Something we’ve been asked a lot lately by clients in the tourism sector is how they can use our immersive technology to enhance the experience for customers or visitors. Perhaps you’re a tourism board helping holidaymakers visualise their next destination. Or maybe you're a museum looking to transport visitors back in time to a location that no longer exists.

After a few years of lockdowns, travel restrictions, closed borders and complicated entry requirements, people have a desire to get back out and explore. With borders opening and rules relaxing, it’s now easier and cheaper to see the world again.

And it’s no surprise people are itching to get back out and about. Travel helps us to fulfil two key needs – curiosity and connectivity. We want to see and explore new places. We want to connect with others – whether we’re meeting loved ones in new places or connecting with totally new people.

With so many places to see and things to experience, how can your destination or experience stand out? There are several ways Igloo immersive technology can be used to do this, which we’ve organised into two key areas.

1. Transporting people to places they haven’t been before

One big use case of immersive technology is visualisation, and our spaces make it incredibly easy to visualise faraway locations potential tourists might be considering for their next holiday.

You can showcase these locations quickly and seamlessly, giving your customers a way to visit travel destinations and resorts they’re interested in, before they hop on a plane. It could help them to decide on a final location after being able to visit multiple countries in the space of a few clicks.

With our integrations with tools like Matterport, Google Earth, Google Street View, and more, it makes it even easier to showcase locations of interest. You could explore multiple hotels in minutes with Matterport models or help them plan a road trip using Google Maps. Rather than crowding around a small screen, being surrounded by the content makes for a much more immersive experience, and makes your customers feel as if they’re really there.

Take Visit Florida for example. It turned to Igloo immersive technology to transport visitors to sunny Florida, where could show off SeaWorld, Walt Disney World and the Emerald Coast, all from a central London shopping centre. Transporting shoppers in this way provides an opportunity for would-be vacationers, who may never have previously considered the destination, to get a taste of the Sunshine State. 

2. Immersing people in places that are hard to reach

As well as going to locations they want to visit, our spaces also enable you to transport them to places they cannot visit, either because they’re hard to reach, dangerous, costly or simply no longer exist.

This is ideal for museums to take visitors back to prehistoric times or set the scene for a story being told. For example, you could fly to outer space whilst learning about the galaxy, take a tour of the Titanic before it sank or visit the top of Mount Everest (which some say is a little tricky to climb).

And, if you’re already using virtual reality content to inspire your audiences, you can easily display it in an Igloo with our game engine plug-ins, or with our Igloo VR Spectator application. Everything that’s happening inside the headset can be shared with the whole audience so everyone can get in on the action. - making for a shared experience which we’re all looking for.

Taking people to these kinds of places can deepen understanding, broaden their horizons and help make a message stick. It’s something the Australian National Maritime Museum successfully achieved when giving visitors the chance to visualise prehistoric marine reptiles, leading to record visitor numbers.

Perhaps you’re looking to give your visitors something truly memorable, which is where we can bring in 5D elements to take it one step further and simulate outdoor locations. Take GORE-TEX for example, which used scents, wind, rain, dynamic chairs and treadmills to transport visitors to some of the UK’s most stunning natural beauty spots to support its latest footwear campaign. It’s a unique way of heightening the immersion and creating a truly unforgettable experience.

If you are looking to level up your museum, attract visitors to a certain location or create a truly memorable experience, we’d love to show you how easy it can be. Drop us a line to arrange an in-person or virtual demo.

Back