THE HOLYDAYS OF THE FUTURE, AUGMENTED REALITY IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY
With Augmented Reality it takes only the right idea to succeed in entering the hearts of thousands of people. For some years now, it has been revolutionizing several markets. One of these, in which the expectations are very high leveled, is the tourism industry. In this article we will analyze some of the possible applications of Augmenter Reality (AR) to the tourism sector and how these are going to constitute a real revolution.
Augmented Reality for tourism is a revolution: the applications of AR are many and they spread through the entire touristic supply chain and the experiential path of the tourist. Pokémon Go app has been a concrete example and has managed to enter the tourism industry with a major impact. The real revolution in tourism has been that of exploiting Augmented Reality to push people to visit places and making this visit more dynamic and stimulating.
Augmented Reality for tourism: The traveler's experience
By leveraging AR technologies, Augmented Reality for tourism can really improve the traveler’s experience by allowing greater ease in organizing the trip and stay, making the visits fun and original. In addition, many companies in the sector may have the opportunity to enhance their offer. From hotels to transport, passing through restaurants and museums, this technology can benefit many different subjects. Today there are more and more museums, organizations, foundations and exhibitions that use AR technologies. Thanks to an ad hoc application, visitors can interact with certain positions inside the museum, in order to obtain a virtual interaction that overlaps with the real world.
This guarantees a much more complete, immersive and stimulating experience. Walking through the modern streets of European cities of art, you could lift your smartphone to suddenly see the skyscrapers turn into ancient buildings, overlayed on reality in the phone screen. Even in the middle of nature, with the right application, Augmented Reality could be very useful (if not fundamental). The phone screen could show us in real time a tag over the snowy peaks that surround us, providing a detailed identikit (type of rock, altitude of the main rock formations) and more.
Or, in the traffic of an unknown city, the phone could guide us to the destination by making arrows and symbols appear directly on the real-time photography of the road in front of us.
The future of Augmented Reality for tourism and much more
Augmented Reality in tourism has already made progress, especially in the countries of Southeast Asia (Japan, China ect ..), which are beginning to adopt this new reality. In some hotels, in fact, there are robots delegated to the reception of customers and with the task of reorganizing the rooms, etc. The idea of replacing hotel staff with robots that interact with customers in a planned manner raises questions about the importance of emotional involvement and, therefore, of the human component in touristic contexts.
And if we get to a point where we could literally travel to distant lands just by wearing a VR headset, would we still really want to travel? To answer, just ask yourself another question: have you ever tried those classic virtual reality games that make you experience a rollercoaster? It is, of course, graphically captivating, integrated with motion technologies, etc., but has this experience made you feel so satisfied that you no longer want to go to a real rollercoaster though? Obviously not.
A trip with friends and a day outdoors are all real experiences that the virtual world can not (and will not, at least for a while) offer. After trying those experiences from the sofa at home with virtual reality, you would immediately go and discover the original in first person.
So, this is the relationship that the tourism industry could have with virtual reality and augmented reality. The two should work closely together: virtual reality is the perfect marketing tool, the most captivating advertising that exists. Augmented reality, on the other hand, is the tool to make the experience itself even more extraordinary. A fantastic combo, right?
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