Augmented reality (AR) is transforming how people discover and experience new destinations. By merging real-world exploration with digital enhancements, travellers can delve deeper into different cultures and create lasting memories.
As technology continues to influence modern travel, more people are looking for ways to make their trips more exciting and convenient. The hospitality and tourism industries have recognised this shift and are embracing innovative tools to enhance the travel experience.
AR offers tourists the opportunity to engage with destinations in a completely new way, creating immersive, interactive, and unforgettable journeys that go beyond traditional sightseeing.
Wayfinding
Wayfinding, in the tourism industry, is the process of finding your way around a location, such as a city, museum, or tourist attraction. This typically involves identifying routes, directions, and landmarks that help you reach where you’re going.
AR is switching up wayfinding in the tourism industry by making getting around more intuitive, engaging, and best of all, easier. Here’s how AR is making being a tourist easier and more enjoyable:
Interactive Maps
Gone are the days of placing a map on the floor and trying to find out where you are. AR-enabled maps allow tourists to navigate destinations easily by overlaying digital directions onto real-world views. For example, a tourist can use an AR app to see arrows pointing them toward landmarks or attractions, so they don’t have to spend time wandering around and not making the most of where they are.
These maps often highlight nearby points of interest, enhancing the overall visitor experience.
Indoor Navigation
We’ve all got a bit lost in a museum or airport once in our lives. With wayfinding AR, getting around large indoor spaces like these becomes much easier. AR can provide detailed indoor wayfinding which helps guide and direct visitors through often large and confusing indoor spaces. This way, you’d always know where your departure gate is and never miss an important museum exhibition!
City Tours
Again, we’ve likely all been in a situation where we become a bit lost in a new town r city. AR-powered city tours offer an immersive and reliable way to explore urban environments. By pointing a device at a landmark, say, the Sydney Opera House, tourists can access historical information and stories that enrich their understanding of the site.
So, not only will you always be able to know where you’re heading, but your trip will become much more engaging and educational.
Heritage and Culture
Augmented reality (AR) is playing a significant role in preserving and showcasing heritage and culture in the tourism industry. By blending digital content with physical environments, AR offers tourists an immersive way to connect with history and culture.
Historical Reconstructions and Cultural Storytelling
AR is giving visitors a new perspective on historical sites. Imagine walking through Rome’s iconic Colosseum and using an AR app to see digital reconstructions of what it looked like centuries ago.
If that wasn’t enough, AR also offers immersive storytelling by layering rich multimedia content over landmarks. Point your device at a historical site, and you might see videos, animations, or hear audio clips that dive into its history and significance. It turns a simple visit into an engaging exploration – fun, educational and immersive!
AR Exhibitions
Imagine visiting a museum and using an AR app to pick up and examine a 3D model of an ancient Greek vase, turning it around to view intricate details that would be impossible with the real object behind glass.
This technology makes it possible to explore artefacts in a hands-on way which offers a deeper understanding of their features and historical context. AR makes museum visits more engaging by letting you interact with exhibits in ways that go beyond traditional displays.
Because who wouldn’t want to pick up an ancient Greek vase?
AR Portals
AR portals allow users to see and interact with virtual elements as if they were part of their physical surroundings. Here’s a few ways AR portals are making waves in tourism:
Virtual Travel Experiences
AR portals let you explore far-off places from wherever you are. You could use an AR app to virtually visit the ancient streets of Athens while you’re sitting in your local park, or jump into a 360 tour of Antarctica.
This kind of experience is particularly useful for those who are planning a trip and want to get a taste of their destination before booking. It’s also great for educators and students looking to explore historical sites or distant landscapes from their classroom.
The big benefit is clear – with AR, you can experience different cultures and environments without ever having to leave home.
Hotel Previews
Another neat use for AR portals is trying before you buy – more specifically, exploring a hotel before you book it.
We all know booking a hotel can be a bit of a gamble, but AR is making it easier to make informed choices before you commit to anything. Some travel apps now use AR portals to give you a virtual tour of hotels before you book. You can walk through a digital model of the hotel, check out the rooms, and see amenities as if you were actually there.
AR Glasses
AR glasses are one of the most futuristic and hands-free ways to experience augmented reality in tourism. By overlaying digital content directly onto your field of view, these glasses make exploring new places even more immersive and convenient. Here’s how they’re being used in the tourism industry:
Language Translation
Travelling to a country where you don’t speak the language? Or trying to read something in a different language? AR glasses can help with real-time translations. Whenever you look at signs, menus, or other text, the glasses can translate them into your preferred language on the spot.
