Many of us have already realized that with the help of virtual tourism you can travel to remote places without even getting up from the couch.
Bam! Air traffic has disappeared. In the last year alone, the global tourism industry lost $ 4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs. Museums around the world are closed, cities are locked. Now what? What should potential tourists do during the days and weeks they traveled?
And bam! Travel becomes something inaccessible! Do you see Rembrandt only on Google or also at home through augmented reality? Is it possible to virtually change the space and travel back in time? Can I enter a Rembrandt painting through augmented reality, being in my living room, plunging into the “Anatomy Lesson”?
The predictions for the augmented reality market (augmented reality – AR and virtual reality – VR) are very promising. In 2016, Pokémon Go increased this potential significantly. We assumed that the AR phenomenon would be enough in the future.
But even in the most daring forecasts, no one could have assumed that this potential would be multiplied by another global phenomenon in 2020. COVID-19 and virtual tourism have changed the forecast – the AR and VR markets will reach $ 300 billion in just 3 years. Thus, augmented and virtual reality received an additional source of development!
During this long and tragic period for tourism, we have had time to clean up, restructure companies, reinvent businesses, redesign premises and reimagine tourism in itself. We had time to dream of greener tourism for all, and to prepare properly for retaliation tourism. During the forced pause, many discovered new professions, sources of income and business. We have discovered new ways to travel and attract tourists to travel.
We realized that virtual tourism can take us to other places without leaving the couch. And we learned about this not only in the research laboratories of the companies. We discovered this in practice, when access to such technologies was provided by more than 2,000 museums, which became virtual thanks to the Google Cultural Institute. Many of us discovered these opportunities through virtual visits to the most famous traditional museums in the world, such as the Tomb of the Kings in the Pyramids in Egypt or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
During those boring hours, days and weeks of self-isolation and quarantine, millions of tourists made virtual travels in virtual cities, virtual eras or a virtual museum, without even getting up from their couches. And the good news is that these millions of virtual tourists have appreciated these trips and their exciting atmosphere.
This is highlighted in the World Travel & Tourism Council’s COVID-19 report, which argues that virtual tourism is a trend that will continue to be an important marketing and commercial tool for the travel industry.
Consulting firm Accenture also states this in its Immersive-Experience-Digital-Report 2020. The company emphasizes that 64% of brands are starting to invest in “virtual” experiences, realizing that it improves positive experiences for more than 50% of their consumers. when they use AR and VR technologies.
But those who believe in the apocalyptic vision that the world will be driven by machines, computers, or unusual software, driven by billions in venture capital investments in startups targeting virtual tourism and similar experiences, are also mistaken.
It must be emphasized that traditional tourism can never be replaced! But for those who cannot (and may never be able to!) Physically visit some of the tour destinations, and even for those who have the opportunity, but love to carefully plan their tourist routes, virtual tourism is, in fact, a godsend. It certainly will not replace physical and real tourism. But virtual tourism is here to enhance the role of the traditional, complete it, improve it, tell all the stories that have never been heard before and could not feel.