ABSTRACT
Virtual Reality (VR) is a cutting-edge technology that has been widely adopted for promotional purposes. In tourism industry, VR is favored due to its interactivity characteristics on delivering experience of tourist destination. The objective of this research is to explore the prospects and challenges of VR adoption for destination marketing. This study is a qualitative research in which the data are collected through observation and in-depth interview with 3 informants, i.e. a virtual reality maker, an advertising agency, and a traveler. The result indicates that VR as destination promotional tools is evolving in number and types of virtual reality formats that have been used, e.g. 3D image, application and 360° video. It offers different visualization and effectiveness in capturing users’ attention. However, VR as promotional tools faces several challenges in terms of cost, system development, visualization, and creativity as a package of tourist destination marketing.
