Augmented Reality to Drive Tourism

Hello Jamaica!

have you ever gotten lost? Stood in a line you didn’t have to? Or had to stop what you were doing to search your phone for directions?  

Now imagine you are in a new country, alone, around a new culture and people you don’t completely understand. Those thoughts could be more than enough to stop them from visiting our beautiful country. Now, I’m not talking about Richard Branson or Beyonce, they have assistants and an army of people to make sure they get where they want to go on time and experience the island to the fullest. I am talking about the Lower-middle to Middle-class foreigners making US$32K to US$75K a year.

I’m aiming for the largest number of tourists we can make repeat visitors, by giving them a customer-centric experience built on technology. Think Iron man’s Jarvis with island swag, an Uncle Jarvi if you will. For the non-marvel fans, Ironman is a superhero in a suit that has a virtual assistant called Jarvis that projects videos and images on his glasses or a surface in front of him. This allows Iron man to focus on the world around him while getting additional information to make faster decisions, this is called Augmented Reality.

Augmented reality, AR for short is an interactive experience where your real-world environment is enhanced with computer generated images or videos. Another example is Pokemon Go, anyone remembers Pokemon Go? You use your phone to hunt for magical creatures in the bush. Hear me out, it sounds weird but millions of people around the world did it for a few weeks, maybe even me.

When you looked at your phone screen you would see the actual environment in front of your camera and a computer-generated video of a creature as if it was really in front of you, you would then frantically swipe and tap your phone to capture the digital creature. For a short time, Pokemon Go was able to get many out of shape introverts out of their homes to socialize with other out of shape introverts. 

Jamaica this could be exactly what grows our tourism earnings from US$1.7B to US$10.7B. I will lay out a few ways the Tourism sector can use an islandwide AR framework to support not only tourism but local economies across the island. 

Pillar 1, The Feeling of Safety. We have to be honest, there is a fear overseas of the crime in Jamaica, we won’t discuss the perception of it versus the reality in this article. With an Islandwide AR network, we can create safer experiences for tourists without babysitting them. If they are headed in the wrong direction they can be automatically sent directions on their smartphone or smart glasses. The brilliance of it is, that it does not have to completely disrupt their experience, they don’t have to switch devices. If they can’t read a sign it is automatically translated. If they are on the way to an area known for being dangerous, a virtual red line can be projected in front of them. A Jamaican AR app can provide tourists piece of mind and get them outside of their All-Inclusive Oases temporarily, to spread some of that sweet green around the island. Tour guides can use AR to project facts and videos about Jamaica’s history to tourists’ devices seamlessly. 

Pillar 2, Gamifying Vacations. I’m a big advocate for Gamification across every industry. Gamification is simply a way of motivating people and enhancing experiences using similar approaches used in board games and video games. An example is a Scavenger Hunt, each time you find a clue you get a reward, and each reward is better than the last until you get to the big prize. We can gamify tourism in a similar way by offering digital badges to tourists that visit historical landmarks and uncover hidden digital treasures sprinkled across the island. Once they visit all the locations and get all the badges we offer them a free return ticket to Jamaica. When they come back they bring their family to share in the updated VR experience, and along the way, they purchase locally made souvenirs and absorb local art. Coincidentally [with air quotes] each digital badge was nearby a shopping or cultural centre.

The final Pillar is Tourism Insights. Since this AR network is digital we can collect tourist data, with their consent of course. The data can be used to: 1) improve how we advertise to new tourists, 2) customize visitor experiences for maximum delight and 3) optimize visitor routes to evenly distribute tourist spending across Jamaica’s local economies. 

 Augmented Reality allows us to take digital things and put them virtually in the real world. The irony is these virtual things can help us better appreciate the real world around us. What do you say Jamaica Tourist Board? If we build it they will…inject cash into local economies.

Stay Innovative Jamaica!