Will Virtual Reality Offer Future Tourism Marketing Potential?

25th February 2015

What do you think of when you hear the words virtual reality (VR)? As for me (do not laugh too muchJ), before reading this article it was some kind of a clunky helmet attached to a computer with a thick cable. Moreover I did imagine Neo and Morpheus traipsing about the Matrix!)) Yes, yes, a bit silly, but fortunately I have found out that it is a simulated, three-dimensional world which we can manipulate and explore using computer technology while feeling as if he were in that world. Surprisingly but it was first demonstrated in a practical sense in the 1960s. And since that time it has been predicted that we would experience VR operating in everyday life on a regular basis. Let’s have look at nowadays reality.

Today Facebook, Sony, Microsoft are conducting billion dollars acquisition of virtual reality projects and we are expected to see the fruits of these efforts sometime in the next year or so.

There are some already successfully launched technologies of “another world”. For instance, the Google Street View software - travel application with additional reality technology Google Glass which can be used in order to showcase travel-related destinations such as hotels.

Another example of virtual reality has recently presented by the DMO of British Columbia in order to promote the destination through a campaign called “The Wild within”. At the time being, the system Oculus Rift (an upcoming virtual reality head-mounted display) is only accessible and used by trade professionals and travel Media. Yet, one can imagine that it will be available for travellers.

To benefit from an incredible 360-degree experience, British Columbia proposes to users to wear the Oculus Rift with headphones. The “Wild within experience” offers two virtual realities:

-                                  = A boat ride

-                                  =  A mountain hike.

Microsoft would also like to launch VR project during 2015. We don’t know yet if the device will be available publicly or just used as a prototype.

HoloLens device developed by Microsoft would allow traveller to visit place they’ve never been before and enjoy popular tourists’ attractions at home.

Australia’s Qantas, an Australian airline, in cooperation with Samsung, will propose a virtual reality technology in Sydney and Melbourne lounges as well as inflight for its first class passengers. Customers will have access to a 3D and 360 degree viewing experience.

Image source: http://skift.com/2015/01/30/qantas-just-made-virtual-reality-in-flight-entertainment-a-reality/#1

These travel related companies shows that VR can be largely used to promote and market a destination.  

However, today there is no guarantee that it will reach public in the foreseeable future. Even famous Google Glass has completely failed to reach a mainstream audience at this point in time. Let’s wait and see if virtual reality devices will integrate in our daily life and change our world. In any case it remains a niche which is able to deliver absorbing content through simulated, three-dimensional world.

More information you can find here http://thinkdigital.travel/opinion/virtual-reality-offers-future-tourism-marketing-potential

And of course you can always contact us: 

Fanny fanny.picarle@skema.edu &

Anastassiya anastassiya.shikhovtseva@skema.edu

And remember: 

"Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality.

If you can drem it, you can make it". 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The use of #hashtags in Events

Nowadays, we are surrounded by the New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTIC), and social media, defined, as "Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking” by Oxford Dictionaries. Plenty of social media exist, nevertheless one of them particularity has been spread into other social media. Obviously, we are speaking about Twitter, and its hashtags.

A hashtag is "a word or phrase proceeded by a hash sign (#), used on social media to identify messages on a specific topic" (Oxford Dictionaries). For the event industry, hashtags have become a perfect way to identify an event, and to enhance interactions before, during and after the event. In this paper, we focus on the use of hashtags in the events, its pros and cons, and we provide some tips for using them successfully.

thesocialmediabloke.com

#TheProsOfHashtags Social media are a new way of doing marketing, sales, public relations, and customer service. They are ever more used in events and through them events' organizers want to build a community and a relationship with the attendees. As written by Julius Solaris, Cathy Key and Traci Browne in Social Media for Event (2014), the purpose is to "marry your audience".

Hashtags are particularly efficient for the following reasons:

- They are original and unique.

-They are scalable, for instance you can indicate de year "#exhibition14 for the 2014 exhibition, and "# exhibition15" for the 2015 one.

- They are short. Writing "Increase in international Travel Technology exhibitor’s “#itbberlin" instead of "At the ITB Berlin, we notice an increase in international Travel Technology exhibitors" is pertinent when the number of characters is limited, such as in Twitter (Maximum of 140 characters per update).

- They are clickable, so you can bring all the event content and conversations all together and have maximal cross channel compatibility. Thus events' organizers can use them as promotional tool for your event.

#TheConsOfHastags

Similarly to social media in general, hashtags should not be used if previous researches about our target, to know if they use social media, twitter and hashtags, have not been done.

A lack of time and human resources can lead to incorrect assessment of needs, unclear objectives, and badly written tweets, causing attendee's disappointment, negative attitude towards social media & technology, and creating backlash as they will speak negatively about the event. It can also prevent us from doing in depth analysis.

moozup.com

#TipsToWiselyUseHastags As for the use of every social media, research on your target should be done, and hashtags should be used only if it matches the attendees' habit to do so. Therefore their use depends on the target market. Although it is a cheap media; human, time and financial resources should be allocated to it. It should be part of a social media program, and the content plan should contain a hashtag strategy. Do not forget that the hashtag used defines the event. The hashtags are useful some types of events and appreciated by the attendees like for seminars, product launches, sport events, exhibitions and trade shows. Also the social media customer service team needs to be alert and responsive.

According to Julius Solaris and Al, events' organizers should use hashtags:

-Before the event, to benchmark, to market and to ensure consumer service;

-During the event, to engage attendees, to improve networking, to manage customer service issues, to direct attendees to relevant content and  to gather attendees feedbacks in real time;

-After the event, to continue marketing, engaging and gathering feedbacks.

A system should be monitored so the event's planners can measure their effectiveness as a Return On Investment (ROI). Attendees will remember their last experience thanks to this interaction and this merger through the hashtag and the social media.

#OurOpinion

The use of hashtag is powerful tool to promote an event and to make it attractive. As they are becoming more and more popular, it is important for event planners to be familiar with Information Technology (IT) and the use of social media. Nevertheless, the decision of using them must be well thought out. It will depend on the event's target, and not everybody is at ease with social media, or even has a Smartphone. In some destinations, the needed technology may not even be available.

tweetallpro.com

Charline Hery & Claire Russo

Source:

Solaris, J., Key, K., & Browne, T. (2014). Social Media for Event, Retrieved from http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/social-media-events-free-ebook

Fach M., (2015). Social Media Management Tips for Conferences, AuthorityLabs, Retrieved from http://snip.ly/ozTq#http://authoritylabs.com/blog/social-media-management-tips-conferences/