Virtual Reality Mapping Revisited: IT Tools for the Divide Between Knowledge and Action in Tourism

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of the available technologies and opportunities for the use of virtual reality in tourism marketing. It acknowledges that in almost all formulations of the tourism marketing model to date however, much has been made of the notion that tourism is unique because production and consumption occur not only at the same time but in the same place, and therefore that location or proximity is often a critical determinant of the take-up of tourism opportunities. The chapter then goes on to posit the question: what if the place variable could be removed from this equation through the further development of virtual reality techniques? The impacts of this might include: less requirement for travel per se (perhaps); better and more real information about the physical actuality of a destination for the potential consumer (likely); price and service quality information very much simplified and improved (definitely), and changed tourism promotion strategies would change (undoubtedly). At the barest minimum, the uncertainties involved in relying on unverified initial information for tourism travel decision-making could be considerably reduced.