How virtual tourism can make the travel & tourism industry more sustainable

Many people think that vir­tu­al tour­ism is a tem­por­ary hype; an activ­ity that will quickly fade away as phys­ic­al travel resumes post-pan­dem­ic. But, accord­ing to tour­ism expert and edu­cat­or Hay­ley Stain­ton, vir­tu­al tour­ism is here to stay and it can help to cre­ate a more sus­tain­able industry. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

[Thanks to Jim Butcher for invit­ing Dr Stain­ton to write a “GT” Insight.]

The pan­dem­ic has seen the world rap­idly become more digit­al­ised. People have adap­ted to life in front of their com­puter screens, and our work and social lives have under­taken irre­vers­ible changes. In the tour­ism arena, we have seen many organ­isa­tions move their oper­a­tions online in attempt to make up for a dev­ast­at­ing loss of income.

Many people view this move online as a tem­por­ary meas­ure. While it can be great fun to be guided around a tour­ist attrac­tion via a com­puter screen or mobile phone, it is no altern­at­ive for the act of trav­el­ling itself. 

And they are right. Mostly. 

Vir­tu­al tours are almost cer­tainly a tem­por­ary product offer­ing for many com­pan­ies. How­ever, I con­tend that vir­tu­al tour­ism is here to stay; will grow des­pite the pending rebirth of the travel industry; and will be a valu­able tool for not only mar­ket­ing des­tin­a­tions and attrac­tions, but also pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism and respons­ible travel.

Yes, ‘Zoom fatigue’ may cause a tem­por­ary decline in interest in vir­tu­al exper­i­ences, but once life has returned to some form of nor­mal­ity, vir­tu­al tour­ism will become an integ­ral part of the pre- and post-hol­i­day exper­i­ence. Wheth­er it’s a ‘try before you buy’ neces­sity or a ‘share my hol­i­day exper­i­ence with grandma upon my return’ type of exper­i­ence, vir­tu­al tour­ism isn’t going any­where. In fact, it is set to grow and to evolve considerably.

What is virtual tourism?

The major­ity (98%) of com­pan­ies now offer­ing vir­tu­al tours use simple tools, includ­ing video apps like Zoom and plat­forms like You­Tube. How­ever, vir­tu­al tour­ism is actu­ally a far more com­plex and tech­no­lo­gic­ally-advanced sec­tor than most people realise.

Vir­tu­al tour­ism cov­ers a broad spec­trum of digit­ally-medi­ated real­ity, which includes vir­tu­al real­ity, mixed real­ity, and aug­men­ted real­ity. There is a grow­ing vir­tu­al tour­ism tech­no­logy mar­ket­place, where innov­a­tions can, and should, be used for the great­er good.

Fly­over Zone, with whom I work, is a vir­tu­al tour­ism organ­isa­tion with a team of aca­dem­ics, digit­al archae­olo­gists, and soft­ware developers at its core. That’s why it’s a lead­er in the emer­ging field. Their digit­al recon­struc­tions of ancient his­tor­ic­al sites are attract­ive not only to tour­ists, but also to stu­dents, and to those who want to learn more.

Vir­tu­al tour­ism tech­no­lo­gies can be used for a num­ber of pur­poses, most not­ably the mar­ket­ing of tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and attrac­tions to pro­spect­ive trav­el­lers. And there is vast scope for it to be used in oth­er con­texts, such as edu­cat­ing stake­hold­ers on how to take more responsibility. 

Virtual tourism as a sustainability teaching tool

Edu­ca­tion is a key notion that is ingrained with­in the concept of sus­tain­able tour­ism. In order to cre­ate and main­tain a sus­tain­able industry, stake­hold­ers must be edu­cated in the rel­ev­ant fields. And tour­ists should be taught why not to step off of the main trail, why not to feed the mon­keys, or why they should dress respect­fully in an unfa­mil­i­ar cul­ture, to name but a few examples.

Also see Ivana Dam­njan­ović’s “GT” Insight
“Travel, stor­ies, edu­ca­tion: The keys to happiness?”

It is clear to me that sus­tain­able tour­ism edu­ca­tion can be facil­it­ated through the use of vir­tu­al tour­ism tools. For example, an air­line could offer a short inter­act­ive exper­i­ence en route to a des­tin­a­tion dur­ing which a pas­sen­ger might learn how to be a respons­ible vis­it­or. Tour oper­at­ors and travel agents could send out links to vir­tu­al tours to pre­pare their cli­ents for what to expect (and what is expec­ted of them). Gov­ern­ments could incor­por­ate sus­tain­ab­il­ity and cul­tur­al edu­ca­tion into vir­tu­al tour­ism train­ing cur­ricula as well as inter­act­ive des­tin­a­tion mar­ket­ing campaigns.

There is huge poten­tial for the vir­tu­al tour­ism industry to be a key play­er in sus­tain­able tour­ism edu­ca­tion. It will be fas­cin­at­ing to see how this evolves in the com­ing months and years.

Vir­tu­al tour­ism isn’t going to dis­ap­pear post-pan­dem­ic. It is simply going to get more ser­i­ous. As travel & tour­ism IRL (in real life) recov­ers, the scramble to make up for rev­en­ue losses will ease, mak­ing way for the ser­i­ous and innov­at­ive vir­tu­al tour­ism play­ers to lead the sec­tor forward.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Digit­al world image by Com­freak (CC0) via Pixabay. VR out­line by sy (CC0) via Pixabay.

About the author

Hay­ley Stain­ton is a tour­ism aca­dem­ic and travel writer. She shares her prac­tic­al, con­cep­tu­al, and the­or­et­ic­al know­ledge of the tour­ism industry through her web­site, Tour­ism Teach­er. Dr Stain­ton is work­ing with the team at Fly­over Zone to devel­op their vir­tu­al tour­ism pro­vi­sion. As evid­enced by this “GT” Insight, she has become fas­cin­ated in the future applic­a­tions of vir­tu­al tour­ism and its implic­a­tions for the rest of the sector.