When 3rd Planet unveiled its interactive technology showcasing tourism destinations about a year ago, it was seen as pretty cool.
It’s hard to argue with the immersive experience created by using interactive 3D to bring destinations and tourist sites across the globe to life.
3rd Planet isn’t the only player to offer the technology, Tnooz has written about others, but it is the only one to attempt to get the global tourism industry involved in showcasing its best destinations for a year using the 3D interactive technology.
The Wonders of the World event will kick off in the first quarter of 2014 with ambitions of reaching across six continents and 600 million consumers.
But, inevitably there could be a few snags, not least, who will pay?
Terence Mak, boss of 3rd Planet, says the plan is for tourist boards to invest and the figure being talked about is $50,000 per site/attraction.
He adds that there’s a big DMO in the pipeline and ongoing discussions with others.
“I haven’t met a tourist board yet who is not interested. It’s cheaper than their current efforts. It’s a massive branding effort when you think about it and the kind of mileage is way beyond anything the tourist board can do themselves.”
The sites given the 3D treatment must have some heritage value, be UNESCO designated or come under other WoW criteria.
Travel partners, hotels, tour operators, airlines etc can get involved for free and showcase the clips on their websites.
But in the current climate destination marketing organisations probably don’t have a lot of cash to splash around.
They tend to market themselves in isolation so it will be interesting to see how a global event where they pit their best attractions against others will be received.
And, lately there has been a trend towards incorporating user-generated images and clips across tourist board and travel supplier sites, which are, to state the obvious, free.
So, cool tech but will it find traction?
Here’s a clip:
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