How technology is powering a new generation of travel marketing
ravel marketing is based on feelings and appeals to the senses. From adventure tours to city breaks, many of the most effective campaigns are based on creating tangible wants and desires in the consumer. As travel has been curtailed over the past two years, have tech solutions like VR and AR kept the dream of travel alive – and how else is technology empowering travel marketing?
Despite how novel it feels in practice, using virtual reality (VR) tech to promote travel destinations is nothing new. Newspapers including The Financial Times were using 360° videos to profile cities as far back as 2016, and travel agents were using the wow factor of well-done VR experiences to sell packages the same year.
Since then, the rise of consumer VR tech like the Oculus Quest has allowed marketers to go further still. There are any number of fantastic VR travel experiences, from the hard-hitting like Traveling While Black, to the fantastic city tours available on every piece of VR hardware.
Andrew Kiguel is chief executive officer of Tokens.com, an NFT specialist with particular interest in the practical applications of VR. He tells The Drum: “We’ve invested in a platform called Superworld; it takes a different standpoint in that they’re saying this is virtual tourism so you can go to Mount Rushmore or the Taj Mahal, walk around at your own leisure and see what this looks like. [It’s] something you might not be able to experience otherwise and there’ll be other virtual tourists walking around you can talk to and interact with.
“[It’s] not just like going to the real thing. This is a close second, especially during a pandemic.”
The use of VR to tell travel stories lies at the heart of many of the most effective travel marketing campaigns of the past two years – provided you can do more than simply plonk a 360° camera down and call it a day. The BBC recently invested in just such a narrative-led VR series with The Green Planet Experience, in partnership with EE.
