Before the trip, how about a virtual test drive?

Travel firms, tourism boards want to appeal to the senses of prospective clients

From raising money for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital to rolling out a new airline business class service, travel companies and tourism boards are increasingly turning to virtual reality to expand their reach and entice prospective clients.

In November, for instance, the Tourism Authority of Thailand released four 360-degree videos, including one on an elephant sanctuary near Chiang Mai and another on the Khao Luang Cave in western Thailand.

“With social media and distribution channels so fragmented, we have to appeal to the senses of consumers,” said Steven Johnson Stevenson, the authority’s marketing manager for the Eastern United States. “We want them to be able to touch, feel, see and hopefully one day smell Thailand.”

Virtual reality, he added, “allows consumers to interact with us in a way they never have before”.

Cathy Tull, senior vice-president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said virtual reality let consumers “test drive” a destination. The most popular of the 30 360-degree videos that the Las Vegas authority has released since March is an actual drive down Las Vegas Boulevard.

“They get to experience a destination,” Tull said. “It allows them to make a decision to come.”

In January 2016, Tourism Australia introduced a series of 360-degree films depicting aquatic and coastal travel experiences there, including snorkelling in the great barrier reef and watching the sun set over Sydney Harbour.

“We have a very competitive landscape in destination marketing, with national tourist offices spending a lot of money,” said Lisa Ronson, the group’s chief marketing officer. “We need to be able to tell the story of Australia in new and engaging ways.”

Then there is the desire of some companies to appear cutting-edge. Maria Walter, managing director of product development and brand strategy for United Airlines, said one reason it had opted to use virtual reality to begin promoting its new Polaris business class service last summer was that the technology could help the carrier re-establish itself as an innovator.

More than 10,000 people — members of the general public and travel trade, as well as United employees — watched a 360-degree virtual reality demonstration of Polaris at roadshows in the carrier’s domestic hub cities last year. More will do so at events this year in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Many people who watched the demonstration last year were using virtual reality for the first time, Walter said. “It definitely got their attention in a way a brochure would not,” she said.

Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst for Atmosphere Research, suggested that premium travel brands, as well as destinations trying to reposition themselves or reach a new group of consumers, were turning to virtual reality because it provided “authentic, breakthrough creative content”.

“You can’t just have an ad,” he said. “You have to have an experience.”

One of the earliest adopters of virtual reality was Marriott Hotels, which in 2014 introduced “teleporter” booths that it took to hotels around the United States, letting guests experience a black-sand beach in Maui.

© 2017 New York Times News Service