Virtual reality is a handy marketing tool. It allows marketers to maximize technological opportunities to increase engagement and build relationships.
Marketing through VR gives businesses the power to approach their target audience through an exciting and impactful medium.
Customers in the tourism industry are looking for new, exciting, and appealing experiences wherever they go. Any company that can fully communicate the knowledge it will bring to its customers places itself in the best position to be chosen by its audience ahead of competitors.
Virtual reality can enhance marketing by conveying messages more clearly, increasing sales and brand awareness, and building solid relationships with a customer base.
What are the Benefits?
For the travel industry, virtual reality can be used in tourism marketing to enhance the travel experience and shape the behavior of travel consumers.
Tours or activities businesses can provide virtual walkthroughs of their offerings using VR. This allows potential consumers to get a feel of the atmosphere of their possible destination.
Along with the storytelling, it’s vivid and showcases the best visual content to convince customers to decide. It has a more significant scale effect on consumer choices than using a standard destination description, photos and videos, and a tour itinerary.
Decreasing consumer attention span is all about relevancy. This means fewer people have the patience to read through classical travel sales pitches and planned activities. Virtual reality lets them live the experience virtually, a more eye-catching and attention-grabbing form of marketing.
VR Applications in Travel
Virtual Tours of Hotels
One of the best examples of virtual reality used within the travel industry is virtual tours of hotels and hotel rooms. The key benefit of this is that it allows potential customers to experience what the hotel looks like before they arrive, giving a feel for the dimensions and layout in a much more immersive fashion than pictures on a screen ever could.
This ‘taster’ content is generally provided on the hotel website and will usually require a VR headset to experience. However, in many cases, the virtual experience primarily consists of a simple 360-degree image compatible with social media platforms and more basic VR technology.
Virtual Bookings
Some companies have even moved their booking process into the VR space.
This is a smart move as not only does this mean that there is no need to use a traditional PC, laptop, or phone setup to complete a booking, but it also means that potential customers can go from viewing a virtual tour of a hotel straight to the booking process without leaving their VR setup.
This makes it a more seamless experience, making them more likely to convert their interest into a purchase.
Virtual Travel Experiences
Finally, virtual reality offers hotels, travel agents, and other businesses within the tourism industry the opportunity to provide prospective customers with a virtual travel experience. Users can sample main attractions, drawing them to a location through immersive experiences.
For instance, a Paris hotel may provide a virtual experience of what it is like at the top of the Eiffel Tower. In contrast, a hotel near a theme park can offer a virtual roller-coaster experience. AR, VR, and MR enable immersive experiences that enhance the selling of rooms, flights, and travel products.
A Big Boost to Tourism
There are many benefits to using VR in travel and tourism. It’s almost as if they were made to go together! VR improves tourism marketing, enhances travel experiences, and inspires travelers to create more fulfilling travel itineraries.
All tour operators should undoubtedly use VR to boost their presence and the experiences they offer consumers.
