Are pre-travel experiences a good way to boost tourism in Scotland and Ireland?  – Daily Business

Photo by John Thomas on Unsplash

For people who have had the pleasure of visiting Scotland and Ireland, it’s highly likely they’ll want to return. However, for those who have never experienced the wonder of these places in person, how can they be persuaded to book holidays to them over other European destinations? 

There’s clearly a gap in the market for pre-travel experiences that promote these countries to people who’ve never visited. By showing people what they can experience in advance, it could persuade them to go and check it out firsthand and may boost tourism massively. 

Ireland and Scotland Already Represented in Entertainment 

The idea of pre-travel experiences is to give people digital ways to discover settings in Ireland and Scotland that they may be interested in exploring further. There are already various ways to get a taste of these countries online, so it could be easy to transition into offering other ways to experience them. 

For instance, there are certain titles in entertainment that aim to transport players to Scottish and Irish settings. Games like 12 Pots of Gold Drums Frenzy slot and Highland Reels give players a sense that they’ve travelled to Ireland and Scotland, where they’re immersed in themes from the countries. There are numerous films and television shows like Braveheart and Ballykissangel that have shown viewers what they could experience if they travelled to these places as well. 

With VR starting to gain greater attention and expected to become a mainstream household item in the 2030s, there’s the potential to expand on these entertainment offerings. Developers could come up with pre-travel content that showcases some of the most famous and idyllic settings in Scotland and Ireland. By showing them off in VR first, people may then want to book tickets to see the real thing. 

What Would Pre-travel VR Experiences Look Like? 

For pre-travel VR experiences to be effective, they’d need to go way beyond what’s already on offer in entertainment. People can already get a taste of Scotland and Ireland online, but they may need to get full immersion if they are going to consider travelling to the countries. This means offering much more than just 360-degree videos that let people see things. Instead, VR users need to have the chance to traverse famous settings themselves. 

From a business perspective, a company that can offer these pre-travel experiences could position themselves as a link between tourist hotspots and potential visitors. Hotels could partner with pre-travel VR firms to highlight their offerings, along with allowing customers to try out some of the activities available in VR. Local councils could promote their national parks too, with VR users having a chance to explore them digitally before visiting. 

The days of looking at a brochure and deciding where to go on holiday are long gone. Now, tourist locations need to leverage modern technology to encourage people to visit. Ireland and Scotland are already heavily represented in digital forms, so it would make sense to expand on these and create pre-travel experiences that showcase the countries’ best bits further. 

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