment and time distortion. In addition, this paper also found the relationship between the internal elements of flow experience. Focused attention positively affects enjoyment. Enjoyment positively affects satisfaction, which is mediated by time distortion. The findings provide valuable understandings for the research on flow experience in long-duration virtual reality tourism, giving practical implications in the application of gamification and flow experience for destination practitioners.