In five years, you could be sightseeing across Rome, learning about ancient ruins on a tour of the Colosseum...all from within the four familiar walls of your living room.
At least, that's what a crop of travel companies and mixed reality startups envision, with the help of augmented reality or virtual reality (AR/VR).
In 2021, about 59 million people in the US will use VR and 93 million will use AR at least once per month, per eMarketer estimates—a 28% spike from 2019.
Popular mixed reality experiences center around gaming, fitness, and shopping, but the pandemic steered people toward uses they hadn't considered before—and with borders closed and planes grounded, tourism was one of them.
In 2019, just 20% of travel brands planned to invest in AR or VR.
In mid-March 2020, Google searches for "virtual travel" spiked 286%. And from March to June of last year, monthly searches for the term at least doubled year over year.
Along with the pandemic, 5G is also a catalyst. As networks expand coverage, AR/VR adoption stands to benefit from higher speeds and higher quality streaming. In a 2020 survey about expected benefits of 5G, 44% of US adults cited streaming VR content, and 36% responded with AR experiences.
Sustainable travel: Due to over tourism, many of the world's most popular sights have seen a surge in foot traffic recently, which doesn't lend itself well to preservation. Mixed reality could help people check a popular sightseeing destination off their lists without dealing with the typical pain points (pricey tickets, long lines, quick photo ops).
"Everyone's on their phones, everyone's geotagging, everyone's trying to get that image," Grace Olson-Davidson, a cultural client liaison for Lithodomos, an Australian travel VR startup, told us. "What if we gave it to them without them having to get all the way there?"
Educational opportunities: Flyover Zone, an Indiana-based VR startup that specializes in virtual tours, makes scientifically accurate 3D representations of historical sites. It shows not only a place's current state, but also how it likely looked thousands of years ago—including a "time warp" feature that allows a user to compare an individual spot's appearance through time.
