Virtual Reality in the Tourism Industry | TechXR
The world is vast, and even the most passionate traveler would have a tough time covering up all the destinations it has to offer—at least in person. Luckily we live in an era where a journey of a thousand miles can begin with a single click. Where do you want to go? Yosemite National Park? Tokyo? Venice? With VR technology, you can travel pretty much anywhere you’d like without even stepping out of your home!
Welcome to VR, the Avant-garde of travel and tourism.
The dream of exploring places without actually visiting them has been accomplished by Virtual reality. The immersive feature of this technology allows your senses to be deeply immersed into the virtual experience through which it gives you the feel of real. Now your fantasies of Space travel, Underwater experience, or exploring a haunted island are not fantasies anymore. This technology has also made it possible to explore the unexplored and inaccessible corners of the world. Just grab a pair of VR glasses and you’re ready to go. As advanced the device, as realistic the experience.
This tech is also a boon to senior citizens and physically challenged individuals. Being able to provide them with travel experiences that would otherwise not be possible can be extremely rewarding.
All these experiences can be achieved by capturing tourism destinations in a unique and immersive manner using specialist cameras, rigs, and software. The finished content can then be viewed on either a VR headset or a regular computer or mobile device.
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360 VR Tourism
360 VR focuses on the real world rather than computer-generated imagery. This makes it ideal as it is important to show users a real location rather than a mockup. 360VR content in tourism is captured in a way similar to the regular image and video content. A piece of specialist equipment is used to shoot the scene and then the footage is edited to render it in VR mode.
VR Tourism Videography
A VR tourism video like a normal video, can be viewed on websites or social media, but unlike a regular video, the user can explore the entire scene whilst the video is playing. These videos are captured using specialist cameras known as omnidirectional cameras which film every angle of the destination at once. After filming, the footage is edited to produce a 360 VR video.
VR videos can be categorized into two, Monoscopic VR tourism videos and Stereoscopic VR tourism videos. Monoscopic VR videos for tourism can be viewed on regular devices including mobiles and computers. The viewer can click or drag across the screen in order to rotate the field of view, similar to turning your head to explore a scene. While the stereoscopic VR videos cannot be viewed on a regular device but only on immersive VR devices which provide an ultimate experience along with the features like head tracking.
VR Tourism Photography
VR tourism photography involves the production of stunning 360 images of travel destinations. These images are designed to be viewed on regular devices like mobiles and desktops. Virtual tourism photography works much like a VR tourism video but with still images. One can scroll or swipe across the image in order to view the entire scene. The high-resolution images are taken with DSLR cameras on specialist rigs which allow for the capture of 360 degrees. The 360 images can then be uploaded to social media and websites for users to view just as easily as regular images. Though not as immersive as videos but they are good and fast to produce in a cost-effective manner.
Virtual Reality in the Travel Industry
Businesses operating within the travel industry have been especially quick to adopt virtual reality technology and for good reason. At the cutting edge of 360 VR, virtual reality travel experiences provide something truly unique and memorable to the user. The number of travel agencies and travel companies embracing this technology is continually growing and they promise a bright future within the industry.
Planning Trips via Virtual tours: Now we can plan the trips to the destination we want to visit with the help of the immersive VR experience. Right from the flight journey to a hotel stay, from travelling to popular tourist spots to checking out unknown interesting locations, from having a glimpse of cultural highlights to checking out cuisine variety, everything can be experienced as a preview to your trip using immersive VR technology.
Virtual hotel tours: One of the best examples of virtual reality in tourism industry is the use of this tech for providing 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, offering more transparency than standard images. The immersive experience better helps the customers to choose accordingly and also reduces the chances of choice regrets.
Virtual booking system: A virtual booking interface is another interesting development within tourism VR. Users can book their trips just by wearing a VR headset. All of the booking processes take place within virtual reality. Right from choosing the hotel room to paying bills happens whilst the user is experiencing the VR. Though this method has limited applications, we can see travel agencies and companies taking this approach to increase the number of conversions.
Conclusion
Though the advantages of VR technology are immeasurable, its widespread usage is getting hindered because of the expensive hardware requirements and the efforts required for VR app development. But don’t you worry. TechXR Innovations has the solution for it. The motto of this company is to democratize access to emerging technologies like AR and VR by making them affordable and accessible to the common man. The company’s patented VR device Sense XR is an affordable and effective replacement for high-budget VR devices. The firm also provides affordable i-HUB IIT Rourkee recognized courses in AR-VR development, allowing anybody to master AR-VR App Development. Click here to enroll in TechXR’s AR-VR courses.
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