facebook
Home » Blog » Smoky Mountains » Is it possible to be in the Smoky Mountains any time you want without leaving your own home?
Virtual Reality Glasses

Is it possible to be in the Smoky Mountains any time you want without leaving your own home?

Is it possible to be in the Smoky Mountains anytime you want without leaving your own home?

Several travel companies are starting to use technology to inspire people to travel by creating virtual tours that let them experience the destinations before they actually visit. The virtual tours we are talking about are not your typical virtual tours. These are not the tours where you move your mouse around to see a single 360 degree space; we are talking about virtual reality. We are talking about traveling without traveling.

If you are not familiar with virtual reality, here are 2 videos to help explain:

Virtual Reality in Travel Video

What is Virtual Reality Video

Visit My Smokies plans to also make a few virtual reality (VR) experiences of the Smoky Mountains available in the near future. This could be a game changer for the staycation trend.

What is a staycation?

A staycation is a vacation spent in one’s home town rather than traveling to another city or destination.

Google search volume for staycation is up over 10% in the past year and we believe if you can’t experience the Smoky Mountains first hand and have to have a staycation, then why not experience the Smoky Mountains through virtual reality?

Number of Searches Over Time for “Staycation” on Google / Source: Google

Google Search Trend for Staycation
I prefer visiting the Smoky Mountains in person because there is nothing like it in the world.

We could not agree with you more. Although, we do think it would be nice to just sit back in the comfort of your home, after a stressful day, and put on some virtual reality glasses to take in an immersive escape to the Smoky Mountains. We really see 2 exciting advantages to this amazing technology that will soon be very popular.

  1. Escape to an area anytime you wish to distress, even if just for a few minutes.
  2. Preview areas of the Smoky Mountains you have never seen before to get a preview before spending any time money or time on the attraction, cabin rental, hiking trail, etc.

Interested in helping us with this?
If you would like to help us develop and test this experience for the Smoky Mountains, sign up here and we will be choosing a select few people to help us test and develop this for the Smoky Mountain area.


Comments

  • Avatar for Alicia Hicks
    Alicia Hicks

    I was chosen to help test the Virtual Reality Beta Program, I’m so excited!

    August 7, 2015 at 5:08 am
    • Avatar for Crystal Martin

      Have you received anything yet? I was also picked but haven’t received anything. 🙁

      September 26, 2015 at 2:05 pm
      • Avatar for Alicia Hicks
        Alicia Hicks

        No I haven’t received anything except the email telling me I was picked.

        September 26, 2015 at 3:17 pm
  • Avatar for Crystal Martin

    Oh my goodness, we were chosen!!!! I’m so excited and can’t wait to help out with the beta test and see the Smoky Mountains through virtual reality!

    August 7, 2015 at 10:56 am

Comments are closed.