Virtual Tourism: New Experience to attract Chinese Tourists
Virtual tourism increases online bookings by an average of 85%.
What is virtual tourism?
Virtual tourism is the application of virtual reality including augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) to tourism. Enhanced forms of virtual reality allow you to interact with that environment using extra equipment, such as gloves fitted with sensors.
Virtual tourism is effective not only in enticing people to visit an area but in helping them plan out what they’re going to do and how they’re going to spend their time once they’re there.
Incorporating virtual tours into your planning process can help in a big way. By having a reservation button on your travel website page, you are already pushing your future Chinese customers in the right direction and are helping them do exactly what you want them to do.
You are helping your visitors better understand your store by showing the global ambiance through your virtual tour. Your Chinese visitors are then more likely to book directly from the website.
How VR is used in tourism ?
How does it work ?
Virtual reality refers to interactive images and videos that allows the viewer to explore a global 360 view of a scene. Contrary to regular images of videos, which are shot from a fixed view point, VR production are able to capture every detail of a specific location. In the travel industry, VR (Virtual Reality) can be used to capture tourism destinations in the most unique and immersive way possible.
This result can be achieved by using specific cameras, rigs, and a wide array of softwares. The finished content can then be viewed on either a VR headset or a regular computer or mobile device.
Why is it so popular in China
The use of VR technology is increasingly becoming popular among chinese tourists mainly because of the many benefits that virtual reality in the tourism include :
- Allows the user to visualize themselves directly at the destination
- Enabling the user to explore a location at their own pace
- Creating unique brand engagement
- Providing travel experiences to those that cannot travel
Is virtual tourism the future ?
In the past recent years there has been an increase in the use of VR in the travel industry. However it is impossible to predict how this niche market will develop or even what new VR travel technologies will be available in the future. But, we can definitly spot emerging trends within this particular part of the industry.
- VR travel experiences by travel companies
- Virtual hotel tours by travel companies and hotels
- Technologies to make VR travel more realistic
- VR travel experiences for the elderly
- VR flight experiences
- Virtual experiences of landmark destinations
- Virtual booking interface
How Virtual Tours will help to enhance your Tourism Business ?
VR tourism is an excellent means of communication to implement in your marketing strategy because it is an innovative way to attract new customers and promote your image to potential clients. Coupled with the use of marketing tools typically used in the Chinese market, this will only improve your image with Chinese consumers.
The influence of virtual tourism on Baidu SEO
Baidu SEO is usually a misunderstood element of online visibility for foreign Businesses. Most travel agencies don’t see the importance of investing in a good Baidu SEO strategy because the results of SEO are not always black and white. It usually takes a minimum of 3 months to see actual results and most people that don’t even aware that they can track the results of their SEO campaign.
Basically, Baidu has its own version of “Google Analytics”. By having access to this type of data, any business would clearly see the value of Baidu SEO, in-fact they would see how much in-store traffic they generate with their current listing.
Virtual Tours increase interaction
You have probably read about content marketing and the importance of it. Content is the king and presented in different forms. Video, Photo, Text, Audio, etc. By creating rich content and by publicizing it on different social platforms, you sure help your brand. But don’t forget that there is a proper way to do this.
In fact, posting nonsense or unattractive content will certainly not help your cause. In the end, it’s all about the engagement between your brand and your audience and they are not going to engage with poor content.
One of the best ways to generate engagement is to increase the interactivity of your post. Good customer services are a good example of great engagement because they can personalize the experience of your audience and they can adapt to the behavior of your audience.
Virtual tours generate massive organic reach. Virtual tours can generate a huge amount of organic views.
- It Helps Your Baidu SEO
- It Increases Your Website Traffic
By starting with low investment, like a virtual tour of your business, you’ll be able to cover in-store traffic and website traffic, which allows you to expand on some more interesting strategies in the future.
Quality information is so important. In fact, we are faced with the fact that the purchase or reservation process is mainly rational. That is, in this complex process the consumer considers not only the choice of destination but also the price and the activities he could experience there.
The tourist could at least explore and live a specific experience to assess whether it will be satisfactory or not, in order to make the reservation. Emotions are also very important to influence the decision-making process of tourists.The virtual tour is able to activate the emotions by stimulating the users’ senses. Because with virtual reality users are able to interact within the experience. This creates a great opportunity for the entire travel industry, especially for tourist destinations.
The influence of video marketing in tourism
The Internet impact and, especially, social networking is changing the way of communication in all sectors. Is becoming more and more important being part of the Social media of communication. Because it is not just about being digital but to understand the new decision-making processes of the consumer. The Chinese client wants to know first hand the brand and what experiences can be expected of it before the purchase.
Tourism sells emotions, experiences, passion, adventure. Video marketing is the best way to show these emotions and advance the experience that tourists will have. This environment offers endless options to attract and differentiate. Thanks to the audiovisual content, you communicate experiences, feelings, and emotion. Video or VR becomes a key element to attract a demanding customer. Its application is essential when it comes to generating engagement with Chinese customers, sharing service information.
Will VR replace travel ?
VR is great for creating limited moments of immersion but it as it is now, it cannot yet replace the complete immersion of being physically present in a real location. For many tourists VR cannot replace travel, and that visiting a destination does not have the same feeling to visiting in real life. It is also important to note that to many travelers tasting local food and engaging with locals plays a major role and adds excitment to the experience.
Whilst VR technology is developing at a very fast rate, it is safe to say that virtual reality won’t be replacing travel anytime soon.
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