The Rise of Virtual Reality in Caribbean Tourism
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]y many measures Virtual Reality (VR) is the sleeping giant of today’s tech world. Sure, there are numerous forms of emerging tech that are set to change the way we live, work, and have fun.
But none come with the potential that VR does to fundamentally alter how we go about our daily lives. Like any form of growing technology, there can be pros and cons in this change.
This applies to our world as a whole, but also to the Caribbean on a local level. Within our region VR is set to drive a new conversation in a variety of sectors from tech and tourism, to education and media. And understanding the issues posed by this new tech will be essential to seizing its opportunities.
A LONG TIME COMING
Some cutting edge technology on the tip of our tongues right now has emerged out of nowhere. Blockchain is a solid example of this, coming into being less than 10 years ago with the advent of Bitcoin. Other technology, like the electric car, has long been at the edges of our pop culture consciousness and, in recent years, has been brought to the centre with the success of Tesla and Co.
The present era of the VR industry is one that mixes equally history and new innovation. As a sci-fi trope and beacon for future tech, VR had long been forecast as something human beings would use more widely in an undefined future. In the 1990s, the then-VR industry sought to make a splash in our daily lives, doing so alongside the rise of home video games consoles.
Ultimately this push wasn’t successful and, though it owed to a variety of reasons, the limitation of technology at the time was a huge factor. Dreamers envisioned a VR world that was truly vivid and immersive. Instead they were offered choppy, blocky graphics. Fun, sure, but nothing that held a serious ambition to transport you from your daily life to another world. And so, after some big noise and hype, the VR industry of the 1990s ultimately withdrew to the shadows.
While VR didn’t take off in the 1990s, recent years have seen it re-emerge, and this time with staying power. The strong support from major software companies, the advance of capability, and the ubiquity of smartphones have all altered the landscape to create favourable conditions for strong and enduring growth of the VR industry.
But while growth is usually a great thing, the rise of VR will create new issues in our region.
THE EMERGING CHALLENGES OF VR IN THE CARIBBEAN
In some respects we are at a “VR disadvantage” in the Caribbean. And we at The STAR Businessweek are not in the business of usually seeing this borne out. Because when you examine the future of cars, blockchain, and other innovations, it’s clear the story of emerging tech as a whole is one of immense promise for our region. But it’s because of our existing strengths that VR is a challenge.
To many people around the world, lying on a Caribbean beach is a vision of perfect bliss. It’s understandable then why many developers saw the value in trying to replicate this experience within the VR universe. As well as VR apps offering the opportunity to enjoy the likes of Maho Beach in Saint Maarten via VR, cruise liners like the Royal Caribbean are also getting in on the act.
In one respect it’s easy to recognise the possibility for these VR ventures to be a real asset for Caribbean tourism. After all, ‘nothing is as good as the real thing,’ right? But it’s also easy to understand how the rise of VR in this sphere could be risky, especially when local tourism providers have little-to-no input on what’s showcased in the digital dimension.
For though nobody would suggest a few minutes in a VR headset would fairly replicate the joys and experience of a trip to a Caribbean nation, there is also the cost-benefit ratio. A prospective tourist in a US home or European apartment won’t think a VR trip compares to a real visit to our region but they may be more reluctant to spend $1,000 on the journey here once they’ve had a VR experience.
A VIRTUAL VISION
Ultimately, local providers can’t control VR growth abroad, but by seeking to seize upon its benefits at home they can counterbalance the potential negatives of greater VR use. However you look at it, the next chapter of tourism will be more digital and interactive than ever before. This applies not only to bookings done via AirBnB but ‘pre-experiences’ of activities by tourists.
And it’s here that Caribbean tourism can make real inroads, locally and face-to-face with the customer. Sure, a VR app, like Ocean Rift, that allows for cage diving with sharks would be fun to have in use in the hotel games room but what about trying the real thing later that afternoon?
And OK, a VR ride down one of Saint Lucia’s great mountain biking trails could be kinda cool but could some graphics inside a digital headset ever really hope to replicate the rush of your pulse or the feeling of the wind in your hair as you careen down a path? VR is certainly a space of much potential and excitement but it has a long way to go before it can hope to replicate reality.
If VR is used as a tool to market tourism activities more dynamically, it’s an asset instead of a liability. True, this may not deliver a reluctant tourist, who has had a VR Caribbean experience at home, on to a plane to our region but it would mean that once a tourist has arrived, VR offers the capacity to showcase in a new way all the activities and experiences on offer beyond the brochures and social media happy snaps.
And given that Millenials are increasingly seeking shorter and more potent trips over longer and more relaxed stints – with 83% saying they’d prefer multiple short trips instead of a single long vacation each year – VR provides a new road for local tourism to really sell the ‘enjoy it all while you’re here’ package.
THE REALITY OF IT
While VR is rapidly growing, it also still has a big development path ahead of it. A number of VR apps are wonderful and pioneering but others are gimmicky and offer only quick fix fun.
These offerings are nothing to sneer at but they do signify that it will be a long while before tourists begin seriously viewing a few hours in a VR headset as a real alternative to a weekend in the Caribbean, if they ever do at all.
And in the meantime there is the chance for the Caribbean tourism industry to have the conversation about how VR could be utilised as a vehicle to enhance instead of hinder our local businesses. And the prospect of not only embracing VR, but combining its implementation with the greater adoption of other new tech like blockchain, is surely a key point for discussion going forward.
