Last year the pandemic brought the tourism industry to a standstill. While no sectors were left unscathed, most sectors found it easier to move online than tourism. As part of the government’s “Lëtzebuerg, dat ass Vakanz” campaign, Vizz, the Luxembourgish VR and AR expert designed Sky Swing, the first interactive VR experience tailored towards attracting tourists and showcasing some of Luxembourg’s most beautiful sights.
Photo: The Sky Swing is set to move around Luxembourg this summer as well was international locations to promote the sights of Luxembourg / Credits © Vizz
For a country as small as Luxembourg, it has a disproportionately large tourism industry. Indeed, in 2018, tourism contributed nearly 10% of its GDP and more than 2.9 million overnight stays were recorded. However, during the past year the tourism sector has struggled.
Fortunately, the Tourism Minister Lex Delles announced that up to 2.4 million of our neighbours from Germany, France and The Netherlands have said that they were willing to visit Luxembourg.
Eager to strengthen Luxembourg’s tourism sector and recover from last year’s travelling hiatus, the government’s “Lëtzebuerg, dat ass Vakanz” campaign has identified multiple points of action to attract more tourists.
While most of the government’s new and improved tourism strategy revolves around shifting focus, it has also earned its name as a digital frontrunner by using Vizz’s Sky Swing, the government’s first VR experience designed to attract tourists.
“I think there’s a lot of potential for adding smaller experiences in the country even for people who cannot travel.”
Swinging through Luxembourg
Sky Swing is an innovative combination of a real outdoor swing and cutting-edge VR technology which allows users young and old to discover 20 of Luxembourg’s finest tourist spots from a new and exciting perspective. Sky Swing only requires a VR headset, a swing and a controller to work. Designed with VR amateurs and first-timers in mind, its software is completely intuitive and easy to figure out.
The VR experience which was made possible by combing high-resolution drone footage and VR software, showcases beautiful locations – both well known and more obscure – from Luxembourg’s 6 tourist regions. These include the vineyards of the Mousel, Vianden’s castles as well as Vizz’s founder, Mathias Keune’s favourite spot Mullerthal.
Popularising VR and making the link to the “real world” has been something that VR enthusiasts have often struggled with. Fortunately, Mathias Keune is no evangelist and has thought of an exciting way to bridge these two worlds. The Sky Swing comes with an integrated photo booth that allows users to capture whatever they see through their headset and create a personalised postcard that they can print and send home.
The Sky Swing is set to move around Luxembourg this summer as well was international locations to promote the sights of Luxembourg.
VR tourism as a teaser trailer
While VR no doubt still has untapped potential, Mathias Keune does not think that it will replace people’s desire to travel – at least for now. Indeed, he sees its potential in promoting tourism in a more immersive way, elevating tourists’ travel experiences and making it easier for people unable to travel to discover new places.
“At the end, VR has long term potential to promote a country or city on an international level by offering this kind of virtual trip. Of course, it’s not the same like travelling somewhere else, but it’s like a teaser trailer to really make you hungry to explore a new place.” As for other possibilities, he adds, “let’s say you’re going to the old castle where you can get a VR headset and for some minutes you can look around and see what the place looked like 500 years ago and what it will look like in the future. I think there’s a lot of potential for adding smaller experiences in the country even for people who cannot travel.”
While Vizz does not only specialise in VR tourism experiences, it is already working on three new projects in the tourism industry. Whether this trend will carry on is hard to say for sure, but with the government’s support of Sky Swing, it is possible that VR found an alley in tourism.
