Innovations include live cloud travel games and AR technology to build immersive tourist experiences.
HANGZHOU, CHINA – Alibaba Group’s travel services platform, Fliggy, recently presented new travel tech innovations at VivaTech 2023, one of Europe’s biggest startup and technology events which drew more than 2,000 exhibitors from 149 countries and regions around the world. The event saw Fliggy introducing augmented reality (AR) technologies and livestream service to enhance digital travel offerings as travel appetites return.
Visitors were given a taste of these technologies at VivaTech, where they put on AR glasses to interact with virtual exhibits and landmark architectural sites such as Hangzhou’s famed archaeological museum, the Liangzhu Museum, to see its cultural relics up close and gain a deeper understanding of this historic site – all while in a booth in Paris. While this technology is presently available in numerous museums in China such as Guiyang, Qingdao, Nannin, and Suzhou, it was indeed a first for many conference guests in Europe, and showcased how Fliggy has been working to enhance the sightseeing experience by providing virtual access to limitless tourist attractions, regardless of where consumers are, anywhere in the world. This technology was jointly launched by Fliggy and its partner, Rokid, a leading Chinese human-computer interaction technology product company.
Fliggy also showcased its own livestream service platform, which allows viewers to experience and learn about a destination or activity in real time, while interacting with the livestreamer and making purchases directly. Live streaming has become a widely popular marketing method in China, and during a time when physical travel was restricted, it provided a way for museums, attractions, hotels and airlines to connect with potential consumers in a digital way. According to Fliggy, one live stream showcasing the local customs and cultures of a travel destination had 1.145 million viewers on their platform.
“This is an opportune moment for the digital travel space to enhance the tourist experience. Over the pandemic period, we provided experiences that built up awareness and excitement of outbound destinations through livestreaming tours of world-renowned and loved European attractions such as the Louvre, the British Museum and Casa Batlló. As travel to Europe picks up, we are taking strides to deepen our tech offerings to match a clear demand for travel to Europe and showcase even more dedicated and thoughtful packages and experiences for Chinese tourists,” said Ada Xu, Fliggy’s Regional Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Xu said that future-facing industry technologies, such as livestream services and experiential travel through an AR lens, will be embraced by more merchants in Europe as tools to interact and connect with their Chinese consumers in a unique way that integrates the physical and virtual worlds.
After the epidemic, livestream service has been verified as one of the most effective means of planting the seeds of consideration for destinations and promoting transaction conversion. Markedly different from the traditional way of displaying products with pictures and texts in online shopping, live broadcasting can effectively amplify the emotional value of products to consumers, thereby bringing about higher transaction conversion efficiency. The daily live streaming duration in Fliggy’s official livestreaming channel has increased by 2.3 times so far this year.
While the Chinese tourist market for European destinations has yet to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels, there are promising signs of a gradual recovery. According to Fliggy, bookings by Chinese tourists for European hotels have surged by over four times year-on-year since the beginning of this year, while visa applications for travel to Europe have grown by a staggering 17.8 times year-on-year. Among the most searched European destinations by Chinese tourists on its platform which suggesting their interest in visiting Europe, are the Colosseum, the Louvre, the Sagrada Familia, the Palace of Versailles, the Acropolis Museum, the Harry Potter Studio, the Casa Mila, Disneyland Paris, the London Eye and Casa Batlló.
Tatiana is the news co-ordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes to monitor the hundrends of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skim the most important according to our strategy. She holds a Bachelor degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
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