Virtual Reality is developing at such a fast pace – the technology behind, available apps and content, different congresses and fairs are evolving as well as the application in various industries is expanding. This comes along with the emergence of new jobs. As we are based in Austria, we checked out the Austrian job market and found this recent job advertisement on the job portal www.karriere.at (in German language). It is a perfect combination for people interested in a job that combines VR and tourism.
New job position: Sales representative for VR in the hospitality sector
In the job advertisement, they refer to VR as the “mega trend of the year 2016”. The company is looking for a “Sales Representative Virtual Reality Tourism” who is able to inspire stakeholders within the tourism sector to apply VR. Requirements are experience in tourism and sales. Furthermore, it is important to be a digital native and to be familiar with the utilization as well as advantages of VR. The goal is to present VR as a promotion tool in tourism to hoteliers and other players in the industry.
The development of VR comes along with new job possibilities. According to Karsten Strauss (journalist, Forbes), VR is “one of the more vibrant, up-and-coming sectors of the tech industry these days”. A San Francisco-based recruiting company, SmartRecruiter, explains that in the first quarter of 2016 more VR related job postings have been advertised than in the whole year 2015. Most of them are being posted by American companies, followed by French ones. Paul D’Arcy (vice president at Indeed.com) outlines that the majority of the job postings are software engineering-related work. The jobs are very technical and not in the field of marketing or sales. As D’Arcy says, “It does reflect on the current state of the virtual reality industry: there are a lot of companies that are investing to develop technology but not many companies actively commercializing the technology on a large scale.”
Therefore it is great to see that the tourism industry is already actively going in the direction of marketing and sales-related jobs to bring the technology of VR closer to its potential users. We are excited to see how the job market regarding VR and tourism will continue to evolve and grow!
Julia Beck
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