What is a virtual tour? If you didn’t know, now you do.

Do you jnow what is a virtual tour? Don’t worry! You are not the only one for sure. Although, virtual tours are fascinating, there are not well know to everyone yet. And that is why I write this blog post to describe this concept. And to show some of the usage for personal and business purposes.

Moreover, this blog post also describe how virtual tour works, why there are beneficial and at the end of the article I share also examples of a cool virtual tours you can experience.

Virtual Tours: An Introduction

Okey, so let’s start with the concept.

A virtual tour is broadly speaking a opportunity to explore every space with a 360° content. But the space already have to be scaned or photogrpahed by someone. Virtual tour is some type of recreation of the real location which can be explored.

How can be explored?

Well, with a andvaced technology of 21 century, virtual tour anable individual to explore the space realistically as if they were truly there. Using just their mobile phone, tablet, laptop or a VR headset.

Imagine you want to explore some specific place. Let’s say a Louvre Museum for example. If you are not living in a Paris you would have to book a flight or find some type of transportation which will be expensive in terms of money and time also.

(Also did not mentioned the extremely long queue infront of the museum itself of course)

BUT with a virtual tour it is really easy to explore the museum. And also it is inexpensive.

You can navigate through rooms and halls to admire all your favorite artwork and even zoom-in to see every detail of the painting if you want to.

It is like having the whole museum in your of hands just for yourself.

BUT …

What about if I am not interested in museums? Will a virtual tour be beneficial to me?

Yes, of course! The museum was just an example what can be seen. A virtual tour can showcase every type of space. Every!

So if you are not a museum fan, don’t worry it still can be for you OR your business.

For example virtual tours are increasingly popular in a real estate idustry.

And the reason is really simple.

Real estate agents do not have to rely just on clasic static photos but can showcase the space in interactive way with a 360° photos and a virtual tour.

So that a potential buyers can now take a „walk in a property“ in a virtual tour and explore every detail of the property same as they would have done in person. Which obviously saves money and time for the real estate agent and let buyer make more informed decision.

Also virtual tours are beneficial to travelers, because they give visitors the taste of their possible future destination. They can explore places with a 360° content to get better undestanding what they can expect when travelling to the destination.

Can explore their hotel (or hostel) room in which will they may stay (virtual tour of hospitality), nature wonders or historic place.

Furtremore, education is one sectors which quickly gains the benefits of virtual tours.

Students can now take a field trip to historical sites, in to the wild, and even outer space.

Also when VR (virtual reality) is included the virtual tour find a another dimension. You can find more about VR virtual tour here.

So basically if you are a history lover, art enthusiast, potential buyer or just someone who want to explore some specific place, virtual tours are the way to go!

They provide immersive opprortunity to explore the wolrd in a interactive new way.

So what is actually a Virtual Tour?

A virtual tour is a multimedia presentation that combine a photos or videos, interactive elements and a lot of other clickable elements called hotspots which together create a interactive and engaging experience for the visitor.

In most cases, virtual tour is create with a 360° photos or a 360° videos which let visitors to explore the space in a interactive 360-degree view.

We already talked about virtual tour for students, travelers, museum enthusiast and a potential real estate buyer. These all are end-users who are benefiting from the virtual tour, because it create an opportunity for them to fully explore the space.

BUT what about from the bussiness stand point.

Can a virtual tour be beneficial for them?

The answer is YES!

Let’s say that you are a hotel owner (or a manager) looking to showcase your accommodation or a restaurant owner looking to attract new visitors to visit their dining area. A virtual tour can be an awesome tool how to provide more value to your visitors and in the some time increase the booking rate.

It also create a stonger connection with the customer, because they already know what they can expect from the virtual experience when visiting in person.

How Do Virtual Tours Work?

Virtual tours can be created with a camera equipment and a specialized software (like a Krpano, 3DVista or a Pano2VR).

Cameras are crucial part of the virtual tour creation, because without the 360° photos you are not able to see anything. Really popular are 360° cameras (also called 360-degree cameras), which can cature the whole space with just one photo (one press of the shutter button).

BUT 360°cameras are not the only possibility how to create a 360° panoramic photo. Bassically You can use any camera and any lens available with a help of stative and panoramic head.

You can find more about how to take a 360° photo here

If you would be using a 360° cameras to create a virtual tour, the process is simple.

• 360° cameras are equiped with multiple lenses (in mostly cases 2 lenses) and each lens will cature specific area.
• These lenses are in sync to capture a complete 360° view of the surroundings

If you would love to cature high-resolution 360° photos a DSLR or Mirrorless cameras are more suitable, even though the proces is not as simple as with a 360° camera.

• To capture a 360° photo photogrpaher need to have a camera (DSLR or Mirrorles), lens (highly recommend a fish-eye lens), stative and a panoramic head.
• Compared to 360° cameras, you will have to take much more photos, because you would have to take each photo from different point of view to create a 360° view
• And then stitch them together using a stitching software like PtGui for example to create a seempless 360° panoramic view with out distortions.

The important thing to understand is that virtual tour is created with a 360° content (360° photos or 360° videos), but i tis not just a collection of these photos.

It is much more!

With a virtual tour software we can add a custom features and link the 360° photos together, so that visitor can go from one 360° photo to another and can fully explore the whole space. Not just one specific area.

For linking the 360° photos together hotspots are frequently used.

To level up the user experience even more a multimedia elements are often incorporated. This includes videos, audio or informational hotspot and much more.

• Video provide a dynamic element to a virtual tour which can enricher the user experince.
• Audio as a music in the background or a narrative add a personal touch to the user.
• Hotspot create a much more user-friendly inviroment. Informational hotspot are hotspot which user can click and learn more about specific object or place itself.

So, and after all the elements listed are combined, the final virtual tour can exist.

And is ready to be hosted on a platform or a website.

That allows visitor to access and explore the space via virtual tour using their preferred device (mobile phone, tablet, laptop or a VR headset like a Ocolus Quest or Apple’s new Vision Pro).

So, next time you use a virtual tour you will already have a undestanding how a virtual tour was created and how deos is work.

First stage was taking the photos with a 360° camera or a DSLR (Mirrorless). Then stitching them together to create a 360° photo. Next linking 360° photos with a hotspots or different way. And finally add a multimedia elements to enricher the user experience.

And after all that a proper virtual tour can be created.

Examples of Cool Virtual Tours

Here i created a short list of a virtual tour you have to check out. My favorite at least.

So, if you have a time and want to explore some cool place for free.

These are the 3 places you can visit today.

Conclusion

Virtual tours have revolutionized the way we explore and experience different places. Whether you’re a business looking to engage customers or an individual seeking to fill your desire to travel, virtual tours offer an immersive and convenient solution.

Now that you know what virtual tours are, how they work, and even saw example of a virtual tours, it’s time to go on your own virtual adventure!