Virtual Reality applied to turism

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Tourism is one of the most powerful industries worldwide and even more so in countries like Spain where it attracts millions of tourists annually. It is estimated that in 2019 alone Spain received 83.7 million foreign visitors, which is 12% of the GDP.

But when it comes to travelling there are many inconveniences that can make us not enjoy as much as we would like: crowds, endless queues for museums, archaeological sites destroyed over time, places that are difficult to access, etc.

For all this, immersive technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality help to develop a series of solutions to make the tourist experience much more enjoyable.

In this article, we will explain how Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are a key tool in the tourism industry to solve increasingly common problems and make cultural tourism much more accessible.

VIRTUAL MUSEUMS

Cultural tourism is characterised by attracting a large number of people. Can you imagine going to Paris and not visiting its most important museums? Well, the same goes for the rest of the cities and their wide range of museums.

That’s why many museums, in an effort to keep up with the latest technology, have long opened up virtual tours, many of which can be done thanks to tools like virtual reality. Furthermore, due to the global health crisis of the Covid-19, this practice has been increasing and more and more museums are getting on the Virtual Reality bandwagon.

Below, we leave you with a wide selection of museums that offer this possibility:

  • Natural History Museum in London.
  • Museo del Prado in Madrid.
  • The MoMa in New York.
  • The British Museum in London.
  • The Louvre in Paris.
  • Among many others.

GREATER ACCESSIBILITY AND RECREATION OF MONUMENTS

The reality is that many of these tourist spaces are not designed to attract large numbers of people, or their old and delicate condition makes the capacity limited. We can also find that the location is very difficult to access or even that it is so far from home that we cannot attend very often.

That’s why immersive technologies can be a solution, in order to bring this kind of enclaves closer to the biggest fans of cultural tourism.
For example, you can enjoy the history of Egypt through its pyramids, temples and tombs of its famous pharaohs, thanks to the immersive experience Describing Egypt.

Another way to use this technology is to perform recreations of historical monuments that have not survived over the years. This is the example of the reconstruction of the Roman theatre in Merida or Cartagena:

HOME TOURISM

Thanks to this type of experience, you can enjoy cultural tourism from home. This not only brings culture and monuments closer to everyone, but now that tourism is more limited due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it will even be necessary to visit these monuments.

With many borders closed, countries imposing mandatory quarantines on their tourists and millions of monuments, museums and tours closed, immersive technologies are a solution to activate the tourism industry. If one thing is clear, it is that with the new times come new ways of doing things, tourism and events is one of them.

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