Australian Tourism has largely returned to Pre-Covid levels and the tail end of 2022 has seen a fantastic recovery for Australia’s Dive Tourism Industry. Australia’s great water temperatures, fantastic scuba and Free-dive locations and abundant marine life all year round have long been a draw card for many international and local tourists. 2023 promises to be the best year ever for Australian Dive Tourism, so now is the perfect time for savvy dive operators to make your dive location stand out from the crowd.
Virtual Tours to drive Dive Tourism
Virtual Tours offer an immersive and interactive way for visitors to get a real “taste” of the dive experience by showcasing the dive locations, facilities and services that are available.
Traditional marketing techniques such as Photos or Videos have long been used to promote Scuba Diving services and facilities, but Virtual Tours offer an extend range of benefits such as :
- Interaction – rather than passively watching a video.. or simply clicking through a gallery of static photos… a Virtual Tour allows users to be actively involved and control how they interact with the dive site and facilities… This could be navigating through the space, looking around, zooming in on specific objects, or clicking on hotspots to perform an action such as showing a video, linking to a website, filling in a form, or displaying more information
- Innovation – a Virtual Tour provides a memorable “wow” factor that most photos or videos can not
- Connectivity & Accessibility – Provide a spatial awareness which is not possible with most other forms of marketing. Virtual Tours can be used by anyone with internet access via a variety of devices (mobile, desktop, VR Headset)…
- Experiential & Interactive – Offer an “experience” based interface, where users get to Interact and actually participate. This provides a level of emotional attachment not available through traditional media (photos and video)
- Inspirational – Offer a “taste” of the experience and provide insights into what is on offer, which very often results in an “I want to see more” moment.
- Recycle Content – Virtual Tours are able to incorporate and reference existing content (information, Photos, Video, Stories, Links, Audio, etc…) .
- Extendable – can very easily be updated, modified and improved to update or add extra activities and experiences over time as requirements change
Types of 360° Photos & Virtual Tours for Dive Operators
There are many options available with Virtual Tours – from simple 360° Photos to a sophisticated customised Standalone Virtual Tour… here are some examples and options :
Individual 360° Photos (
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Panospheres can be uploaded directly to Google Maps, Social Media, or 3rd party Tourism sites such as Expedia or Tripadvisor
Standalone Virtual Tours are often one of the most effective ways to promote a business as they give you much more control of the experience. They also offer a wide range of features such as :
- Logo/Branding
- Custom Icons
- Menu Navigation
- External Links
- a variety of Hotspots and popup capabilities (e.g. Photo, Gallery, Video, Audio)
- Auto-rotation
- and much much more.
This type of Virtual Tour can be
- embedded into a website
- run as a standalone presentation
- referenced from Social Media
- sent as a link
- viewed on a Desktop, Mobile DevIce or VR Headset
Here are some examples of Standalone Virtual Tours :
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See whalewatch.panoview.com.au for Full Screen version
See lescapade.panoview.com.au for Full Screen version
See fraser.panoview.com.au for Full Screen version
Aerial 360°
Aerial 360s offer a unique way to show a large area and, when incorporated into a virtual tour, offer a fantastic framework for showcasing tourist destinations.
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Virtual Tours published to Google are directly available via Google Search and Google Maps, and can be embedded into a website, social media.. or emailed as a link. However Google Virtual Tours have relatively limited features.
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360° Video had developed a bit of a reputation for being poor quality, and complex (and expensive) to produce… however recent technological advances have resulted in dramatic quality improvements and significant cost reductions – making it accessible to even low budget marketing campaigns.
What Does a Virtual Tour Cost?
Prices for 360° Photos or a Virtual Tour start from as little as $120 for an Individual Photosphere (which can be published to Google Maps or embedded into a website) ranging up to several thousand dollars for a large sophisticated and feature rich Standalone Virtual Tour.
Costs will vary depending on the size and layout of the areas you’d like to include in the virtual tour… how you want it to be used,… and the features and functionality you would like to offer. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you create a Virtual Tour for your Dive Shop, Dive Resort, Dive or Dive Location, give Andy a call on 0403 023 223 or Contact Us.