As a travel enthusiast, I got super excited when I found out that something like this might be possible. Navitaire, a subsidiary of Amadeus the world famous travel technology company announced last week they are introducing the first “Virtual Reality Search and Booking Experience”. Basically this technology will allow travel businesses to serve their customers better through the use of virtual reality where the user interacts with VR-glasses and special gloves and with that selects the desired destination on a virtual globe.
Users will be able to search for their flights, car rentals, hotels and book and pay directly for all of these virtually using virtual credit card. It even enables users to virtually walk through an airplane cabin and pick their seat.
This is a part of what is called as “Immersive Technologies” consisting of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and 360 degree video. A new report from video ad company YuMe points to some positive consumer attitudes about these kinds of experiences. “Immersive Technologies: The New Emerging Platform & Opportunities for Brands,” which surveyed 811 online users in the US this past August, found that 86 percent of respondents have heard of one or more of the three technologies, although only 29 percent have tried any kind.
This is great news for many industries especially the travelling industry as VR can help them on selling the “experience” of the different destinations to customers. For travel enthusiast like me, this feels like a dream as VR can help us open up our minds to the world and sees that the world is within our grasp and reach, that any part of the world is accessible and can be our possible next destination.
One other great thing is when it comes to comparing prices and organizing all your bookings. For a lot of people, travel booking can be a tedious process, as you have to search for different things on a small screen and compare many different prices to get the best deal. A lot of tabs on your Internet browser would open as you want to compare different prices on different websites and airlines. With VR, this process would seem like a much more exciting and streamlined experience as you have the full view of everything and able to browse around the different deals with your hands.
So, yeah, VR in travel booking is a yes for me.
How about you guys? Don’t you think VR can help you have a much more exciting travelling experience and perhaps encourage you to travel a lot more in the future?
Share your thoughts or any experiences you have with VR in the comment section below!
Yoshua Blog 
I think this is a perfect use for VR! In relation to holidays, consumers are usually persuaded to choose a location based on price – and quite often they return home disappointed. Allowing travellers to gain a real-life perspective of potential travel destinations I think will definitely increase consumer confidence in this industry.
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This sounds awesome! This will definitely increase revenues in the tourism industry (in my opinion). I would love to see VR used in the same way in the car industry. How cool would it be to virtually test out a car before purchasing it!
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Thank you for your comment:). Yes I’d love to see VR in the car industry! Not only you get test out different cars, but you’ll have a peace of mind that you won’t crash the car out there in the streets haha
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I think the company really maximize the use of VR for their marketing campaign. For me it would be a good strategy to give real life experience through VR as customers will more persuaded and it would be an amazing experience.
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Yes. Thank you for your comment Alvin. Definitely the VR will give us a much more enjoyable experience in planning our holidays and can get us all excited about the destination after experiencing a taste of it.
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