Immersive Australian experiences captivating international consumers

Tourism Australia’s innovative use of ‘Virtual Reality’ (VR) and 360 degree video is hitting the mark with consumers and travel sellers eager to get a more immersive experience of Australia’s best aquatic and coastal experiences. Tourism Australia has published 17 Virtual Reality scenes as 360 degree videos online and so far recorded 6.5 million views across YouTube, Facebook and Australia.com. Significantly the aquatic themed videos have helped to drive a 64 per cent increase in engagement on Australia.com and leads to industry have grown 77 per cent.

“This is about giving consumers and potential travellers to Australia a deeper, more immersive experience of our destination,” said Tourism Australia Managing Director John O’Sullivan.

The new ‘immersive assets’ also provide a powerful selling tool for frontline travel agents and trade partners to better understand experiences that are available to holiday makers and therefore nurture leads and encourage more customers to book a trip to Australia.

“We’re providing Google Cardboard Virtual Reality headsets to Aussie Specialist travel agents in our key markets, as well as distribution partners,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

Tourism Australia has also published a free app for Google Cardboard headsets for both Android and Apple smart phones with the ability to choose from 17 aquatic and coastal VR videos to download. The app is also available in simplified Chinese for both Android and Apple smart phones.