South Africa is entering an exciting new phase of tourism marketing, as some of the country’s top properties and destinations begin to reap the benefits of cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) offerings.

As reported by Tourism Update, leading hotel group Southern Sun recently partnered with VR pioneers Gecko Digital to launch a super-realistic, innovative 360-degree walk-through of the Arabella Hotel, Golf & Spa in the Western Cape.

Gecko Digital entered the South African market last year after leading the development of next-generation VR property tours across Asia and in other regions. In South Africa, the company first partnered with flagship Stellenbosch wine estate, Lanzerac.

“Virtual reality has transformed how we can immerse our guests into our spaces before they even get here. Our website has become more ‘tactile’ for the users and as we roll out more of the ‘spots’ or spaces, our team are able to sell the property to our guests without having them come out to the property,” says Lanzerac GM, Emile Langenhoven.

“The quality of the shoots are also of such a nature that we have converted some of them to stills to increase our photograph library and use as part of our social media roll-out,” Langenhoven adds.

Key for destination marketing

Jacques Clarijs, South Africa partner for Gecko Digital, stresses that VR tours result in a far higher rate of conversion from interest in a property to actual bookings than more traditional mediums such as video or photography.

“Based on Google Analytics and other measurement tools, we’ve seen that 60% of people who take one of our tours then move on to the booking engine. There’s no doubt that being able to realistically experience everything that a property has to offer drives people into making booking decisions,” says Clarijs.

While VR tours are a staple on the websites of many hotels, Clarijs believes there is astonishing potential to market South Africa as a destination overall. 

“It’s encouraging to see that some of the major hotel groups and properties in South Africa are recognising the value of the most cutting-edge tech. And we also believe that this can be better harnessed to showcase everything great about South Africa as a destination,” Clarijs says.

Gecko Digital will soon be launching a VR showcase of the V&A Waterfront and its surrounds, and aims to expand across South Africa.

“There is great potential to showcase everything from beaches to wine tourism, from bushveld to cities. Destination marketing forms the basis for bringing tourists in to stay at hotels and lodges, so we need to be harnessing the best potential platforms to market the destination effectively. And this goes far beyond attending trade shows,” says Clarijs.

The personal touch

Stanley Edwards, Owner of content creation company Platypus Digital, said there is endless opportunity to further enhance the interactivity of VR content. Edwards has created interactive virtual reality tours of wine farms in the Western Cape, complete with voice-overs, soundtracks and interactive links.

“Travel agents are also able to, for example, take their clients to an online virtual reality tour and guide them through a property or destination, answering any questions the client may have. There is an argument that the personal touch is lost through VR, but it can actually be enhanced,” says Edwards.

He adds that VR technology has progressed to the stage of becoming a highly cost-effective, user-friendly and minimally intensive marketing strategy.

“VR content has actually in many cases become easier to put together than video. There is also a perception that you might need fancy, expensive equipment such as VR goggles, but the reality is that this isn’t an essential: immersive VR content can be viewed on any mobile phone or computer screen,” he says.