SA Tourism’s UK office has launched an immersive experience that allows British consumers to step into South Africa through the use of virtual reality technology, using its new video headset, Oculus Rift.
Juan Herrada, Manager: UK Marketing and Communications and overall Director of the project, told Tourism Update that through the use of 360-degree head-tracking in combination with binaural sound, Oculus Rift let viewers experience the country as if it were real life.
“The idea was initially to merge the UK consumer into the whole South African experience and to subconsciously get them to make a decision in their minds to take that first step toward going to the country and start picturing what it would be like to be in that environment,” Herrada explains.
The four-and-a-half-minute-long video includes an abseil down the side of Table Mountain, paragliding down Lion’s Head, close-up scenes with an elephant and penguins, a shark cage diving scene, and ends with a kite-surfing scene.
There are urban scenes of Neighbourgoods market and the Maboneng precinct in Johannesburg. “Joburg is usually an area that people pass by. They see it as a transit area and this helps change the perceptions of the city and also to show the changes in the country,” Herrada said.
“Physically it’s a hugely immersive experience. People’s knees go wobbly, they scream out and it’s quite an eye-catching experience,” Herrada said. “There’s also a subconscious element of knocking down those barriers and preconceived misconceptions of South Africa.”
According to Herrada, Oculus Rift was first introduced in the UK because it is the largest market to South Africa. However, the Dutch and French offices are either currently in the process of rolling it out or about to. The Australian office has also shown interest.
The initiative has been dubbed ‘The five-minute holiday’ by SA Tourism and will be launched this month in bars in Britain where the public can ‘escape’ to South Africa by watching a short film on the virtual reality headset. Two viewers will also stand the chance to win a trip to South Africa courtesy of KLM.
“We want to surprise the UK travelling public and Oculus Rift is the ideal partner for us to reach a young, tech-savvy market,” said Herrada.
The first bar takeover will take place on April 24 at Corbet Place, Brick Lane, London. The next venue is NoHo, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, on April 30. Further dates will be announced over SA Tourism’s Twitter and Facebook sites.
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Oculus Rift can be viewed in the TechZone at Indaba this year.
