Travel: How VR is Changing Holiday Planning

The travel industry is already changing due to virtual reality and it will see even bigger shake-ups in the next couple of years. Here are three ways in which travel will change forever with VR.

Bookings

We will no longer have to book hotels based on pictures from the internet and hope for the best when we finally arrive. With VR, customers will be able to fully explore hotel facilities before booking their rooms.

This is a game changer for the travel industry as a VR experience of the room will be more convincing than photos but it will also increase customer expectations.

Booking your air plane seat will also be different because you will be able to walk through the plane and see exactly where you will be sitting.

Delta Airlines and Lufthansa have already started experimenting with VR and have showcased a VR experience of boarding their planes. A happy holiday experience indeed.

Virtual tours

People who do not have the time or can’t afford to travel will be able to see iconic places like Big Ben or the Great Wall of China without leaving home. Travellers who are planning to make the journey will be able to check out the destination in VR first before buying flights and booking hotels.

Many travel agencies will probably offer a “try before you fly” option, which should increase customers’ satisfaction by helping them to make the right choices for their holiday.

A few firms already offer these virtual tours. GeoVegas, for instance, offers VR preview “trips” of Las Vegas while India VR has VR tours of all major cities in India.

In London, you can skip the queue and do a VR tour of Buckingham Palace thanks to the Google expeditions app. There are also London landmarks available to see in VR through the website youvisit.com. They include Borough Market, Big Ben, King’s Cross station, Tate Modern, Tower Bridge and the British Museum.

Impossible experiences

There are some places which are inaccessible, too dangerous or simply very difficult for occasional travellers to reach. With VR everyone will be able to explore the deep seas, the top of the Everest and jungles full of venomous snakes.

People with disabilities that prevent them from travelling will be able to use VR to explore all sorts of areas that were previously off-limits for them.

One example is the White House. Just before the end of the Obama administration, officials created a VR tour of the White House narrated by Obama himself. How cool is that: you can “visit” the White House without having to fill out the enormous security forms and going through the time-consuming security checks.

Be prepared to use VR to help you plan your holiday. The industry wants to be at the forefront of the technology and “travelling” in that way could become as common as surfing the web in the next couple of years.

 

by Dominic Luca

 

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