Introduction
It seems reasonable to state that nowadays, the tourism and hospitality industries are being affected by new technologies to a significant extent. For instance, virtual reality (VR) is playing an important role in luring customers, managing employees, and promoting. Hence, it might be relevant to design a novel application of VR within the mentioned industry, utilizing the theory of telepresence, as well as to compare it to the related currently available opportunities.
Main text
Customers always want to be sure that they will be provided with services of the highest quality. What is more, they tend to explore hotel properties via the Internet before booking. It might be assumed that the use of virtual reality to meet the above requirements is appropriate. A hotel chain may design a virtual environment (VE) that will follow the daily routine of a hotel employee – for example, a manager. This manager will fulfill his or her everyday duties significantly so that clients could fully realize the level of the chain. Then, he or she will visit all the places that customers will be allowed to attend. Such an approach will contribute to an in-depth understanding of what to expect from the hotel. A client will watch all the manager’s actions from the first person, being provided with a great extent of presence. The described virtual tour will be available via YouTube and the chain’s official website – it will promote the services to a broad range of potential customers.
It should be emphasized that the above application aligns with the telepresence theory. The latter implies the presence in an environment with the help of means of communication facilities. It is apparent that within the scope of the provided design, clients will be virtually present at the hotel, and these means of communication here are the platforms of YouTube and the official website. Moreover, this design beneficially distinguishes it from the ones available today. Usually, they provide virtual hotel tours and tourism plans (Refine, no date; Guttentag, 2010 (cited in Tussyadiah et al., 2018, p. 142)) – without including the element of a manager’s perspective from the first person. Thus, the presented application of VR might be considered innovative.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the above design is founded on the essence of the telepresence theory. This approach made it simple to create the proper and progressive utilization of VR in the hotel industry. The core of this design is that a virtual hotel tour and the quality of services are presented from the first person and in conjunction. The latter crucial peculiarity differs it from the other ones beneficially.
Reference List
Guttentag, D. A. (2010) ‘Virtual reality: Applications and implications for tourism’, Tourism Management, 31(5), pp. 637–651.
Revfine. How virtual reality is transforming the travel industry. Web.
Tussyadiah, I. P., Wang, D., Jung, T. H. and Dieck, M. C. (2018) ‘Virtual reality, presence, and attitude change: empirical evidence from tourism’, Tourism Management, 66(1), 140–154.