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Real travellers need no bar, they believe in exploring and experiencing the world. And with the advent of virtual reality, the true sense of exploration begins.

The world seems to finally be coming out of the trench of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the first half of 2020, people have been restricted to travel due to COVID-19 norms. Being homebound puts a lot of mental and emotional stress on people. Especially for those whose heart lies in travelling.

Amid these unforeseen circumstances, a new travel friend or guide came along the way: virtual travel. The world was steadily transitioning and adapting to virtual reality before the pandemic, however, the pandemic made things transition swiftly.

Virtual travel in a nutshell

Virtual tourism is fundamentally a hybrid concept. It blends the notions of virtual reality and tourism and facilitates a tourism experience without actually having to travel anywhere.

Having said so, virtual travel allows one to experience a seemingly real world through three-dimensional images, electronic equipment (VR headset) and gloves fitted with sensors. A virtual tour is a recreation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of videos or still images.

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The crisis hour of the pandemic and the contemporary times of today have made virtual travel increasingly popular amongst tourism industry stakeholders.

Significance of virtual travel amid the pandemic

In these unpredictable times, stepping out always carries some degree of risk and travelling gets scary. So, what should travellers do?

Fortunately, virtual travel does it all. One can travel and one doesn’t need to step out. By merely sitting on the living room couch, one can experience and explore the world’s best tourist places. Virtual reality makes it interesting by amalgamating technology with reality.

GOOD READ: Virtual Tours: Bright Spot for Tourism Industry

Currently people want to run away from the mundane ways of life. Virtual travel gives an opportunity to explore and experience what most people have not been able to do in a long time.

Benefits of virtual travel

The biggest hurdle in travelling amid the pandemic is social distancing. However, social distancing is no more a hurdle when one is virtually travelling. To visit London or Hong Kong, one does not need to leave their vicinity, the destinations can come to their houses.

The most interesting part is that one can travel to the most expensive tourist destinations with a minimum amount of money. People who could not afford to travel to Europe can now fulfil their dreams with limited money.

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Virtual tours with VR headsets provide a seemingly real experience of the places that one cannot reach due to physical and monetary boundaries. Such tours are extremely beneficial to students, tourists, and governments.

Travelling virtually gives an immersive experience to tourists, they see the world reborn with technology in front of their eyes. The vividness in visuals, the versatility in the experience makes virtual tours a wholesome way of quenching one’s thirst to travel.

Is virtual tourism “real” travel?

While the perks of virtual tours in the times of social distancing and lockdowns have been many, many could argue that there is a difference between “real” and “seemingly” real experience. In essence, no matter how one looks at it, the virtual is just a recreation of reality. Besides, it the concept of virtual tourism may not provide the economic benefits that real traditional tourism does.

INTERESTING READ: Shedding light on another World within sight – Virtual Reality

However, virtual tourism has its own advantages that real-life tourism cannot achieve. It saves time, cost, mental space to plan a trip, comfort and most importantly one can travel the world even in a pandemic right from their bedrooms.

To experience life from a new lens is what today’s generation does. Why wait in long queues for tickets or take the hassle of travelling in public vehicles when everything can be available in the living room?

If one could ignore the few drawbacks of the concept, virtual reality, with its advanced equipment, does offer an immersive experience to travellers that quenches their thirst for travelling the world.

SOURCE: KALKINE MEDIA