Virtual reality travel: Bringing destinations to you at a tap!

Virtual reality is a robust technology taking over every aspect of our lives. Spreading like a wildfire, every industry is trapped under its dominance and travel industry is no different. From choosing your travel destination, to hotel selection or even booking a flight, travel industry is hard-hit by digitization.   

Seeing the favorable drift of the customers, destination marketers have recently leveraged the new technology to make it an inevitable part of travel experience. With VR, the customers are looking to buy experiences now, than products, and marketers are leveraging just that, to give them a taste of what the whole service would look like

Companies like Thomas Cook, Quaqua have been primary introducers of virtual travel in India, presenting simulated tours for their clientele. With the motto of ‘see before you go’, Quaqua is bringing AI and ML to the travel industry.

Through effective use of VR, the process of customer seeking data before making a purchase decision, can in fact, be shortened. “Before travelers just had a brochure or information on the website to inform their choices. VR allows them to get a true sense of the hotel and the excursions they can go on–it’s been a real game changer for us,” says -Marco Ryan, Chief Digital Officer, Thomas Cook.

For all those of you wondering how would virtual reality travel looks like? Here’s a little glimpse:

Explaining the ideology behind Quaqua, Purav Shah, Founder and CEO, says,” There is so much information online that it is overwhelming to find the right information or the right experience. Why can’t there be a platform that delivers infotainment for travel and tourism? And this is where Quaqua comes in. It is built for anyone who needs the inspiration to travel or thoroughly research a destination before they go or compare attractions and activities before they book. ‘See before you go’, it is as simple as that”.

The travel sites are bringing forward a completely new and immersive experience, changing the dynamics of the industry. Virtual reality travel is a repository of attractive information, leading to faster decision-making, better customer-engagements and higher conversions.

Here’s what you can expect different with virtual travel:

• Experimental maps- Routing your travel, and mapping your entire journey
• Real-time travelogue for flights, hotels, travel (personalized feed also created)
• Travelers can also review their travel memories when they come back from the virtual tour

VR travel is the new- age itinerary not just focusing on curation, but also engagement. It gives you a chance to see and feel your entire trip before actually going!