Destinations Tourism Boards Still Aren’t Sold on 360-Degree Destination Videos

The introduction of the 360° in tourism industry:

The increasing use of 360° videos, especially in social media (Facebook and YouTube), has influenced the tourism and event sector, especially in destination management websites and trade shows. The marketing potentials of these new technological tools are considered by the stakeholders working in the tourism and event sector in order to maximize their benefits, for both travellers and businesses.

The 360° videos were included in 2015, even on mobile devices, which make them very easy to reach potential customers willing to experience and taste travel before taking their decisions. The use of VR devices to watch the 360° videos is considered as essential by some big brands because it enhances the customer experience and make it more realistic. That is the reason why many brands are more and more investing in the VR 360° technology. Mr Borden, vice president of marketing department at VISITLEX, believes in this great potential, since he claimed that using VR devices to watch 360° videos is more enhancing for travellers.

Destination British Columbia has introduced several 360° videos in their website and marketing campaigns, in order to reach wider market since people are using more and more VR devices at home to make the experience more attractive. In addition, the message transferred by the brands will be well understood by the travellers.

Challenges with the 360 ° videos:

One of the most important issues, is that travellers are still not very responsive to the 360° videos. The majority did not even hear about that concept, while a big portion of the travellers who heard about it did not even use it or try it, due to several reasons especially related to the lack of communication.

Another challenge is the size of these videos that cannot be seen easily on mobile devices because of the processing power required, and the size of the videos. With the development of technology, it will make it available to everyone on mobile devices in order to reach a bigger audience. Meanwhile, Mr Borden suggests the creation of shorter videos as a solution to facilitate their use.

The future of 360° videos:

Many brands in the tourism industry are investing on creating 360° videos in order to promote their activities. This step is very interesting because it will allow customers to experience the trip before going to it and this will certainly encourage them to try it in real life. Digital marketing is a very powerful tool because it gives businesses the opportunity to reach customers directly at home, with a very unique and special taste of the product or service they are offering.

Aziz & Noëlie
PELTIER, D. (2017, April 7). skift.com | 504: Gateway time-out. Retrieved from https://skift.com/2017/04/07/360-degree-destination-videos-are-still-experiments-for-many-tourism-boards/