People are curious by nature, and because of this, many are interested in seeing the world and everything it offers. Despite current situations making travel a difficult prospect, there will be an eventual return to glory with travel. However, as times have got tough for travellers and virtual reality has made some impressive strides over the past few years, we have seen some fairly interesting apps that have people seeing the world from the comfort of their homes.
As virtual reality only becomes more fleshed out and prospects like the Metaverse come into full view, we have to wonder just how virtual reality will affect the current travel market. Will we ever get back to the number of physical travellers before and will this technology take tourism money away from companies that rely on it? We’re here to talk about that and more as we pose the question: how will travel be affected by virtual reality?
“Homecoming 2019 Football and Tailgating – October 12” by Ferrum College is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Sports & Gaming
One of the biggest draws for travellers is the sports and gaming scenes of a respective country. Potential travellers ask themselves: How does this destination’s football scene look? What teams play regularly, and what sort of competitions are being held in that country? The same goes for gaming as well. If a particular famous casino promises big competition in a game, it will draw people near and far.
But what happens when the whole world is near? So near, in fact, that players are only as far as their nearest computer setup. Through technology, companies such as ESPN have provided a virtual insight into the sporting world. Meanwhile, the likes of skycitycasino.com have been offering virtual casino gaming environments for their customers to inhabit. However, this doesn’t mean the end of in-person sporting and gaming events, rather, the two spheres can co-exist and complement one another.
“Homecoming 2019 Football and Tailgating – October 12“ by Ferrum College is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Rio From The Roof, Botswana From The Basement
It’s not an exaggeration to say that you can see the world in real-time from the safety of your home. Technically, we’ve been able to do that since the invention of television. But we can now move about at our pace, turn to look at unique attractions and overall have a bigger presence in our virtual vacations. To an extent we’ve never seen before, we can enjoy the world from anywhere we want.
As a matter of fact, the website virtuallyvisiting.com is banking on the fact that you will. A service that offers 360-degree tours is nothing to sneer at, but even that has its limitations. Sure, you can see everything on that tour, but can you taste everything? Smell those flowers over there? Ride that horse up the mountain trail. There is so much that travellers will miss out on, even with introducing smelling technology and advanced haptic suits. Will this put a dent in the industry? Sure, for a while. But this might also cause a surge in curiosity and get people physically travelling more than ever – we just have to see how the VR part goes.
“Cash is the King“ by EssG is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
It’s All About The Mighty Dollar
Much of the aversion to travel comes from the big price tag. If virtual reality wants to compete with physical trips, they have to not only make the technology better, but they have to make the hardware cheaper. That’s not exactly a simple task. There are plenty of advancements to look forward to in the next 5 years, but without a manageable price tag thanks to enterprising businesses like immersionvr.co.uk.
Overall, we don’t think VR will negatively affect tourism and take money out of the hands of the countries that need it. Conversely, we believe that VR will only spark curiosity about travel that previous generations didn’t have. People will be curious enough to hike Machu Picchu with the help of VR or take a tour of the Great Wall of China, but what they see will only get them halfway to the full experience. Many will use this initial experience as a springboard for future physical endeavours.
Our prediction is that VR tourism will only increase physical tourism, a sort of symbiotic relationship where potential travellers will scout locations with the help of VR first. It’s a ways away, but we can’t see how the two industries will grow together.
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