Virtual Reality Applications in Tourism

Abstract

Through modern ages, tourism becomes a vital part of human life. With the advance of technology, tourism movements gain new tools. Those tools gave tourism an edge on management, marketing, education, and economic areas. Also, on demand side, new types of tourists with their brand-new demands and motivations became an important factor for those responsible for tourism supply. One of the most noticeable tools that new technology era has brought is virtual reality applications. Despite dating back to the 1950s, VR (virtual reality) has gained an interesting reputation in the last few years with the advances of related technologies. VR applications are used in many sectors like construction, military, communication, marketing, education, etc. Tourism industry is one of them of course. Especially, VR is used as both a tool and product in hotel & accommodation sector, recreation & entertainment, transportation, destination marketing, and a touristic product itself.