Two in five travelers will use virtual reality as inspiration for their holidays in 2023, booking.com research suggests

The world has changed dramatically over the last three years. For a long time, people were unable to travel the same way as they were used to before. These difficulties have changed traveling habits and made people more willing to use new technologies when planning trips.

Booking.com, one of the biggest online travel agencies, commissioned research that surveyed more than 24,000 travelers across 32 countries and territories in an effort to predict new travel trends, including the usage of VR and metaverse.

Approximately two in five (43%) of global respondents report that in 2023 will use virtual reality as inspiration for their holiday choices. The countries with the highest percentage of people who intend to use VR when making holiday decisions are China (75%), Thailand (72%), and India (70%). This is not surprising as Asia is the most tech-savvy region where recent technologies get most attention and see highest levels of adoption.

VR can also affect decision-making in regard to travel destinations and make travelers bolder and more adventurous. Forty-six percent of respondents are more likely to travel to destinations they wouldn’t have previously considered after experiencing them in the metaverse for the first time.

According to the Booking.com study, over a third (35%) of travelers would like to embark on a multi-day VR travel experience. However, while respondents are excited to experiment with VR, 60% of them do not believe virtual traveling to be as fulfilling as traditional traveling.

Virtual reality and metaverse help meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world and allow holiday-goers to enjoy their travels in a way that has never been impossible before. Even if you’re not a fan of a full-on VR holiday, you can still find VR solutions as a good supplement to traditional journeys.

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