Lufthansa - Lufthansa In Virtual Reality

Lufthansa - Lufthansa In Virtual Reality

Lufthansa treated attendees at the ITB Travel Trade Show in Berlin to a virtual flight on its B747-8 to San Francisco. The virtual flight included a 360 degrees interactive tour of the cabin, featuring full cabin service, a seat companion, and a stop-over at San Francisco’s beaches for a view of the Golden Gate bridge. The airline released the video documenting the trade-show event on YouTube.

Using an Oculus Rift DK2 headset and a Sony Move Motion controller, 2,000 attendees at the show experienced Lufthansa’s cabin product, in-flight services, and the beaches of San Francisco, while interacting with their surroundings.

By adding the Move Motion controller to the Oculus experience, Lufthansa let visitors touch objects in the movie, adding salt to their in-flight meal with a virtual salt shaker, lifting the glass to drink, fanning themselves with a virtual postcard of San Francisco on the beach.

As a surprise, the same flight attendant who looked after them during the movie appeared in person to present virtual flyers with a commemorative postcard which they could then mail to family and friends from the booth.

The travel industry is catching on to the promotional potential of virtual reality experiences. The immersive nature of this portable entertainment pairs well with tourism, inspiring consumers to visit new destinations around the world through sights, sounds, and, in this case, even touch.

After the success of the Lufthansa virtual reality flight at Berlin’s ITB 2015, the airline says the technology is now being used at events worldwide.