With regards to online marketing methods the video tour is fast overtaking the virtual tour, with video tours becoming the newest, most popular and notably more effective way of promoting the leisure and tourism industry.

Despite its popularity there seems to be a distinct lack of understanding about the video tour and how it varies from that of its virtual counterpart. It appears that the two tours are often muddled, resulting in industry confusion as to what the respective tours each provide and how they differ. Video tours can often be mistaken for virtual ones and vice versa when in fact the two types of tour are fundamentally different. Similarly, the virtual tour is frequently mistaken as the more current of the two tours, when actually the video tour is much more abreast when it comes to innovative online promotional strategy.

The virtual tour is a particularly idiosyncratic promotional tool and, in its day, was a relatively successful marketing instrument. A video tour is an entirely different marketing method altogether and is, in essence, a significantly more contemporary and creative way of showing off a venue. It is important to distinguish these two types of tour as separates because each possess their own individual characteristics. As an advanced and inventive marketing system, the video tour also requires further isolation from the virtual tour in order to establish it as the more beneficial, modern and sophisticated of the two.

What is a virtual tour?

The virtual tour immerged in the early 1990’s and soon became a popular instrument for the promotion of visitor attractions. As a step up from the motionless photograph the virtual tour simulates movement within a particular location. The tour is a sequence of stitched-together pictures taken from a single vantage point and with a static camera, providing a 360° panoramic view of the chosen venue.

There were and still are many advantages of the virtual tour. For starters, to create and provide a virtual tour is comparatively inexpensive. The equipment, labour and man-hours it takes to produce a virtual image are much less than those of a video tour, which is a lengthier and more structured process. With a special mirrored lens, a virtual image can be taken in a matter of minutes, making it a quick and easy avenue for the enhancement of a media site. The virtual tour can be hosted on any web server and, since they can be played on slower and less advanced computers, the virtual tour is an extremely accessible, convenient and unrestricted means of advertisement.

With a virtual tour, the user is essentially the ‘director’, establishing full control over how to use the tour and where to guide it. In this instance it could be suggested that the virtual tour is far more interactive than that of a video tour which cannot be controlled in the same physical manner. A virtual tour, it has been argued, offers an unbroken and fluent view providing its user with a thorough and comprehensive impression of its whereabouts.

Amidst all of these advantages however, there lay several disadvantages rendering the virtual tour relatively impractible and ineffective. Although the tour moves, there is not great scope for ‘journey’ within a virtual visit. By travelling from side to side, up and down, the virtual tour clearly limits the way of looking at a venue. Since you can only use the tour in such a manner it then lacks any real scale of depth, yielding the virtual tour distortive, unrealistic and an unnatural medium for transportation. Even if the stitching has been done well, it’s still hard to get an idea of the tour in relation to the rest of its location.

The virtual tour, in comparison to that of a video tour, is not an emotive tool in the slightest and has nowhere near the same impact as that of a video. The virtual tour is completely touch-sensitive and some are so responsive to touch that they are hard to master and control. The virtual tour then often leaves visitors disappointed and frustrated with its warped and hurried style of movement.

The quality of the virtual tour is often subpar, especially when evaluated alongside more current technologies such as the video tour. The leisure and tourism industry exists to impress people and the poor conditions of the virtual tour are just not adequate enough to inspire or thrill its users. There in, if a company do not have the means to obtain a media server, then a virtual tour will have to be good enough.

What is a video tour?

Live video has become extremely ubiquitous on the internet and so the video tour has emerged as the most current and far-more obvious promotional tool for the leisure and tourism industry. A video tour is simply that; footage of a particular location or venue captured by live, moving video imagery. The benefit of the video tour in comparison to that of a virtual tour is that, whereas the virtual tour can only be executed from a single vantage point, a video tour can play from several points of view – making for a much more exhaustive and diverse journey for its viewers.

The advantages of the video tour are plentiful. Needless to say the video tour is without a doubt the more effective and persuasive of the two. With its fast, fluent motion and better scale of depth the video tour is a much more appealing and realistic way to promote a location or leisure venue. As a video tour is more visual than that of a virtual tour, a video tour is aesthetically more attractive and engaging, resulting in much higher impact. A video tour is also far more emotive, capturing a high level of attention and interest from its consumers in comparison to that of a virtual visit.
With a video tour the control is entirely within the hands of its client. The subject matter can be chosen by the client, meaning that a leisure and tourism company can have the final say over what is included in a video and how a production will play out. In complete opposition to a virtual tour, a video tour can have a creative brief written up, ensuring that the client has regulation over the entire process from the very start. Even in post production the client can make subtle alterations to the video tour, perhaps adding voice-over, music or logos in order to enhance the video all the more. A video tour certifies that the most exciting and agreeable aspects of a venue are highlighted and that anything that might require omission can be left out. A video tour truly is the next best thing to physically being at a venue and so the leisure and tourism industry have been quick to employ the video tour as its number one marketing strategy.

Of course the video tour is not without its setbacks. For one, a video tour takes longer to orchestrate than that of a virtual tour which can be done in minutes. This might make the virtual tour a more convenient option, but not necessarily a better one.

To effectively play a video tour also requires more bandwidth and, unlike the virtual tour which can be hosted on a web server, a video tour requires a media server to host the video quickly and efficiently.

The most obvious disadvantage of the video tour when compared with that of a virtual tour is its cost. Virtual tours are relatively inexpensive when compared with video tours which incur larger labour and equipment expenses. Despite this, you tend to get a lot more for your money with a video tour.

Here at Digital Visitor we pride ourselves on cost effective video production. So whether you have a big budget or something more modest, we are sure to find a level of video production to suit your needs.