Skyview Communications, a tourism firm, has created a virtual reality booth at the Upbeat Recreational Centre, Lekki, Lagos, to market Nigeria’s tourism sites.
Speakiñg at the opening ceremony, Mr Femi Lawson, Managing Director of the firm, said the virtual reality booth was meant to enable Nigerians experience some of the nation’s tourism sites at one spot.
The virtual reality gadget is a simulation of an existing tourism location composed of a sequence of videos or images which may involve some multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration and text.
This entailed an individual wearing the virtual reality gadget view some tourists sites through a 3D 360 video on a spot without visiting the sites physically.
Lawson said this was deliberate to transform Nigeria’s tourism industry as most Nigerians were not aware of the enormous tourism assets the nation was endowed with.
He said it would be appropriate for Nigerians to be conscious of their tourism endowments before those assets could be accepted and patronised by the international community.
“This is a dream come through for me because I have always wanted to enlighten Nigerians on how blessed the nation is in terms of tourism assets.
“The virtual tourism is a marketing tool for destinations in Nigeria; this will open people’s eyes to most of these beautiful sites and at the same time create the thirst in them to visit.
“This booth will be operational everyday of the week and it comes with a token but free for all today.
“Presently, we have 3D 360 videos on ground, four virtual reality gadgets and a mobile virtual reality gadget for corporate organisations and events because we are bringing tourism into events.
“We are preaching relaxation to Nigerians because we do not have that culture of relaxation which is important,” he said.
Lawson said the experience the virtual tourism offers was projected to also give birth to other businesses for tour operators and others in the tourism value chain.
He said that the virtual reality booths would be built in other African countries to sell Africa content when the firm was well equipped with the needed funds.
According to him, virtual tourism booths would be opened also in Abuja and Port Harcourt in the first quarter of 2020 to enable other people in the other parts of the country benefit from the experience.
“I implore everyone to avail themselves of the opportunity to see all that the nation is blessed with; we have 7 destinations packaged in the virtual reality gadgets and before December we should have up to 20 destinations.
“This will be done as soon as we get invites from destinations,” he said.
