Sustainable Tourism in Lockdown: Virtual Reality
Photo by Aila Images
Imagine ending another day working from home in COVID-19 lockdown with a quick trip to Tokyo, Paris or Venice? Or a visit to a Borneo nature reserve? Or a dive into the world’s most beautiful coral reefs?
Now in virtual reality (VR) it is possible to teleport yourself to a different landscape and culture within seconds without the jet lag, CO2 footprint or stresses of a long-haul flight. Of course, this kind of traveling will never completely satisfy the wanderlust that comes from being on the road and the priceless person-to-person interactions that come with it. If anything, these experiences will keep the desire for discovery alive for those left home-bound during the pandemic.
In this blog, I will give a first-hand account of the kind of sustainable travel experiences that you can find in virtual reality as well as VR’s potential to innovate the tourism industry post-COVID. Let’s jet-set!
Virtual Reality as a Tourism Tech Trend
There’s no time like the present to purchase a VR headset to transport you to any destination imaginable all from the comfort of your home.
National Geographic, the Financial Times and BBC have called this period during the pandemic “the moment for VR travel” and forecast that these new kinds of travel experiences are here to stay. I recently took the leap and purchased an Oculus Quest 2 for a “change of scenery” myself. Around the world, we are entering back into a second wave of coronavirus lockdown restrictions closing bars, cafes and halting flights as well as any hopes of traveling any time soon. In the shadows of this second wave, I became inspired to try it out lured in by the idea of being able to explore new places that I’ve never been before and ones that I have, in unique and exciting ways. So far, I have not been disappointed.
In this next section, I’ll dive into a few of my most memorable experiences in VR travel as a self proclaimed “sustainably-minded individual” rounding off with how I see the future of VR as a tool for sustainable tourism post-COVID.
“When we stayed home” (Over-tourism & Impact of COVID on Tourism)
Before COVID, could you imagine visiting one of the most tourist-filled cities on Earth without any locals or tourists to be found? In each one of these short films, taking place in April 2020, a gondolier from Venice, a bookseller from Paris, a shopkeeper from Jerusalem and a sushi chef from Tokyo narrate the changes that their cities have gone through as a result of lockdown. Guided peacefully through city streets and public squares, there is a silence that anyone who has visited these cities before has never experienced. Familiar city streets and landmarks are serene, but also ghostly quiet. Here the viewer sees the impact that COVID-19 has left on local livelihoods, the economy and the overall vibrancy of the cities. The short films each end with a message of hope for the future of the tourism industry once normalcy returns.
Watch the trailer here.
Ecosphere: Orangutans in Borneo (Conservation)
My next journey was to Semenggoh Nature Reserve on the island of Borneo which I previously had the pleasure of visiting back in 2016. From the moment you enter the documentary, you are transported to a forest with all the sights and sounds. A local Malaysian guide, after explaining the dangers that face orangutans in the wild, journeys with you on a boat along the jungle river to the orangutans. Getting up close and personal with the orangutans is as powerful as seeing them in person. You can’t help but feel excited to see such an amazing creature interact with you as the viewer. By doing so, it provokes a feeling of empathy for these exotic creatures that are losing their habitats more and more as a result of deforestation and the harvesting of palm oil as explained by the guide. The filming technique and storyline aid to transport you closer to the jungle than you may have ever been before.
This experience, headed by WWF, is a part of a three part documentary series called Ecosphere, which immerses viewers in the jungles of Borneo, the plains of Kenya and the coral reefs of Indonesia.
A preview can be found here.
The Dead Sea: “Once Upon A Sea” (Conservation, Water and Resource Management)
International film festival favorite, Once Upon A Sea, a VR documentary experience was made to highlight the ecological disaster facing the Dead Sea and its surrounding residents from the mismanagement of water and development. The experience begins with a breathtaking underwater view in its world famous medicinal salt water and mud. Upon rising out of the water surrounded by salt statues, the narrator shares first person accounts from a woman who visits the Dead Sea daily for relief from chronic pain by floating in its waters shifting to an unfortunate fall of an explorer into a sinkhole, where you, as the viewer, are stuck as well contemplating the faltering surroundings.
Seeing the negative impacts “first-hand” that mismanagement has had on the land and water along with stunning aerial and on the ground views is something that the average tourist wouldn’t see, but anyone, like me, who loves visiting the Dead Sea should.
View part of the documentary here.
Diving into the Great Barrier Reef (Ocean Conservation and Sustainability)
Whether you’re on your lunch break from work or just looking to calm your mind, with a click of a few buttons, you’re under the sea surrounded by coral reefs, sea turtles, manta rays and sharks in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. For someone like me, who has never been deep-sea diving, this is an experience that a non-VR video cannot do justice. Entering an underwater paradise is magical. A quick dive is not something that most of us can do everyday due to location, time, training and other factors, but to some extent, now it is possible.
The hundreds of underwater adventures available in VR bring the ocean and its biodiversity close to every viewer even if physically they are far away from a coastline. It has been proven that interacting with the marine environment encourages sustainable behavior and interactions to protect it. In this way, increased interactions in VR may likewise motivate viewers to interact more sustainably with the ocean and its inhabitants.
See one of the underwater 360 experiences here.
VR for Sustainable Tourism Post-COVID
Once we can travel again, where will the value from sustainable tourism VR experiences lie?
In terms of sustainability, VR could provide a breakthrough for the tourism industry in the following ways:
Sustainable VR experiences can be used as destination marketing tools spanning far beyond traditional television commercials and print-out brochures. Destinations and tourism boards can create made-for-VR content of famous tourism landmarks, attractions, local culture and off the beaten path experiences with communities and the environment.
Tourists are now able to “sample” destinations and offerings before booking, giving tourism businesses the opportunity to differentiate themselves by showcasing what they are doing for sustainability in the form of VR content.
Nature reserves, conservation centers and wildlife foundations can use VR to attract potential visitors or encourage those who cannot visit to donate to the cause. Now that VR can provide up close encounters with wildlife, perhaps the allure will be reduced for unsustainable interactions with wildlife and captive animals, lowering the demand for these types of activities, which will increase the well-being of species.
The mental and restorative benefits of traveling are now available to anyone who cannot travel physically at the moment be it from the pandemic, budget or mobility limitations. Increased accessibility to different landscapes, cultures and people may create more social harmony and lessen the perceived divides between tourists and locals and people from different countries and backgrounds.
Being able to tour bucket-list destinations in a VR headset could alleviate the phenomenon of over-tourism in cities like Amsterdam or Venice as tourists may choose alternative “less touristy” destinations instead after “seeing” all the famous landmarks ahead of time.
The experiences mentioned in this blog only scrape the surface of how VR can innovate the tourism sector for increased sustainability, while satisfying the wanderlust of travelers around the world. Why not go ahead and try it yourself!
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