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How Avatar will change the travel industry

Among the immense volumes of content and entertainment we consume on a daily basis, finding one item that promises to have a lasting impact on our culture is truly a story of a needle in a haystack. In the case of the Avatar blockbuster we are only beginning to see the story unfold.

Looking back it’s easy to see the true impact of other movies. Imagine Star Wars’ impact on the technologies we take for granted today. Were the young minds of the Internet revolution spurred on by the futuristic imaginings of George Lucas? Were the harmonious undertones of sustainability a teaching of Master Yoda? Now consider Avatar, a movie that promises to be even more impactful on society – and travel.

How could Avatar even make a blip in a multi-billion dollar industry like travel? The answers are more prescient than you might expect. We will know for sure in five or ten years.

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The Avatar Program, a new way to travel

This post is not about the practical uses of technologies that only exist in the imaginative sci-fi realm (i.e. Star Trek transporters), but let’s get this out of the way first. In the movie, humans have decided it would be a good idea (militarily and economically of course) to project themselves into the bodies of other beings on other planets. This new technology could one day change the way we experience a destination – don’t just go to Spain, be a matador. It could even erase the need for physical travel altogether. This is a bit of a stretch for today’s travel companies, even for the most forward thinking Branson-esque executive.

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Avatar the movie – an alternative travel experience

If you were among the millions who experienced Avatar in 3D, you surely noticed a huge shift in the way entertainment is delivered. I use the word ‘experience’ because you do not just ‘watch’ this ‘movie’ you actually experience this 3D adventure that seemingly happens all around you. This is punctuated by the complete shock of realizing there were other people in the theater with you during the Avatar experience. You just spent nearly three hours in a beautiful landscape that removes you from the stress of everyday life – this should make destination marketers wake up.

Could a non-travel experience replace the multi-sensory thrill of visiting the California orange groves? If this sounds doubtful, try Soarin’ at Epcot. In fact, try any destination at Epcot. Any activity that competes for the wallet share of the traveling consumer is competition for the travel industry. Travel companies and destination marketers should be keenly aware of the competition posed by alternative travel experiences. Smart marketers leverage activities and attractions to build up rather than destroy their destination. On the day that your destination is turned into an alternative travel experience, you will want to be in the driver’s seat.

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Video conferencing

The scariest part of the Avatar program technology is that it strikes close to home. Let’s face it, video conferencing, virtual reality, and eventually projecting yourself into a fake body are all becoming increasingly viable alternatives to business travel. With the corporate travel market reeling from 2009, momentum is gaining. Again, smart marketers are playing the ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ game. Marriott recently launched virtual meetings studios in its hotels. Sure, this doesn’t replace the value of face-to-face meetings, but this trend has the potential to change the way we travel (or don’t travel).

Implications for travel companies and destination marketers

Avatar is a game changer, whether you enjoyed the story or not. It’s already shaking up the way movies and TV shows are produced and delivered. Even this fact has an impact on travel. Movies compete with travel for wallet share. As movies and other activities become alternative travel experiences, they will present very real competition for our industry. Savvy travel companies will embrace these new innovations and use them to enhance the travel experience. The Disneys and Marriotts that come first will succeed.

In ten years, Avatar’s biggest impact will be how it sparked a renaissance in the way travel companies deliver an incredible experience for their customers.

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Date: February 4th, 2010 @ 13:00

Author: Charles Snyder

Categories: Blog, PhoCusWrightPosts

Tags: , , , , , ,

  • Kim_Godard_PCWI
    I couldn't agree more. This film (specifically the 3-D version) represents a sea-change in the entertainment industry, and the ripple effects will extend far beyond just motion pictures. It's a significant milestone in virtual reality -- for the first time we have a movie experience with three-dimensional CGI-generated actors that *look and feel like real live actors*. For quite some time we've been on the cusp of pulling this off, but being close and actually doing it are very different things. James Cameron has done it, and on a massive scale to boot. In 3-D, the immersiveness of this "film" transcends everything that has come before.

    Make no mistake, virtual reality just got a LOT more *real*, and it will play an increasingly important role in every aspect of our lives. It will likely be some time before it could supplant an actual vacation or travel event, but without any doubt it will become the most powerful marketing medium available. Period. And it's going to start happening very, very soon.

    What better way to sell an event or destination than to briefly drop someone directly into a hyper-realistic facsimile of that very experience?
  • Fischer
    My wife has romantic visions of London and Paris shaped by the Bronte sisters, the Scarlet Pimpernel and more. She can't visit THAT London or Paris. We've been to the real thing. We'll likely go back. ...but I bet she'd be first in line to visit a realistic 3D version of those cities. Perhaps cities should be recording their 3D selves now - so that they don't have to recreate it in 200 years' time.

    It's a long way to travel from Australia to France. Imagine spending all that air-time time-travelling to our destination. The moment we take off from Brisbane and strap on the 3D goggles we enter 1800s Paris for a few hours, then move into the 1900s and slowly journey through the decades until we prepare to step off the real plane into the real Paris of 2015 - all the better understanding the sights, smells and sounds around us and having already formed in our own minds a virtual map of the city (which may help us find our way around) through space and time. If Air France was the only airline providing this journey, you can bet which airline we'd fly.

    And if it wasn't the airline, but the cities themselves offering these tours, it would certainly be the best travel brochure around.

    But... it may just take a real recording rather than an artificial 3D construct. People once thought the Creature from the Black Lagoon looked "real" as did the first "king kong". Even the effects in Star Wars look pretty bad to us now. I'm guessing that in 10 -15 years, the effects in Avatar will look fairly amateurish.

    So record our real cities now. In 50 years people will think they looked so beautiful, innocent, mysterious, turbulent or just - different.

