Virtual Tourism: A Promotional Tool for Increasing Tourist’s Traffic at Various Tourist Attractions

Abstract

Virtual tourism is an innovative type of tourism through which people can easily visit a place without being physically present at a place. The tour companies and tourist attractions have gained a momentum in the rise of COVID-19 pandemic. According to Google Keyword Planner data, searches for the term “virtual tour” increased seven times—from 1,300 in February to almost 10,000 in March, when governments around the world began locking down countries and cities. Previous studies have explored various theories related to virtual tourism ranging from the use of VR technology, drones and other such gadgets in virtual tourism, role of electronic commerce in virtual tourism, future of virtual tourism, emotional and physiological arousements while going for virtual tourism, etc. The paper aims to examine the spur in the interest among virtual tours and tourism as an opportunity to promote a tourist attraction. The purpose of this research is to study theoretical material on virtual tourism and to analyze virtual tourism promotional tools which lead to increase in tourist traffic. Accordingly, this study can contribute to the promotion of a particular tourist destination, understand the various attributes required to create interest and trust among the tourists as well as to identify the tools to promote a particular tourist destination.