In this article, you will find out Five Ways that the Travel Industry is using AR and VR.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are things that most of us are familiar with, particularly in the fields of education, sports, marketing, advertising, healthcare and retail as well as the games sector. However, due to the fact that pretty much everyone these days has a mobile device, AR is becoming a useful tool also in the travel and tourism industry. We’re going to have a look at some of the ways in which AR is used within this sector and how it is improving the sector and the user experience for the better.
Five Ways that the Travel Industry is using AR and VR
The Planning Stage
A lot of travel and tourism involves a thorough planning stage, for example, looking at destinations, booking accommodation, transports as well as navigation when you get there. It goes without saying that the planning stage can be thoroughly exhausting and quite often confusing given the wealth of information that is out there. There is already a lot of information online such as reviews and photos but, by using AR, it can turn the boring process of planning into an interactive and engaging experience.
1. Flights and Hotels
This is the first place where AR can help you in the travel and tourism industry. You can spend hours scouring the net for the perfect hotel, the best-timed flight, as well as making sure it’s all in the budget. With AR, there are new solutions to this long and arduous task. It allows you to look before booking and visualize the hotels and accommodation before you decide. This way, you can explore the nooks and crannies and really get a feel for the place you are looking to stay at.
Similarly, booking flight is a problematic area for most of us. But AR can help here too. You can take a sneaky peek into your aircraft, allowing you to select the best seat for your booking, and getting a true visualization of the size of the seats too.
Atari is building video game hotels in the U.S. Here’s what we’ve learned
Atari — one of the most iconic video game companies in the world — will be opening video game-themed hotels in the next few years, the company announced Monday. The hotels will have AR and VR components. Atari partnered with GSD Group, a strategy agency, to receive the rights to build these Atari Hotels in the U.S. The company will break ground at a location in Phoenix, Arizona, in mid-2020, according to a release. Source
The Future of Travel – DesignUp panel shares scenarios for domestic and international tourism
In an innovative format, five speakers – from five cities and five different industries – shared five slides each on topics like travel choices, traveller preferences, digital design, and travel documentation. The panelists were from Bengaluru, Delhi, Bangkok, Sydney, and Singapore. Source
How Virtual Reality Could Help The Travel & Tourism Industry In The Aftermath Of The Coronavirus Outbreak
The ever evolving and unprecedented COVID-19 situation poses extreme challenges for the travel and tourism industry. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could cut 50 million jobs worldwide. There are calls for temporary state aid for the sector and more long-term measures like simplification of visa rules to encourage travel and attract tourists in the aftermath of the crisis. The WTTC is asking governments to protect the industry. One of the measures suggested is increased budgets for promoting travel destinations. This is where we could see the use of virtual reality (VR) ramp up once the travel restrictions have been eased and consumers have confidence in traveling again. Source
Augmented Reality: A recent technology debut in hotel industry.
Augmented reality is a technology that overlaps a computer-generated illustration on the user’s view of the real world to provide a compound vision. It includes the integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real-time. Unlike virtual reality, that creates an entirely artificial environment, augmented reality adopts the real environment and imposes useful data on top of it. Source
2. Hotel Accommodation
When you are at your hotel, you are always seeking more information about the local area. This is where AR comes in, with a virtual experience in your hotel informing you of places to visit and points of interest. Some hotels even fuse AR into the hotel rooms and lobbies, with painted maps on the walls of the rooms, with embedded information. All the guest has to do is point their smartphone camera at the wall and the digital info pops out on the mobile screen!
