TRAVEL THINK TANK at sitegeist

Virtual reality offers enormous potential for the tourism industry. The best way to understand this is to test the technology for yourself. Only then can you recognize the diverse potential that could arise. We like to give our customers and guests the opportunity to experience VR for themselves, so we decided to dedicate a separate Travel Think Tank to this topic, as we felt it would be useful to exchange ideas in this very young field and we wanted to introduce this technology to many more people.

We decided to limit the number of participants in order to give everyone a really comprehensive insight and enough space to try things out and thus create a really profitable exchange. So 10 tourism experts from all over Germany came together to get to know AR and VR and to brainstorm and discuss together.

To get all participants on board and bring them to a common level of knowledge, there was first of all an introduction to this topic. In addition to the general technology, the different models of VR glasses were presented and it was explained how VR is currently being used. Each participant was then able to test three current VR glasses in different price categories (Google Daydream, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift) at various stations.

Intros were played to learn how the goggles and the controller work. Afterwards, participants were able to try out climbing or archery in the virtual space and, of course, test a few games. The experiences and impressions were collected in small groups and new ideas were developed, which were then presented to the larger group.

This resulted in an extensive collection of possible areas of application, some of which went beyond the tourism sector. In the final part of the think tank, the participants came together again in small groups and carried out in-depth brainstorming on the topics relevant to them. From our point of view, the Travel Think Tank was a complete success and provided a lot of input that will help us prepare for the future with VR. The next event of this kind is sure to follow soon.