The potential use cases for extended reality have evolved drastically in recent years. Since the pandemic in particular, extended reality solutions have emerged as a potential solution to a variety of common problems.
Mixed, Virtual, and Augmented reality technologies have given us new ways to collaborate without traveling long distances, enhanced the production of innovative new tools, and even upgraded learning and educational experiences. In some cases, these tools are also offering us new ways to explore the world and experience different cultures, transforming the way we think about travel.
From helping customers to experience distant locations before they choose their next vacation destination, to providing us with an escape from our everyday reality when we need it most, XR innovations have had a huge impact on the travel industry. Here are just some of the vendors experimenting with the possibilities of XR in travel and tourism.
- TravelZoo
- Varjo
- ARuVR
- Within
- Immersion VR
- Visualise
- Meta
TravelZoo
Online tourism company, TravelZoo, provides consumers with a convenient way to plan and manage vacation experiences. In 2022, the company positioned itself as an innovator in the tourism landscape, by announcing its decision to debut a unique Metaverse software as a service platform. The Travelzoo: Meta solution allows users to interact with digital immersive travel experiences, using virtual reality.
TravelZoo Meta aims to change the way consumers shop for travel experiences, by allowing them to explore virtual travel scenarios within the metaverse. According to the company, this digital offering won’t compete with real-world travel, but instead hopes to make inaccessible places more accessible through virtual reality and unique interactions.
Varjo
Exploring the virtual, augmented, and mixed reality landscapes with a combination of software and hardware solutions, Varjo serves companies from a variety of industries. With Varjo headsets, travel and tourism companies can give customers an opportunity to experience what distant locations around the world may look like, before they begin planning their vacations.
Additionally, the Varjo Reality Cloud ensures travel companies can render high-quality virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences for users, without having to access expensive computing equipment. With Varjo Reality Cloud, business leaders can move the immense rendering loads of immersive technologies to offsite GPUs, changing the way users access real-time 3D content.
ARuVR
In addition to preparing new and current employees across a diverse number of verticals, ARuVR has remained instrumental in helping the travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Through their efforts, staff have been recruited, upskilled, and instructed to reenter the workforce after a long absence, rapidly and at scale. Companies such as Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, and others have leveraged the firm’s immersive training solution to educate employees with real-time 3D (RT3D) and 360-degree content, along with multichannel livestreaming, to provide optimal travel, room service, restaurant, and concierge services.
As major aerospace firms like Airbus also pivot to XR tools to inspect their aircraft and improve engineering, companies like ARuVR have the potential to streamline remote guidance and training for maintenance and operations (M&O) protocols. With ARuVR, efforts have led to a significant boost in productivity and customer experience quality.
Within
AR and VR company Within aims to empower companies with the resources they need to create extraordinary experiences with immersive content. The vendor specializes in the development of unique content experiences, accessible through a range of headsets from leading technology providers. In the past, the organization has developed solutions which allow users to experience the New Year’s fireworks celebration in Hong Kong from the comfort of their own homes.
With hundreds of curated experiences to choose from, Within users can explore various unique environments, from space shuttle and rocket launches, to animated landscapes. Within is even available on the Oculus Quest store from Meta.
Immersion VR
Specializing in the production of 360-degree videos and 3D content, Immersion VR works with companies to produce powerful experiences within the virtual reality landscape. The company offers solutions tailored to those in the travel and tourism industry, complete with access to specialist cameras, rigs, and software, all managed by the Immersion VR team.
Immersion works with travel and tourism companies on the creation of unique virtual experiences, intended to give customers a behind-the-scenes insight into what they can experience in new landscapes and locations around the world. Immersion can also work with vendors on hotel tours, and guided tourism experiences for consumers.
Visualise
Based in London, Visualise is an immersive content studio, committed to creating 360-degree video, AR, and VR experiences for international brands and agencies. Producing more immersive content than any other agency in Europe, Visualise works with organizations on the development of bespoke experience for travel and tourism consumers, as well as a range of other clients.
The brand has worked with Igor Studios and Glassworks to produce virtual reality concert experiences, as well as leading fashion brands, to promote new collections with immersive technology. Organizations can leverage a range of services from Visualise, including support with metaverse consultation, mixed reality, augmented reality, and virtual reality development, and more.
Meta
Developing a combination of hardware and software solutions for extended reality and the metaverse, Meta produces tools suitable for a wide variety of industries. With Meta headsets, consumers and business leaders alike can take advantage of easily accessible virtual reality landscapes. Meta even has its own marketplace environment, where users can find content produced by a variety of companies, and organizations can upload bespoke applications.
Meta is investing in the future of the metaverse with innovative tools, such as the Meta Quest Pro for collaboration and creation, and the development of new AR smart glasses. What’s more, the company works with developers and business leaders on the creation of new experiences.
