We have been reading the publicity about the launch of Hotels.com's new 3D augmented reality website: virtualvacay.com. This interactive website allows the viewer to place themselves in popular holiday destinations across the U.S. via webcam, check out the weather and send personalized postcards of their virtual trip.
We took it for a test drive and....were somewhat underwhelmed, however the graphics were very cool and we can see the potential of this type of application in other travel websites.
So, ignoring the hoopla, did it work? Well apparently yes - Hotels.com claim that traffic jumped by 26% and bookings soared by 36%. When it comes to planning a trip away, the public are more than happy to spend a lot of time (usually at work!) and are turned on by a new quirky screen based attraction.
It will be interesting to see if more user interaction via webcam will be used to spice up other travel based websites.
Check out Hotel.com's Virtual Vacation website HERE and the introductory video:
