All strategies are not enough when it comes to attracting tourists. When you have natural attractions, good weather, good food, etc. but compete with hundreds of destinations that are just as remarkable, you have to put emphasis on the imagination.
And nowadays, there’s nothing more appealing than mobile phones and other types of digital screens. Apps, movies to learn about different destinations… anything goes!
One case in point is ‘Go USA’, a connected TV network that was recently launched in the United States. This is an on-demand content platform that reports travel experiences in the U.S. through episodes and series.
The video game industry, for its part, knows all too well that millennials love playing games, so it’s no surprise that there’s even ‘game tourism’. This means, users travel to the destination without engaging in any of the video game’s battles or missions and focus their attention more on architecture and aesthetics.
This is shown, for example, in the ‘Watch Dogs’ game which is set in Chicago and invites users to find ‘hotspots’ in the windy city.
The largest country in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, is another example of this attempt to attract virtual tourists. The country’s leaders are looking to capture this new market by launching a video game where tourists can explore hundreds of the most sacred places in the country.
Of course, playing the game must bring some kind of incentive, and in this case, the player will get coins and titles on different screens to reach different a different status. These virtual coins can be used to enhance the player’s experience, according to the Vice President of Tourism of Kazakhstan, Kairay Sadvakassov.
The application, which in principle is aimed at the local population, will have content to play both virtually and locally, based on the geolocation of different landscapes and ecosystems in Kazakhstan.
Furthermore, when it comes to recreating destinations, there are some games like Assassin’s Creed that are particularly perfectionist. Enclaves of America, Asia and Africa have been superbly mirrored with the help of historians and even take advantage of it to offer tourist guides on YouTube to provide more in-depth information about the cities.
