First travel search and booking experience through virtual reality

Turn a globe, visit a destination, search for flights, scroll through the plane to select a seat, try different models of rental cars and pay for the entire trip, all without leaving a virtual reality environment. This is the first virtual reality-based experience proposed by Amadeus IT Group's Navitaire.

This innovation could change the way travelers search for and buy travel by helping airlines and other travel companies become next-generation retailers.We live in a 3D world, so why not book travel the same way?This was the idea that led Justin Wilde, a programmer specializing in user experience at Navitaire, an Amadeus IT Group company, to convince his manager to let him develop an experience that would allow travelers to go through the entire process of booking a trip in a virtual reality environment. Four months later, Wilde's concept was ready for its first booking.

I see a future where the Internet will be a three-dimensional experience and everyone will have their own portable 3D viewer. It will be much more natural for us because the world we live in has three dimensions. I think the technology and the way we design the user's online experience should also reflect that," Wilde said.

The project simulates a user standing on a platform in the clouds in front of a giant terrestrial globe. The user can rotate the globe to select a destination and suddenly be there, looking at the London Eye, for example. If he likes what he sees, he can proceed to purchase a flight and go through the entire booking process, including payment.When the traveler selects a flight, he can scroll through the airplane cabin to find the ideal seat and, when booking a rental car, he can hop in and try out various models. In the future, this virtual experience could include hotel booking functions and even social functions, so that when the user spins the globe they can see where their Facebook friends have been.

Wilde made the first reservation through a web-based search-and-book application using virtual reality on Dec. 31, 2016, at Navitaire's Salt Lake City office. It is currently in the project development phase and is patent pending.