Virtual travel's time has finally come

The economic devastation unleashed by COVID-19 is accelerating trends that were already in place - like virtual travel.

We’re wise to embrace it.

Skeptics may consider today’s virtual reality experiences to be more evolutionary than disruptive. But even before this crisis, virtual reality device shipments were already doubling.

Virtual tours are no longer a nice to have - traffic and interest are on the rise now as a way of providing “location interactivity,” according to Threshold 360 CEO Dan Krause.

Virtual Travel Re-Defined

Wikipedia defines virtual tours as “a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of videos or still images,” citing the CD-ROM-based 3D re-creation of England’s Dudley Castle in 1994 as the first example.

Virtual tours are more sophisticated today thanks to new technology. But costly tech isn’t an option for most right now. I propose a broader, more customer-centric definition of virtual travel: experiencing a place without physically being there.

The New Normal is Now

A few weeks back, I shared how a growth mindset can help companies survive a crisis. Now, the webinar space is filled with recovery strategies for the COVID-19 era. But amid mass layoffs and travel restrictions, we mustn’t confuse the physical capacity to travel with its affordability, as Phocuswright founder Philip Wolf pointed out in a recent webinar.

We don’t know when demand will bounce back, so it’s better to control what we can. Smart companies are adapting now, thinking like a scrappy startup to figure out how to thrive when nobody’s traveling.

Fortunately, you don’t need a huge budget to invest in virtual travel solutions. Constraints breed creativity.

Exporting the Experience

If we can’t take people to new places, let’s bring the experience to them. Here’s how savvy travel marketers are employing virtual travel techniques to do so:

• Swelter-In-Place: VISIT FLORIDA’s Beach Finder by TripTuner brings warm sunshine to home-bound travelers by helping them discover and explore their ideal beach experience. 
• Less Bookshelf, More Beach: virtual backgrounds are the new business cards. Keep your brand in view by adding zest to Zooms with alluring images like these from the Fairmont Mayakoba in Mexico. 
• All I Got Was This Cool T-Shirt: once thought of as a sub-optimal trip gift, sales of Visit Indy’s logo T-shirts are flying off the virtual shelves as locals share why they love Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Real-Time, Hyper-Local: travel’s comeback will start locally, placing a premium on realtime info. Foursquare and Google have added indicators for delivery/take-out restaurants, and Crowdriff’s upcoming “LocalHood” program offers a visual way to showcase what’s on the shelves at local businesses.
• Bahama-Rama: James Bond’s 1965 Thunderball still beckons me back to that famous turquoise grotto. Today, the Bahamas exports face masks adorned with indigenous androsia prints while enticing visitors with an Island Finder and 360 aerial views.
• Actions Speak Louder Than Surveys: with no new grist in the third-party data aggregation mill, now’s a great time to find ways of capturing first-party preference data. Measuring interactions with virtual travel initiatives are more reliable than surveys in detecting evolving demand patterns. 
• Inspire Now, Book Later: at Phocuswright last year, I explained why the funnel is more like a sphere. Virtual travel measures help marketers move up-funnel as the customer journey further fragments in an evolving situation that varies geographically. 

Come Together, Right Now

Our industry is pulling together in creative ways to protect stakeholders and stay relevant to travelers. Pondering-in-place has revealed what really matters, shaping the way forward.

Executive road warriors are reconnecting with family, friends, themselves.

Heartening stories of wildlife sightings and images of a smog-free Delhi, tourist-free Yosemite and clear Venice canal waters remind us of travel’s environmental impact.

Traveling virtually now stokes wanderlust in a next-best-thing way, like a video call with a friend we can’t wait to see again.

Exploring a place virtually helps travelers decide on experiences that are best suited to their tastes. In this way, it can spawn a more intentional, considered form of travel that makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity, with better returns for travelers, marketers and our world.