Countries are investing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) by recognising new niches for different industries and leveraging them to achieve sustainable growth. The Kenyan government recognises tourism as a significant driver of economic growth and the need for diversification through the promotion of niche products to achieve the sector’s potential.

There have been efforts to embrace the emerging technologies presented by 4IR to meet the evolving tourism trends, thus remaining a leading and innovative player in the global tourism landscape. The findings indicate a most probable future that leverages Virtual Reality (VR) to facilitate access to restricted and protected areas. The future presents tourists who are tech-savvy, demand immersive experiences and have an increased desire for sustainable practices.

VR technology offers a new approach to tourism promotion, complementing traditional strategies. It is integral to the 4IR, which uses technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and VR to fuse the physical, digital, and biological worlds. This technology provides a platform for the adoption of VR, leveraging the digital revolution to provide simulated experiences for prospecting tourism.

VR is a significant development in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) field, impacting the tourism industry significantly. It uses computer-generated 3D environments to create physical immersion and psychological presence, offering various applications in planning, marketing, and customer experience. The tourism sector contributes to Kenya’s GDP, employment, and foreign exchange but relies heavily on traditional marketing methods like Marketing Destination Representatives (MDRs). These methods are limited in capturing immersive and interactive experiences and fail to meet evolving tourism trends.

The low adoption of modern tools for tourism promotion in Kenya risks hindering the country’s presentation of unique offerings. This could result in decreased tourism revenues, fewer job opportunities, and a failure to fully capitalise on the sector’s potential as a catalyst for economic development. Addressing this gap is crucial to ensuring Kenya remains a leading and innovative player in the global tourism landscape.

This article seeks to investigate VR’s role in the Kenyan tourism industry by identifying the drivers of change in VR adoption and projecting its future enhancement of the industry by 2063.

Drivers of change in the adoption of VR in Kenya’s tourism sector

In recent years, the tourism sector has witnessed exponential growth in technology adoption. Virtual Reality is one of the emerging technologies, and there is an increased demand for the experiences it offers in the industry. Past and present discussions have explored the drivers of VR in tourism, terming the 4IR technology as either a threat to the industry, an experience enhancer, or a potential marketing tool.

A study by Aljinović et al. (2023) investigated the potential and obstacles of employing virtual tourism in protected and conserved areas post-COVID-19. From the study, VR showed significant potential in inspiring visitors to pursue conservation actions. VR provides avenues for revenue generation and reducing the seasonality impacts. The study revealed that virtual tourism can promote sustainable tourism by reducing unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and minimising disturbance to species and their habitats.

Among other opportunities was the potential to enable customers to get acquainted remotely with a destination before the actual visit, therefore inspiring future in-person travel and helping break spatial, monetary, temporal, and other barriers that hinder in-person visits to the destinations. Some of the challenges found in the study included limited connectivity due to limited internet access to remote areas, loss of local livelihoods that relied on income from in-person tourists, and costly technology in adopting virtual tours. The authors recommended consideration of technical feasibility, collaboration between tourism and other relevant ministries, and local engagement and benefit sharing in the realisation of the benefits. 

To understand whether VR could save the tourism industry in South Africa in the wake of COVID-19, Verkerk (2022) used case studies, open-ended interviews, and conceptual research methods. The study proved VR as a beneficial tool for tourism in the country especially in education and entertainment, marketing and planning, accessibility, and sustainability. For instance, a student-run business at the University of Pretoria entertained potential students through a virtual tour of the campus on Zoom. Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town enabled tourists to virtually view penguins while physically exploring the aquarium. The study showed that tourism-related companies and organisations were using VR as an opportunity to generate tourism revenue by allowing them to pay upfront before exploring the virtual destination.

Policy recommendations 

In growing the tourism potential using VR, the two levels of government, in collaboration with development partners, the private sector, and the community at large, may consider the following recommendations:

Ecotourism 

1. The Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife, and Heritage can set up a VR Ecotourism Certification Board to oversee content creation. This board would guarantee scientific accuracy, responsible environmental representation, and adherence to ethical standards. 
2. The Government, in partnership with the private sector, can invest in VR, creating VR ecotourism centres in public spaces to avail affordable access to high-quality VR experiences for the larger community. 
3. Relevant stakeholders collaborate with health experts to develop VR usage guidelines that address aspects of age restrictions for defined experiences, session durations, and obligatory rests to promote digital well-being and hygiene.
4. Incentivise VR studios to embrace sustainable practices through tax breaks and/or subsidies for employing renewable energy sources and eco-friendly hardware. 
5. Conclude bilateral and multilateral agreements and policy frameworks to coordinate and ensure consistency in regulating cross-border aspects and promote sustainable VR ecotourism practices globally.

Promotion of VR adoption in tourism 

1. Create clear guidelines for data collection, storage, and usage in VR tourism experiences to enhance consumer privacy while affording personalisation of experiences. 
2. Offer subsidies to make VR technology more accessible and affordable to low-income earners and educational institutions. 
3. Establish regulations focused on ensuring VR tourism experiences promote sustainable travel practices in the physical environment. This would entail educating users about responsible tourism standards and principles and showing support to local communities.

Conclusion

The country anticipates a tourism sector that incorporates VR to enhance sustainability and minimise environmental impact by 2063. This will ensure that the industry strikes a balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability. Chiefly, VR technology will be employed as a market strategy to complement and supplement the existing marketing strategies adopted for tourism in protected and conserved areas. In addition, tourists’ experiences will be more immersive due to the advancement in VR technology as this will lead to the evolution of the quality of content created. Notably, there is an unprecedented future that indicates possibilities of VR tourism. Some of the future possibilities include strong collaboration among stakeholders, which is likely to result in sufficient policies and laws to support the adoption of virtual reality. The future will have stringent data protection measures coupled with VR replacing traditional marketing. However, challenges such as the high cost of VR and the infrastructure involved in fully adopting the technology are likely to impede the widespread adoption of VR.