Virtual Travel – the Future or a Fad?

The international travel industry was predicted to grow from 685 billion USD in 2019 to 712 billion USD in 2020. Needless to say, the opposite will happen. It is now predicated to shrink down to 447 billion USD. That is a 37.5% decrease compared to last year.

Travel and tourism companies around the globe are suffering, and the uncertainty makes it impossible for anyone to plan ahead. With international travel still far from being reality anytime soon, virtual travel might be our only opportunity to travel abroad this year.  

Virtual reality (VR) has already been on the rise as a means to assist in travel planning over the past few years. 62% of travelers suggested they would use VR as a tool for planning their vacation. However, it has never really been considered as a way to replace actual travel. The coronavirus pandemic is asking us to reconsider.

Let’s take a trip to Colombia.

Companies like Kagumu Adventures are working on recreating the immersive experience of speaking Spanish, for example, whilst traveling through beautiful Colombia. Imagine walking through a market in Medellín, and being able to choose which individuals to engage in spontaneous conversation with.

We would even take it a step further, and ask the traveler to use their language skills to then negotiate a price for the product the vendor at the market is selling.

Thanks to technology, we could select the size and color of the product before entering our credit card details to purchase it, and have it shipped to our home address. This way local craftsmen and artisans can continue to sell their products, allowing you, a virtual traveler, to support the local community despite physical travel not being an option.  

We couldn’t image a more sustainable way to travel – no CO2 emissions, and your money flows directly into the destinations’ economy. A win-win for planet earth.

Here are some of our favorite benefits of virtual travel:

·      Climate friendly

·      Accessible to anyone with an internet connection (and VR glasses)

·      You don’t have to deal with crowds of people

·      No need for vaccines or malaria tablets

·      Avoid jetlag

·      Say goodbye to long hours spent traveling to get to the destination

·      Easier to explore remote or dangerous places

Some of the downsides of virtual travel include:

·      Technical issues are always a high risk

·      Whilst elements can be integrated to support the local community, it is not as sustainable and interactive in terms of economic value as it would be if you were traveling there in person - B&Bs, home-stays and hotels would be obsolete

·      The actual act of traveling from A to B often makes for the best stories

·      Lack of engagement of all five senses, which is a big part of traveling

·      Inability to explore everything as freely as you could if you traveled to the destination in person

·      It’s just not the same

80% of virtual travelers felt like they were transported to a different world after using VR. However, many felt that traveling somewhere in VR does not count as actually having visited a place. It looks like we are not yet ready to let virtual travel replace actual travel. However, VR will continue to grow and be used as a means to plan future trips, potentially offering short one-day escapes from reality this year.

Whilst there is a small risk that virtual travel could replace actual travel one day, that day is still very far away. We as humans live to explore, want to be curious, and learn to understand different places and cultures.

And with all this time spent in virtual worlds – whether on social media, at work on our computers, watching movies or playing video games – we will continue to long to travel in human form, away from screens.

Virtual travel is certainly not a fad, but in order for it to become the future, VR in travel needs to make a huge technological leap, and slowly start to integrate with regular travel – ideally right at the start of the planning process.