Hotelplan removes all VR glasses from its Swiss travel agencies

What a pity! The Swiss tour operator Hotelplan Suisse is cancelling the use of virtual reality glasses in its travel agencies.

"Unfortunately, there wasn't enough content. For example, you could move virtually through a cruise ship, but for many other travel experiences, there was not enough content.
the content was missing." This ultimately led to "frustration among customers and travel agency employees". This is the statement on the VR exit at Hotelplan.

In autumn 2017, the VR glasses were introduced in ten Hotelplan branches on a trial basis, as we reportedThe service was then extended to 32 Hotelplan, Travelhouse and Globus Travel branches. According to Hotelplan, the VR glasses are currently only used at events and trade fairs, but no longer in the branches.

What sounded like a dream of the future two years ago has now "hyped itself out" at Hotelplan Suisse. Although the use of VR glasses generated additional bookings for some people, it remained at a modest level, says Prisca Huguenin-dit-Lenoir, media spokesperson for Hotelplan Suisse. "The VR glasses were primarily a gadget, i.e. an additional channel to sell holidays. But in the end, the content was missing - this is expensive to produce, as you have to take the pictures with special cameras. We realised that the goggles didn't bring significantly more in terms of travel bookings."

Kontiki continues to rely on VR - Kuoni has a pilot project underway

The other Swiss tour operators do not share this opinion - or are not yet sure: At DER Touristik, 15 Kuoni travel agencies have been testing virtual reality glasses in a pilot project since autumn 2018 "in awareness of the challenging data situation". "We are currently evaluating the relevant experiences, but a decision on a possible introduction has not yet been made," says Markus Flick, media spokesman for DER Touristik Suisse.

Kontiki also relied on VR for the first time in a test in 2017, as we reportedand provided customers with 50 VR glasses for four weeks. The conclusion today is: "We mainly use the VR glasses at holiday fairs or information events to give customers a better understanding of the local atmosphere. Our experience shows that excursions such as dog sledding or snowshoe tours are impressively conveyed with VR glasses. The immediacy of the experience inspires and amazes customers in particular." However, Nadja Hänni, Project Manager Marketing at Kontiki, explains that the fact that the holiday trade fair stand is always well attended is not necessarily due to the VR glasses.

But one thing is clear: "We will continue to use VR glasses in sales and at events in the future and continue to supplement the content, primarily with productions from partners and only occasionally with our own productions. Our focus at the moment is primarily on short films that our employees shoot and edit themselves while travelling in the destinations."

The task of VR content is, on the one hand, to impressively convey experiences in the form of a 360° film. On the other hand, it should bring the atmosphere of a holiday destination closer to the user. In addition, the content stands and falls with the quality of the enormously complex production. "The technology of the 360° moving image is still in its infancy, so we will certainly continue to monitor developments."

Source: Handelszeitung / Travelnews