PENANG has launched its ‘Welcome to Penang VR’ project to boost the tourist experience through virtual reality (VR) solutions.
This smart tourism initiative lets visitors preview available attractions and plan their trips accordingly. The VR technology allows viewers to ‘teleport’ themselves to various places of interest without having to be physically there.
Before the launch of the project today, contents made available in the ‘Welcome to Penang VR’ project have drawn impressive results.
Fresnel Media is the appointed vendor for the project.
Fresnel Group of Companies (Google Street View Team) chief technology officer Shahram Ghaderi said the company started adding the project contents in March last year.
“The project covers 150 million sq ft of space on Google Street View, 80 aerial views of George Town, and 274 locations on Penang island.
“We ran a pre-launch study from the period we started adding in the contents, and we noticed that 16 locations (out of 274 locations) received more than 100,000 views per location on Google Maps.
“In total (274 locations), there were 3.8 million views when we checked in December last year. And the views have gone up to 8.2 million now. That was the impact before this project was launched today,” he said in his presentation at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa.
Shahram said about 3.17% or 260,000 viewers spent more than one minute looking at the content the team has created for the project.
“If 3% of the 260,000 viewers visited Penang island after viewing the content, we can confidently say that this project has managed to draw some 8,000 visitors to Penang island even before this project was launched,” he added.
Shahram said most people are familiar with Google Maps and it has a great impact on tourist destinations.
“Most people would Google the destination before they decide to go there physically.
“Expedia believes that 94% of their viewers will decide on their tour destination based on the content they see. TripAdvisor also believes that 93% of their viewers would decide on their places to visit according to the content that their view.
“The content is the ‘driving factor’ for the places of attraction,” he said.
Shahram added that viewers could check out the various categories – nature & adventure; places of worship; recreation & leisure; and shopping – which have been created for the ‘Welcome to Penang VR’ project.
Penang Tourism and Creative Economy Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said the ‘Welcome to Penang VR’ project could revolutionise the way people interact with technology.
“This project is set to improve our online presence with immersive Street View imagery. Working with Fresnel Media Sdn Bhd, we received support in destination marketing by adding the best and the most relevant locations to Google Maps and completing the Penang island’s information on the Google platform.
“The integration of VR technology in tourism can provide a competitive advantage for Penang. We are the first state in Malaysia to embrace this technology which is easily accessible through smartphones, tablets, or web access.
“Visitors to Penang can enhance their overall experience when they visit the state,” he said.
Yeoh said that the 274 locations listed under the ‘Welcome to Penang VR’ project include Penang’s historical buildings, sculptures, street arts, museums and many more.
The mobile app ‘Welcome to Penang’ is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Visitors can also check out https://streetview.my/welcometopenang/aerialview/ to experience it via web access.
In relation to the state’s tourism, Yeoh said Penang is confident of recovering totally from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of this year.
“We have eight more months before the end of the year.
“I am a strong believer that teamwork makes dreams work. I believe that we can do it with the support and cooperation from all stakeholders,” he said.
Yeoh gave an example of Dubai.
“I admire Dubai. It was not much known before the 1990s and it is now among the top tourist destinations in the world, possibly ranked number one.
“We want to follow Dubai and we can be the ‘Dubai of Malaysia’.
“Think big, dream big and do big!” he added.
Story by Christopher Tan
Pix by Law Suun Ting