The birth of VR technology marks a new milestone in the development of science and technology. As the effects of VR technology are more and more accepted by more and more people, major traditional industries have also begun to get involved in it. The tourism industry is considered to be the most suitable theme for VR. Compared with the development cycle of movies and games, the development cost of “VR + tourism” is lower and easier to realize. Over the past year, domestic and foreign tourism bureaus, operators of scenic spots and major campgrounds have “tested” VR applications one after another.
The era of VR is coming
In The Matrix, Morpheus shows Neo two pills, one red and one blue. The red pill allows Neo to escape the world he is in at the moment and go to the world of virtual simulation; the blue pill keeps his current life. The virtual scene shown in this sci-fi movie is very similar to the very popular VR technology today: through computer virtual reality technology, multimedia technologies such as vision, hearing and touch are integrated to simulate a three-dimensional virtual world and create an immersive experience. Feel.
“Cultural relics must be alive to have dignity.” Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, said that only by showing the charm of Chinese culture in various ways and making cultural relics alive can the audience be integrated into it. The Forbidden City uses advanced VR technology to combine traditional culture and new technology to launch the VR4D immersive experience of “Zhu Di Builds the Forbidden City”, which greatly increases the audience’s understanding of the overall culture of the Forbidden City and makes people feel like they are on the scene. To feel the historical and cultural charm of the Forbidden City, I have to say that this way gives the audience a better choice to interpret traditional culture.
Tourism “traveling” stimulates the desire to travel
In the past, we could only feel the scenery, means of transportation, environment, etc. through graphic or video platforms, but the reality often makes us terrified. Compulsory shopping, false publicity, and frequent negative news about scenic spots make people feel disheartened. . The reason why such a situation occurs is, in the final analysis, caused by information asymmetry between tourists, travel agencies, and scenic spots. Dai Xuefeng, deputy director of the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the biggest change that virtual reality tourism brings to tourism is that “it allows people to experience the scenes of tourist destinations and some illusory realities in person, bringing people new feelings.”
As Las Vegas is one of the most active cities to attract tourists using VR travel, Cathy Tull, senior general manager of marketing at LVCVA, said: “Virtual reality technology is the future of itinerary planning. Travelers can experience Las Vegas through VR applications. The interesting experience in Las Vegas will also be more exciting, and I will immediately start preparing for my trip to Las Vegas.” The emergence of VR technology is to take pictures of the magnificent landscape and cultural scenery of the scenic spot from the perspective of tourists, allowing tourists to travel in VR. , enjoy the scenery of the destination personally in advance, fully understand the scene and details of the scenic spot, and make accurate decisions: formulate the itinerary, eliminate tourists’ worries about the location of the scenic spot, etc. The combination of VR technology and real scenes makes many details transparent and increases the tourism value of real scenes. For tourists, this can minimize mistakes in booking scenic spots.
At the same time, VR tourism can also help those disadvantaged groups realize their dream of traveling around the world, such as those with disabilities, the elderly with limited mobility, and those special groups who are not suitable for long-term travel, so that they can also appreciate the beauty of nature and cultivate themselves. body and mind.
VR Marketing Turns into a New Weapon
With the prosperity of the tourism industry, the marketing method is also “the eight immortals cross the sea, each showing their special abilities”, but at present most enterprises still stay in the traditional marketing of pictures or videos. The rise of VR technology can be said to have created greater value for scenic spots and provided a new method for scenic spot marketing and publicity. American futurist Alvin Toffler pointed out in his famous book “Future Shock” that the future economy will be an experience economy, and the future producers will be those who create experiences. VR tourism is such an economic model for creating experience, which involves in-depth mining of experience, including the use of professional panoramic shooting equipment, the collection of sufficient scene data, and more humanized detail design.
At present, many tourism companies have launched corresponding functions and products for users to experience. Songcheng Performing Arts and SPACES plan to build a leading VR and AR theme park in China; online travel service provider eLong released a hotel VR experience video, which is an excellent experience in terms of user experience. Such as VR technology; the travel website Zanadu launched the first domestic travel VR mobile application, and users of VR products can have a more realistic experience of travel destinations, etc. Many people in the industry believe that the combination of VR and tourism has created a brand-new travel experience model, which better strengthens the sense of experience, subverts people’s perception of travel, and brings consumers a new immersive travel experience. VR technology can provide more marketing and publicity means for enterprises, especially greatly enhance the immersive marketing experience, and bring tourists a fresh, interesting and fun pre-experience, which will definitely be a part of attracting tourists. Great “weapon”.
Challenges in a bright future
Although VR technology is a virtual technology, it brings consumers a higher experience in terms of product and consumption experience, thereby promoting the development of the tourism and leisure industry. But for now, there are still many difficulties that need to be solved patiently. In terms of technology, first of all, the scope of current VR experience activities is generally small, usually only one room, which has caused great troubles to VR tourism to a certain extent. Secondly, the highest field of view of the current VR equipment is only 110°, while our normal field of view is 180°, which is not good for tourism that mainly focuses on viewing. The most deadly problem is that wearing VR equipment for a long time will cause dizziness. The phenomenon of dizziness caused by out-of-sync frame rate is a problem that no VR equipment has overcome at present, and dizziness means Users can’t use it for a long time, and they can’t complete the real travel experience.
In terms of talents, VR technology brings consumers an unprecedented new sensory experience with a fully immersive experience. The VR market is booming and growing, which means that the demand for talents will reach an unprecedented height. Many companies that rely on or cooperate with VR are urgently looking for talents to meet their development needs.
In short, although VR travel has encountered some challenges at present, it is undeniable that it will become a trend in the future tourism industry and will be a icing on the cake. How to make better use of it still requires companies to think carefully and make plans. It is necessary to clearly realize that travel is something that needs to go out of the door, which is something that VR cannot replace. But in terms of tourism marketing, advertising and creating new entertainment projects, it can play a huge potential to inspire people to travel and make better travel decisions. Just imagine, in the process of traveling, when you pass by a certain scenic spot, you will trigger AR to give a guided tour; when choosing a hotel, you can use VR to choose the room type, etc., which are all ways to make the whole journey more perfect.
