Why virtual journeys open new worlds
The urge to explore distant lands doesn’t always need one to hit the road or buy flight tickets. Some love to travel from the comfort of their living room couch. These armchair travellers now have the option of taking a virtual tour of the world — Photo Tours, a feature of Google Maps, offers detailed tours of important global landmarks.
Virtual tours have the power to take us out of the ordinariness of our daily lives. Mansi Aggarwal, an occupational therapist explains, “A successful travel experience is not always about star hotels, gourmet meals or award-winning destinations. It is about connecting the sense of place with the hearts and minds of travellers. Travel is not just about physical movement in the world; it is also about movement in the mind. Virtual travel is a boon for people spending days in hospital rooms or waiting lounges.”
There are also plenty of blogs which introduce you to the place of your interest and inform you about the lesser-known features of your desired destination. For Ajay Jain, a passionate traveller, a virtual tour is an exercise he religiously performs before he starts his journey. “It’s very interesting to get the feel of the place before you actually reach there. It also helps in drawing a list of places that you can’t miss and those that you should avoid. It’s like a customised travel show,” says Ajay.
Photographer Neeraj Ram seconds, “I don’t think armchair travel is fun, but it’s definitely useful. It’s useful for photographers like me. It lets me figure out where the sun would rise and set, which streets would look nice at what time of the day, which spots would picture well, how crowded a place could be etc. Then it is also useful for someone who can’t travel often like our old grandparents. They can go on wonderful tours of the best museums, they get to float around the halls looking at paintings with more details available at a click of a button.”
Though a photo tour cannot be seen as a substitute for actual travel, it’s still an amazing feature. “You can physically go to a few places high on your priority and take a virtual tour elsewhere. Also, I like to explore options by taking virtual tours before making a decision on where I am actually going. And even after I decide to go to a particular country or city, I can always use this feature to choose the sites I’d like to visit,” says Vishal Arora, an independent journalist and an avid traveller.
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