Augmented Reality, a flourishing technology

Augmented Reality has recently been promoted by the disruptive innovation called Google glass. The success of smartphone is also closely linked to the emergence of this technology. But how does it work? The main idea is to duplicate the world's environment in your Smartphone or your computer. Today this technology is still on a development and experimental phase, augmented reality haven’t yet been adopted by the general audience market . However, its potential of development is boundless. Tourism industry has clearly picked up this opportunity and have started to develop apps using AR technology. This revolution could be extremely useful in the travel industry.

 Malaysia Airlines who had experienced a rough year in 2014 was one of the pioneer and first airlines to integrate AR for their customer. They have developed a function for Smartphone Apps that provides several information when pointing the screen towards the sky. It shows deals offered by the airline when the customer points their handset in the direction of a destination, a new idea and interactive way of communication. This is just the beginning and we can imagine that on a near future, airline and tourism actors can mix augmented reality and Geomarketing functions in order to customize the apps according to one's booking and consuming habits. For instance a user could be able to use AR function in an airport to find where the different facilities are located using an intelligent environment (Check-in desk, Baggage claim, Gates of boarding…)

Virgin airlines however use AR for internal and training purpose. Indeed, they created a virtual aircraft that helps the crew for training perspectives. It allows them to have a global view of the aircraft before they even work on it. Each member of the crew have access to this virtual plane so they can check their future aircraft and get access to information about the cabin space where everything will be located on board and how they have to interact with passengers. The Marketing department of Virgin will soon integrate this application for their customer's need. When choosing his seat, the user will have a 3D and virtual view of his flight, which will enhance his experience.

With those two examples we can easily understand the huge potential of AR for the industry; not only for marketing but for many different purposes. The technology is ready, from now it just needs to be adopted by users.

AR is directly applicable to the tourism industry when it comes to discovering a new city. For example, Yelp has set up its app with some AR component, allowing the user to access interactive information about the referenced places of interest around him. AR can also be used to get live information about transports. It can show directions to the closest metro or bus station, as well as the waiting time expected. Recently, the AR got directly applied to tourism, anticipating the language barrier and difficulties that travellers can encounter. Indeed, some AR apps can provide immediate translation of written texts or signs.

The goal of the Augmented Reality in the tourism industry is to help the user finding his way through unfamiliar environments. 

Camille Micault & Vincent Droesbeke