VR Technology Ready to Travel Even Further
- Cindy Chen
- Nov 23, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 12, 2021
In recent years, the popular VR (virtual reality) technology has not only shone in the entertainment industry, but it has also quickly attracted the tourism industry. This technology breaks through the limits of time and space, and recreating the seas of the sightseeing scene. VR traveling challenges reality by using places, methods to view angles that are actually impossible or extremely difficult to reach. Aside from entertaining use, VR traveling has found its way to a bigger market in relating industries, including travel supplies.
Traveling with VR Technology
Google Earth VR, launched in 2017, allows users to travel to different regions in the virtual earth world on the STEAM platform, using HTC VIVE, Oculus Rift, and Valve Index. “Travelers” can climb mountains, fly through canyons, cross cities, stroll the streets of Tokyo, walk around the Eiffel Tower, or visit alleys and places in scenic areas.
National Geographic Channel also launched National Geographic Explore VR in 2019, where explorers can row boats, climb icebergs, travel through blizzards and find hidden penguin habitats in the wilderness. National Geographic and Force Field VR have collaborated to launch a well-known South American attraction, one of the Seven Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu.
Viewers turn into explorers in Peru, going deep into this great Inca cultural site in the deep mountains. Through VR digital reconstruction, these travelers could learn about the history and culture. More than half of the National Geographic Explore VR users give five-star-ratings, and 82% of the ratings are more than four stars, indicating the quite well overall experiences.
Curing Experience in VR Traveling
The enjoyable VR traveling not only delights office workers in their leisure time, but also makes elder’s dream of traveling come true. The technology allows them to visit places in spite of their disabilities and inconveniences. Japanese therapists use VR to help those with health concerns to travel to world’s famous attractions without leaving their beds. Amazingly, the result turned out to be quite impressive. "When they see the VR, [it] takes them to a different place right before their eyes…people stand up who don't normally stand up, who then start walking. It was so shocking.” The benefit of VR traveling has been taken to another level, and where this therapeutic usage of the technology will lead to in the future is definitely something worth a wait.
Global Pandemic and the future of VR Technology
Virtual traveling had started years before the virus went all over the world. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, in which the tourism industry has started to suffer from the severe decrease in travel flights, virtual traveling is becoming popular. Wanderlust is subjected to the worldwide pandemic, and people now have turned to virtual travel to help fill the void. According to the E-commerce Times, virtual travel experts use virtual reality, video, and other technologies to explore the world even stacked at home. The world has never needed this technology more, and with it increasingly becoming a norm, "it's evolving into the ultimate marketing tool for all categories of travel suppliers, travel sellers and their clients, the consumer. It's changing how travel is being viewed -- not only now, but in the future,” said Travel World VR's Graham in Virtual Travel Marketing's Cure for Wanderlust.
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