4 Key Digital Transformation Trends in Hospitality
As new technologies evolve and market disruptors reach their critical mass, every industry faces the need for a core transformation. The hospitality industry is no exception. Modern guests expect to have a customer-centric hotel experience starting as early as choosing a destination and learning more about accommodations and property. Guests also want more comfort, features, convenience, faster customer service, new experiences, and the list is growing. Source
How Augmented Reality Technology is Shaping the Hotel Industry
It’s not surprising that facilities from various industries are diving into Augmented Reality (AR) as a tool to increase customer satisfaction and to increase their bottom line. One industry in particular is hospitality. In recent years, Augmented Reality (AR) has emerged as a vital marketing tool, allowing businesses to change the way customers perceive the environment they are in. The technology is extremely valuable to the hospitality industry, because hotels are essentially selling a physical environment, which can be enhanced through AR. Source
10 Examples Of Customer Experience Innovation In Hospitality
If the entire goal of customer experience is to make customers’ lives better and easier, the hospitality industry takes it to the next level. As modern guests travel, both for business and pleasure, they want to have their needs met to have a personalized and seamless experience. Modern guests want to be engaged, heard, empowered and delighted by hotels. When a guest feels the hotel understands them, they are 13% more likely to stay there again. The majority of hotel visitors want to experience new technology and are even willing to give up traditional amenities like a business center or fitness center to get it. Source
Trivago: Five Hotel technologies that can create personalized guest experiences
With the advent of technology and ever-rising competition in the hotel industry, the next-generation hotel guests demand frictionless stays, wherein their needs and requirements are anticipated and taken care of automatically by the hotels. Thus, as a hotelier or an accommodation provider, it is imperative for you to fine-tune your digital strategies to deliver a hyper-personalized and seamless experience to your guests. This will not only help you drive loyalty but will also ensure the escalation of repeat business. Source
3. Transport and Navigation
When you get to your destination, you’ll want to go and explore or look for a place to eat. Using AR you can find the public transport options easily, with them being displayed on an interactive map application, for instance. These apps already exist, for example, “Bus Times London” shows you where your nearest bus stop is with a path superimposed on your camera screen and you simply follow the path in real-time.
Moovit adds AR navigation to its urban transport app
Navigation and transit app provider Moovit is introducing new augmented reality (AR) smarts to its mobile app, making it easier for users to find stops and stations visually. While part of Moovit’s business entails licensing its back-end platform to third parties, the company — which claims around 500 million users globally — is best known for its consumer-facing app that combines transport options to show people the easiest way to get around a city. Source
VR for lift planning
3D Lift Vision is claimed as the industry’s first VR Simulator for lift planning by its developer, A1A Software in the USA. It allows users to execute a three dimensional lift plan in VR mode using a virtual reality headset and controls. Tawnia Weiss, A1A Software president, explained, “Each simulation is as unique as the lift plan that it is based on. There is no better way to visualise the outcome of a lift than to allow the crane operator and other team members to simulate it in a virtual environment.” Source
Wheel-mounted MEMS IMU for Vehicular Navigation
A wheel-mounted inertial measurement unit provides high-rate (2 kHz) bias-free data for vehicle navigation, road-quality measurement systems and instantaneous wheel dynamics estimation for vehicle stability control. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) play an essential role in automotive electronic control systems, providing measurements for tire pressure monitoring, vehicle stability control, adaptive suspension, rollover protection systems, and navigation systems. While MEMS gyros and accelerometers are suitable for vehicular applications in terms of size and cost, noise properties (large bias and significant 1/f noise) create problems, especially in low dynamic conditions or when measurements are integrated from angular rates to angles or from acceleration to velocity and position. GNSS receivers can complement these measurements but the availability and accuracy drops in urban canyons and underground. Source
Google to roll out AR navigation to Android and iPhone handsets
Google is to add augmented reality (AR) features to its Maps app, allowing people to navigate using virtual arrows superimposed onto their real-world surroundings. Source
4.AR Translation
