THIS YEAR SEES THE LONG-AWAITED RELEASE of a raft of virtual reality (VR) headsets. Google Cardboard may have stolen the limelight last year, but the likes of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive look set to take the experience to a new level.
Prices vary from £400 to £800 for these full-feature headsets, which don’t require the user to slide in their smartphone, and they are being tipped as big sellers. As a result, 2016 could be the year VR goes mainstream.
While most people associate VR with the gaming industry, other sectors are jumping on board. Ikea, for example, has a virtual kitchen app for HTC Vive users, so they can walk around, or even design, their potential purchase. The healthcare industry, meanwhile, is using VR for purposes such as simulation training and rehabilitation.
Then there’s travel. Tour operators were quick off the mark with VR, including Thomas Cook with its ‘Try Before You Fly’ virtual holiday experiences, offered in its Concept Stores since last year to help boost sales. Yet offering such immersive experiences needn’t be confined to selling holidays, and travel management companies (TMCs) can also use VR to stand out from their competitors.
Toby Guest, Bayer’s strategic sourcing manager, believes TMCs offering practical VR would aid the travel buyer. “It would benefit those employees forming a travel programme for the first time, or for those with more mature programmes to experience new products on the market without having to travel in person, or to rely on flat 2D images on websites or in marketing materials,” he says.
Meanwhile, as global distribution systems (GDSs) develop ‘rich content’ and branding to help airlines and hotels grow ancillary sales, VR may be the next logical step in helping them to stand out.
Sabre’s head of innovation, Joakim Everstin, says VR is not something they currently offer but has the possibility to change the way GDSs display content. “There is potential for VR to be built into Sabre as a form of rich content. Airlines and hotels could then feed their own content into it for TMCs using our Sabre Red App platform, which is fully integrated into the Sabre workspace.”
Bayer’s Guest adds that with airlines constantly upgrading their business class products, it is often hard to differentiate with just comparison charts and seat photos alone. “Being able to pan around the cabin and zoom in on specific features would be beneficial – and help drive compliance or assist with moving frequent flyers away from their traditional carriers as travellers get to experience a possibly superior product via VR,” he says.
Marc Zuber, global procurement manager at Nestlé, suggests VR can also help “break myths” surrounding certain carriers. “Some travellers refrain from using certain contracted services because they believe the airline or hotel might not meet their standards. This was, for example, the case when Middle Eastern carriers launched their airlines, or when airlines today introduce new products – such as American Airlines’ new business class – and people believe the old product is ‘sub-standard’.”
When it comes to hotel facilities, Sabre’s Everstin believes VR in the meetings and events sector is another method of showing venues to businesses. “It’s a good way to view features that would otherwise not have been visible – for example, seating arrangements and distances between rooms,” he says.
For Paul Saggar, director of digital strategy at Capita Travel and Events, the buzz of VR is such that the technology could itself act as a major draw for businesses searching for something different.
“There’s a lot of excitement in the live events industry in particular,” he points out. “VR experiences offered by venues, hotels, airlines and destinations could benefit the incentive travel market – where the experience itself is being sold. And there’s a buzz about a new opportunity to improve delegate experiences through capturing and sharing event content.”
But, he warns, consideration must be given to the delegate experience first, and then the technology: “It must add value; if used as a gimmick the technology will just distract from the message and content.”
HELPING WITH CHOICE
While hotels will be keen to show off their more luxurious product – whether in an immersive or out-of-this world style – business travellers mustn’t entirely forget the ‘reality’ part of VR.
“VR can help travellers understand the value of ancillary products, and help them to choose these accordingly – as long as it is in policy,” says Nestlé’s Zuber. “Content should be controlled. I don’t want my corporate travellers to lose productive time browsing or purchasing additional or different products than contracted – for example, a ‘superior’ room when using VR – when they should only book a ‘standard’ room. Content has to correspond to reality.”
Everstin agrees: “When travelling for leisure, people choose hotels often because they want to spend a lot of time in them enjoying the facilities. For business, it’s based more on location and convenience, so there may not be as much need to get so acquainted with the premises.”
Whatever the product, TMCs looking for a head start with this potential game-changing technology should already be exploring how to exploit the growing range of try-before-you-buy experiences coming on to the market – virtually or otherwise.
Virtual meetings: ‘Headsets are good for venue sourcing, but not for replacing the real thing’
Having experienced VR for himself, Toby Guest, Bayer’s global strategic sourcing manager, is for the time being ruling out the possibility of conducting business meetings in a VR environment...
“I’D CERTAINLY USE VR TO EXPLORE A MEETINGS VENUE – looking at meeting spaces, breakout rooms, guest rooms and other facilities. However, I do not see it as a replacement for the meeting itself, only to assist in its planning. I would not use VR for anything business-critical, as beyond the gimmick I do not believe VR provides a personal or physically comfortable experience for the ‘attendee’.
“Will organisations soon invest in VR themselves to save travel costs? No, not until technology moves on to your more ‘Star Trek Holodeck’ experience. In the meantime, having a group of attendees sitting in a room with headsets attached to their foreheads is not something I see catching on just yet. It may be fine for gaming and short, one-off experiences, but having worn this kit myself, it’s not something that comfortably transcends the five-minute mark optically, physically or mentally.”
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