Sarah Feldberg
Imagine: You are high above the Fremont Street Experience, Downtown Las Vegas’ cavalcade of street performers, musicians and tourists toting frozen neon drinks in plastic containers. You can’t see the details from here, but you can feel the energy emanating from every side, the pulsing of the Viva Vision light show, the buzz of the crowd.
And then you’re off.
You're soaring above the spectacular din. You’re not a bird; definitely not a plane. You’re a rider on SlotZilla, the hulking slot-machine-shaped zipline that towers over the Fremont Street Experience.
At least, you feel like a rider on SlotZilla. In reality, you’re on your couch at home, sampling the zipline experience through Vegas VR, the virtual reality marketing app launched by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) this spring.
“Visitors get overwhelmed by what they should do, or could do, or might want to do,” said Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the LVCVA. Vegas VR and its 360-degree images, which can be viewed with or without a virtual reality viewer like Google Cardboard, allow visitors to take a digital step inside popular Vegas attractions and experiences and better judge whether to include them in their own itineraries.
“People are doing their research,” Tull added. “This is one more way for them to do their research.”
The LVCVA’s foray into virtual reality started about two years ago when it partnered with Google on GeoVegas, a site that featured steerable 360-degree photos and videos inside Vegas hotels and destinations. It functioned like a digital walk-through, enabling viewers to tour a hotel, nightclub or restaurant.
“What we found was that people wanted more, and they wanted more experiences,” Tull said.
The LVCVA, together with Vegas-based marketing agency R&R Partners, has rolled out 12 VR experiences, which include a gondola ride through the Venetian serenaded by a gondolier, a Strip flyover with Maverick Helicopters and the onstage view at the Life Is Beautiful festival’s electronic dance music stage.
The goal, Tull said, is to stimulate or influence a travel decision. “We know based on our research that approximately two-thirds of travelers say that they would be influenced to visit a destination if they could be able to experience it through VR.”
To promote the VR content, the LVCVA has done activations at both consumer-facing events like Coachella and trade shows like ITB Berlin. While the Vegas VR app has been downloaded about 4,500 times, the LVCVA has also distributed its virtual reality content through social media channels and other digital platforms where they’ve received more than 4.4 million views.
Tull says that after seeing the results of the initial rollout, more of the LVCVA’s partner properties and attractions are asking to be given the virtual reality treatment. And Las Vegas is hardly the only destination tapping into VR tech to market to travelers. Fáilte Ireland is letting viewers ride horses on the beach or catch a wave along the Wild Atlantic Way, and Tourism Australia has invited travelers to hang with quokkas on Rottnest Island or snorkel the Great Barrier Reef — all through virtual reality.
“I think it’s going to become more and more popular,” Tull said of VR travel marketing. “I think that the potential is really going to continue to expand. I see it honing in on all different pieces of the marketing puzzle.”