Pretty much everyone these days uses translation software when abroad. However, this usually involves typing in words or saying words into your phone’s microphone. There now exist apps that do it for you using AR. You simply scan over the sign, printed information or menu, and it will translate the screen live in AR. It can really speed up your language understanding efforts and help make your experience abroad more manageable. Source
AI and augmented reality blur lines between virtual and reality
Augmented reality and virtual reality are compelling technologies that can enhance our interaction with the real world. On their own, augmented reality and virtual reality are used to overlay digital information on top of the physical environment we see around us. The combination of augmented reality (AR) with virtual reality (VR) — which is more immersive from a user perspective — has given rise to the concept of mixed reality. Mixed reality merges generated images with existing real-world objects to augment or enhance a user’s experience. When combined with AI, however, this technology can become even more transformative. Source
These AR Smart Glasses Could Be the Future of Multilingual Live Translation
Imagine being able to put on a pair of glasses and suddenly have a wealth of languages at your fingertips. Well, you don’t really have to imagine it anymore. Impressively, instant translation company Zoi Meet’s team up with leading AR firm Vuzix means that anyone can use AR technology to listen to an individual and have translated subtitles of what they are saying appear on their specs. Source
Microsoft has a wild hologram that translates HoloLens keynotes into Japanese
Microsoft has created a hologram that will transform someone into a digital speaker of another language. The software giant unveiled the technology during a keynote at the Microsoft Inspire partner conference this morning in Las Vegas. Microsoft recently scanned Julia White, a company executive for Azure, at a Mixed Reality capture studio to transform her into an exact hologram replica. Source
Google’s live camera translation is getting better AI and 60 new languages
Google is rolling out a significant update to the camera feature on its Translate app. The new version of the app adds support for 60 new languages; makes the translated text less jumpy on users’ screens; and updates the underlying translation models, in some cases reducing errors in the final translations by as much as 85 percent. Source
5. AR Tour Guide
Tour guides are expensive but they’re a much-loved addition to your holiday as, without them, you learn so much less about the places you visit. AR can now act in a tour guide’s place, offering real-time information about the culture, history and religion of the place you are visiting. Your mobile becomes your virtual guide in an interactive way. There can be maps, video content, and other images too.
STARTUP STAGE: Sherpa wants to shake up walking tours with AR avatar guides
Sherpa is the only app that allows users to go on walking tours with an augmented reality avatar guide. Right now we’re iOS-only and plan to launch the Android version in the beginning of 2020. Source
Google Street View Is Helping Tour Guides Go Virtual
The coronavirus is decimating the travel industry. But today, Google has revealed how its Street View app has been letting tour guides work virtually during the COVID-19 lockdown. And it’s not just tour guides who are turning to virtual tourism at the moment, but also travel agents, tourism bureaus and travel guides. Source
Top 5 Ideas How To Use Ar In Tourism
Augmented reality and tourism are created for each other. If you think about it, you will definitely agree. What is the main activity of a tourist? Traveling, of course. Traveling and watching around, absorbing every piece of information they can find about the destination. Augmented reality in the very idea of it is meant to change what we see around. It is meant to enhance our experience and increase our joy while exploring the world. So AR is a perfect tool for tourism. It adds new value and opens new opportunities for both the tourist and the tourism industry. In this article, we will share with you top 5 ideas of how to use augmented reality in tourism. Source
How AR is turning the travel & tourism industry on its head
Augmented Reality (AR) transport smartphone users to places they have never visited nor may never have a chance to, as it uses cameras and phone screens to bring virtual objects onto real-world landscapes. The tourism industry is a great example of how AR can be used for purposes beyond gaming, even though gaming is what most people associate AR with. This industry can really show how a company can create compelling software in-house or outsource development to teams worldwide as long as it has a good idea. It also shows how companies from traditionally non-software development industries are finding their niche and a new source of revenue when creating mobile apps for travelers. Source
Summary
Using AR in travel and tourism serves you with an enhanced experience, rather like having a personal travel rep on hand at all times. Your real-time surroundings can be enriched and made easier in a wide range of ways. AR is most definitely going to have a significant impact on the future of travel and tourism.
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