There are plenty of stories from visitors who say over and over that a visit to the NWTs changed them in some significant way. That is why NWT Tourism has taken on the challenge to design an innovative campaign to demonstrate to potential visitors the transformative power of the NWT.
Cathie Bolstad, Chief Executive Officer of NWT Tourism stated that the campaign is an example of NWT Tourism using the latest technology to make the transformative power of a visit to the Northwest Territories more tangible to potential visitors.
“A picture is indeed worth a thousand words, and from our point of view augmented reality and virtual reality are worth far more.”
From January through April, NWT Tourism is introducing several new things to watch for:
- The 2020 Explorers’ Guide has a brand-new Augmented Reality feature. This feature, accessed through a free app for Apple and Android, is used to scan a special icon that appears in four places in the guide. Scanning the image identified by the icon gives the user access to 3D animations, 360˚ videos and more. Users of the guide are able to take a walk in the landscape of Virginia Falls and see a caribou stand on a page of the guide, for example.
- In February, a Spectacular NWT Virtual Reality car, decked out in an Aurora decal wrap and equipped with a 360-Degree Virtual Reality Video headset, will hit the streets of Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. The VR car will give lucky passengers the chance to ride along with a migrating reindeer herd, to stand above thundering Virginia Falls, and feel what it’s like to paddle a glassy alpine lake under a midnight sun.
- Immersive Virtual Reality experiences will be offered at three travel trade shows in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, to bring potential visitors as close to the spectacular NWT attractions as you can get without physically being here.
- Visitors to the NWT Tourism booth at the tradeshows will also have a chance to win one of four trips, each showcasing a different region of the NWT.
- Residents in the NWT rarely get a chance to see the work NWT Tourism does because marketing efforts are directed to potential visitors outside of the territory. One exception to this is residents may get a glimpse of an Aurora-wrapped vehicle in and around Yellowknife starting in January. The vehicle will be part of the Hertz fleet and will be used whenever possible by NWT Tourism when hosting travel trade and travel media guests of NWT Tourism.
For more information on the campaign. Listen to this interview done by Tyler with Cathie Bolstad and Julie Warnock of NWT Tourism .