  • I doubt the intent of the post was to claim that virtual travel will replace the real experience. In my opinion nothing ever will. Charles makes a very valid point, however, when he says that for some that real experience might not be achievable, especially for far away exotic locations and a virtual trip might be the next best alternative - and Robert, I don't think a ride on It's a small world qualifies!

    No one can predict what will happen ten, twenty years down the road in the realm of virtual worlds but one thing seems clear, the technology future does not evolve in a linear fashion and what sounds far fetched today might well become reality, or it might remain fantasy. Who are we to tell.



  • Two comments on the topic:

    First, concerning the state of 3D movie production, it seems that on movies like Avatar, Hollywood is headed the wrong direction.

    On a recent episode of Maxwell's House, Leo Laporte speaks with Ray Maxwell about human stereoscopic vision and the impact on 3D experiences. For total technology and movie geeks, here is the link to nearly an hour about how movie technology has changed over the past 50 years and where it is headed http://j.mp/bQVorl (the first 46 minutes cover the projection techniques and the last part covers the human depth perception issues.)

    The fundamental issues are that the 3D "in your face" gimmicks fail due to issues related to parallax corrected illusions and human depth perception. One, projection techniques to provide depth conflict can with the natural operation of the human eye and two, parallax does not scale based on screen size.

    Despite the amazing technological advancements (IMAX or Real 3D XL & circular polarized filters in glasses) Maxwell concludes that 3D movies may not make it over the long term due to physiological issues.

    Unfortunately, humans do not use their binocular vision on objects beyond 20 feet. All cues for human depth perception beyond 20 feet are based on perspective, occultation, observation of trapezoidal shapes, etc. not 3D vision.

    Bottom line, when you artificially create a 3D world, it is not natural for the human eye to see three dimensions beyond 20 feet. In other words, James Cameron did not have to spend all that time and money creating detailed 3D parallax images in the backgrounds and on the horizon because they can never look real to the human eye.

    Amazing technology, staggering expense, visually stunning results, but unfortunately, nothing that accurately replicates a real-life, immersive 3D experience. It may look cool, but it can't look right. If Cameron chose to have the characters playing chess at a kitchen table, he could have made a very realistic 3D movie.

    Second, and more importantly, "Been There, Done That" is a lot less interesting when the "Been There" portion has been dropped and we are only left with "Done That." I could also make the case that without "Been There," it is not actually possible for anyone to have "Done That."

    Simulated travel is simply not an equivalent experience to real travel - riding on the "It's a Small World" attraction at Disneyland does not make one a world traveler. I'll keep this comment G-rated and pass on the sexual analogy...

    I remain a staunch supporter of traditional travel, with individuals exploring the world to form their own perspectives based on personal experience as opposed to consuming a scripted, artificial experience created for mass consumption. Interaction with other cultures while traveling fosters understanding and tolerance - that seems to be a good recipe for reducing prejudice and evading war.

    I have to agree with Troy. If we are equating travel with movies, DMO's, CVB's & travel suppliers need to focus on providing great experiences for the characters of Easy Rider, National Lampoon's Vacation, 10, Lost in Translation, and Up in the Air before tackling Avatar.
  • Interesting post, Charles.

    OK, a dose of reality just for a moment here.

    Lest we all forget, wasn't it just a few years ago that Second Life was apparently going to sweep all before it, inspire DMOs to embrace new technology and change the travel experience, at least from a promotional point of view.

    What happened? People realised the experience was rubbish, so didn't bother with it.

    The same could be said for the arguments outlined above. The technological prowess of Avatar might inspire others to think about how they adapt the concept for travel.

    However, continuing the analogy with the film for a moment... Okay, so Avatar had amazing effects, broke technological barriers, wowed and wooed audiences and some movie critics, but at the end of the day the dialogue is poor and the storyline rather weak.

    Replicating or promoting so-called travel experiences with whizzy technology is a bit like Avatar - they might look good on the outside but peel the skin off and it's actually quite disappointing as any real substance doesn't exist.

    Sorry!
  • For the record, I love travel-focused posts where we can insert movie and pop culture references that would otherwise never make it into the discussion.

    Honestly, we don't talk enough about Total Recall's impact on the tourism industry in the 1990s.

    Good times.

    - Troy
  • Thanks for the post Charles.

    While anything is possible, this still seems trapped in the minds of sci-fi writers rather than 5 or 10 years away.

    Let us point out Total Recall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Recall) and the holodeck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodeck) as previous iterations of the same idea.

    As DMOs and CVBs, I am not sure how we would address this (possible) issue. Sure, it could happen, but I am not ready to build an Avatar-like program, system or holodeck any time soon.

    Perhaps we should nail down social media before tackling Avatar travel?

    An interesting thought, but I think I will wait until I finally get my flying car before thinking about my Avatar strategy.

    - Troy
  • Thanks for the comment Troy. The point of the article is the 3D technology of the movie itself, not the impossible technology within the movie (thats just a lead in). The takeaway for DMOs is that an alternative travel experience like a 3 hour 3D tour of Paris, could serve to replace travel to Paris - or it could promote it. Thats the choice for DMOs.
  • Completely understood, my remark was certainly tongue (firmly) in cheek.

    I do think this question raises an interesting conversation about the social (offline) behavior of humans. If this VR technology was/is advanced enough to simulate Paris, would that be enough to fulfill the basic human desire of travel?

    Or, is the desire to interact, touch, smell and experience other destinations strong enough to overcome the equally prevalent human quality of laziness?

    As you say, time will tell, but my hope is that humans still have the desire to actually travel.

    My choice would be to promote it.

    - Troy
  • I think the answer to that might be economic. Those of us who can afford to go to Germany, lets say, would definitely choose to go there. Those who can't afford it might go to Epcot, or the local Octoberfest celebration.
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