Technology and Tourism: A New Era for the Tourist Industry

It seems as though everything these days is getting a technological makeover – and tourism is no different. So, let’s take a look at the technologies transforming tourism, and how it impacts the country and visitors alike. 

Virtual Tourism 

industry, to provide traditionally in-person experiences through digital platforms. Take something like online casinos, for example. Players can join in with live online roulette at Paddy Power which live streams a real croupier using a real table in the studio to real players in real time. This allows virtual players to get an authentic and immersive casino experience through any device. 

This same logic can also be applied to other industries – especially tourism. Whilst tourism is, of course, something to be experienced traditionally in-person, there are times where this is not possible or not entirely feasible. In rural places of Wales and Scotland, boosting tourism comes with the risk of damaging the landscape or disrupting the natural tranquillity of the environment through overcrowding. With this in mind, live streaming technology can be applied to allow tourists to admire everything the country has to offer, but without having an adverse impact on the environment. 

Virtual Reality Experiences 

Whilst virtual tourism allows tourists to view places that they cannot or should not visit, virtual reality (VR) can allow people to actually experience it. Put simply, VR uses sensors and a headset to create a comprehensive virtual environment that users can interact with, no matter where they are. Whilst VR can bring 3D environments to people who aren’t even in the country, this technology can also be used to create immersive experiences on site. 

For example, visitors to the Tower of London can find an immersive VR experience located in the vaults just outside. This VR experience recreates the tower, and transports visitors back to 1605 so that they can experience the Gunpowder Plot in real life – without the gunpowder, of course. The experience uses 360-degree imagery to recreate London and even allows people to virtually row down the Thames.

5G Smart Tourism 

In essence, 5G smart tourism is the usage of 5G networks and smart technologies through all aspects of travel and tourism with the aim to enhance visitors’ experiences or offer brand new experiences. As 5G allows for quicker connections and for more users to connect to the same network, this comes with the potential for technologies to have fewer restrictions in their applications. 

With this in mind, 5G can allow more tourist industries to utilise things mentioned above like live streaming and VR, as well as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous robotics, and more – it is the infrastructure that supports technology in the tourism sector. 5G smart tourism has already been tested in the west of England thanks to contributions by The University of Bristol Smart Internet Lab. Their project explored the usage of 5G smart tourism in hotspots like The Roman Baths, Bristol Museums, and Bristol’s science and arts centre. 

And there you have it – just a few examples of how technology is reshaping the tourist industry, making experiences more accessible, authentic, interactive, and immersiv