“A life is too short to experience everything the world has to offer.” Therefore you can go on virtual discoveries with YouVisit. YouVisit is a Virtual Reality company based in New York City, offering VR production as well as VR content. Their goal is to empower the world to create and share interactive VR experiences. YouVisit provides a huge collection of VR content in the following categories: education, real estate, business, events, travel, hospitality and restaurants.
YouVisit VR: Desktop view
“Jump in! Rock out. Relax. Escape. The possibilities are virtually endless.”
Basically all the categories can be applied to our topic – VR in tourism. The content provided for travel, hospitality, restaurants and events is quite obvious a perfect match with our topic. But also for example the provided VR content for education. Let’s imagine you would like to study abroad and check out the university and campus beforehand. With the provided VR experiences you can discover universities like Princeton, Harvard, Yale and many others.
Virtual discoveries with YouVisit: Tel Aviv University with the tour guide Michelle
The content is compatible with VR headsets, mobile VR (there is as an app for Android as well as for iOS) and desktop. The interaction within the app does not require the use of external controls. Users can navigate through the menu by focussing on various marker objects.
In their latest blog post “Brilliant Ways Marketers Use Virtual Reality” they write about the potential of VR in marketing and mention a few examples. For the tourism industry they chose to demonstrate three different segments: the cruise industry with Carnival Cruises, travel agents with Thomas Cook and the airline industry is represented by Qantas. In an article written by Beth J. Harpaz in 2015, it is stated that Abi Mandelbaum, CEO of YouVisit, believes that VR has big potential for tourism marketing, as it offers the most realistic experience of a place without actually visiting it. He thinks that this technology has the power to inspire people to get the virtual experience in reality. He does not consider the real travel being jeopardized by VR. Regarding his experience with VR in tourism marketing, people are more likely to book after they have seen what to expect.
Our own findings support Mandelbaums argument. Click here for more information about VR in tourism marketing as well as potential benefits and risks.
Julia Beck
Latest posts by Julia Beck (see all)
- VR & Travel in COVID-Times: Interview with Daniel Sarkady - 7. September 2020
- VR Time Travel: Step into Old Hong Kong - 18. December 2018
- How will technological developments influence VR travel? - 4. July 2018