Personalised Tours
AR glasses can be tailored to your interests, for example, if you’re particularly interested in architecture, the glasses could highlight buildings and provide detailed information about their design and history as you walk through a city.
AR-Enhanced Signage
AR-enhanced signage is making it easier and more engaging for tourists to interact with their surroundings. It has some crossovers with wayfinding tech but is more focused on providing interactive and context-rich information about specific locations.
Whether you’re exploring a historic site or navigating a large attraction, AR signage offers a deeper, more immersive experience by layering digital content over the physical world. This added information can transform a simple sign into a portal for stories, visuals, and guides, making your AR travel experience more informative and memorable.
A few examples where this could be used include:
Museums: AR signage can provide detailed background information about exhibits, offering deeper insights and interactive content like 3D models or videos.
National parks: signs can display real-time information about wildlife, natural features, and suggested hiking routes, enhancing the outdoor experience.
City centres: AR signs can offer historical insights, restaurant recommendations, or event details, all tailored to your exact location and interests.
Conclusion
AR is reshaping the tourism industry by making travel experiences more immersive, informative, and accessible. From enhancing wayfinding and bringing history to life, to offering virtual travel previews and interactive signage, AR is transforming how we explore and interact with new places.
As it continues to evolve, it will likely become an even more integral part of travel, offering endless possibilities for enriching our understanding of the world. Whether you’re a curious traveller or a history enthusiast, AR is making it easier than ever to connect with the destinations you visit.
Summary: Enhancing Experiences with Augmented Reality Technology
Navigation is enhanced through augmented reality, providing real-time directions and landmarks that simplify exploration in cities and large indoor spaces.
Cultural and historical experiences are enriched with digital reconstructions and interactive storytelling, offering deeper insights into a location’s past.
Virtual exploration allows users to preview destinations and hotels before visiting, making trip planning more informed and enjoyable.
Hands-free glasses provide practical solutions for travelers, offering real-time translations and personalized tours that highlight points of interest.
Interactive signage transforms regular signs into engaging guides, featuring multimedia content like videos and 3D models to enhance tourist experiences in museums, parks, and city centers.
FAQs
Why is augmented reality important in the tourism industry?
AR is important in the tourism industry in Australia because the modern world is becoming more modernised and the tourism industry needs to keep up with these developments in order to provide the best user experiences. This could open up areas for even more advanced technology such as metaverse travel and metaverse tourism.
How is augmented reality reshaping travel and tourism?
Augmented reality is making it much easier for tourists to guide their own vacations and locate facilities that they want to visit in new areas, making it easier to market towards them and boost profits using AR.
What is an augmented product in tourism?
An augmented product is a product that adds features or services that make it better than similar products offered elsewhere. In tourism, this may mean having a hotel with AR features that make it easier to locate nearby attractions, for example.
What is AR and VR in tourism?
AR refers to the use of real images overlayed with augmented images or features that enhance the user experience. On the other hand, VR is a completely virtual version of the area, which can be used for tourists to experience a city before actually visiting it.
How is augmented reality used in tourism?
Augmented reality is used in tourism in a variety of creative ways. Tourists are often apprehensive about visiting new areas, especially if they do not speak the language. AR encourages them to visit by offering an interactive element that they are in control of and offers highly accessible information, such as AR tours.
Is VR training cost effective?
When it comes to training and education, virtual reality (VR) can be a cost-effective alternative to traditional classroom lectures. VR lets students experience a real-life scenario in a safe environment that’s not only more engaging but also more cost-efficient.
Is VR training good?
Virtual reality (VR) training is a great way to train employees. It can be used for training employees on how to use a specific piece of equipment or software, as well as teaching them how to perform their jobs in the real world. It’s also useful for educating employees on how to handle a new situation or scenario.
How virtual reality is used in training?
Virtual reality is used in training to simulate real-world situations. It can be used to train a variety of skills, from operating heavy machinery to flying an aeroplane. This is accomplished by using a headset that has built-in headphones, which allow the user to hear what’s going on around them. The headset also blocks out all other sounds.
How do you start virtual reality training?
The first step in virtual reality training is to decide what kind of experience you want to provide your employees with. Do you want them to have an immersive experience with 3D visuals? Do you want them to feel like they’re there? Or do you just want them to learn how different tools work?
What is virtual reality training?
Virtual reality (VR) training is a way to train employees using computer-generated environments that mimic real-world situations. These environments can be created with video game engines or 3D modelling software, and they can be used to simulate any number of scenarios.
