During this long lockdown, have you ever wondered how great it would be if you could virtually explore places before actually visiting them? Well, with remote tourism, you can do exactly the same.
This year, people were expecting to see a huge jump in the revenue of North Atlantic Islands, but the coronavirus pandemic has ended that ambition. However, to combat some of those losses and keep the destination fresh in people’s mind, Visit Faroe Islands have launched a virtual tour service.
According to the director of Visit Faroe Islands, Guðrið Højgaard, the remotely operated guide is a unique platform that allows people in isolation to take a virtual walk across wild landscapes and regain a sense of freedom.
Højgaard was tasked with doubling the revenues generated by tourists over the past five years. As a result, she came up with some innovative marketing schemes in the past few years.
In 2017, a service called Sheep View was launched, where cameras were attached to some of the islands’ 80,000 sheep. It was like a spoof version of Google Street View. In 2019, more than 100,000 tourists visited the 18 islands.
This tour is similar where at the press of a button on your smartphone, you can swing the camera in any direction and Levi, the guide, explains what you are looking at. You can make the virtual guide run and even jump on the spot.
The remotely steered Faroese tours will be online twice daily at 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm, on remote-tourism, for a period of 10 days initially. Users will have two minutes of control over the guide.
The tour is designed in a way that can make you feel that you are physically present there, enjoying the fresh Atlantic breeze.
