Virtual Tour - Can it be the worldwide new trend post-pandemic?
In the midst of a crisis like Covid-19, virtual reality travel seems to be a great choice when you don’t have to travel anywhere but stay at your place. Recently, I have seen people in the tourism industry in Vietnam discussing a lot about this new kind of traveling. Actually, the official website of the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has already added the Virtual Travel button to temporarily visually eye-pleasing for many travel lovers. This website also gives recipes for people who love Vietnamese food and want to prepare it by themselves at home. Besides that, guiding tourists to plan their green travel in Vietnam. Those are encouraging signals I observe in Vietnam which means they start to adapt to the new-normal situation.
Personally, I believe that this can be the hot trend in near future due to the convenient and diversified experience brought back to tourists. Furthermore, virtual reality can be a preparation for other unexpected pandemics.
Here is the VNAT website I mentioned above: https://vietnam.travel/virtual-vietnam.
What about you and your area? Are there any activities from tourist agency or government to come up with new idea about future vision post-pandemic?
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Lan Anh
Dear Lan, thank you very much for this very inspiring post. Actually, I agree with you that VR will boom especially right now as digitalisation will be the alternativ branche to tourism due to the harsh restriction. By VR, potential customers can be "nurished" with strong desires. After all, I think VR is another "more of the same", in intensification of creating attractiveness and emotional binding in order to be prepared for the renaissance of tourism after the lockdowns...
In another post I have already mentioned the virtual approach of ZOTTER chocolate, where we have made our excursion to (the study visit) three years ago. To compensate the loss of the visitors, they have started to heavily invest into webshops - and started with live-virtual chocolate testing, such as https://www.zotter.at/?msclkid=59468e7895601b4ef1b2ee3a31d8a412&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=OS%3A%20DE%20Brand&utm_term=zotter%20schokolade&utm_content=Zotter%20-%20Allgemein
That comes pretty close, doesn't it?
Ceterum censeo mutationem climae esse vincendem.
(Incidentally, I think that global warming must be defeated)
Prof. (FH) Mag. Mag. Dr. Harald A. Friedl
Assoc. Professor for Sustainability and Ethics in Tourism
Institute for Health and Tourism Management
FH JOANNEUM - University of Applied Sciences
Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Straße 24
8344 Bad Gleichenberg, Austria
Phone office +43-316/5453-6725
Phone mobil: +43-699/191.44.250
eMail: harald.friedl@fh-joanneum.at
Web: www.fh-joanneum.at/GMT
Personally, I want to experience this beautiful land of Vietnam. Hope I can come soon in the future.
Due to the fact that visitors are provided with a more convenient and varied experience, I feel that this has the potential to become the most popular trend in the not too distant future. In addition, virtual reality has the potential to serve as a means of mitigation for future unforeseen pandemics.
I've been here once. The people of this country are very friendly. The food is delicious and cheap. Well worth a visit once