Last night the Mobile Innovations Awards 2015 winners were announced. We’re very proud that ‘Try Before You Fly’, the virtual holiday experience we created for Thomas Cook took home an award for the ‘Most Innovation Development in Entertainment’ category.

 Live action 360 video content is a natural fit for the travel and tourism industry. Now that Facebook supports 360 video on the newsfeed we can expect to see more interactive engaging branded content to entice us on our next holiday or view exclusive movie promos for example. With the Thomas Cook virtual holiday experience, prospective customers can visits the sights of New York, Singapore and Egypt and resorts in Cyprus and Greece to explore in full 360.  These virtual holidays are currently available at Thomas Cook Concept Stores in Germany, Belgium and the UK, including Bluewater shopping mall. 

“We’re delighted that this project has been recognised for an award. For us this is one of the really practical uses of VR – allowing people to preview potential holidays. This leverages the unique ability of VR to transport people – giving them a ‘5 min holiday’ in the store like a taster on a menu. The real beauty with this project is that it worked, VR sells holidays, a lot of them, which is why we’ve been all around the world with Thomas Cook, documenting their destinations and building the full menu of locations for their customers.” Henry Stuart, CEO and co-founder of Visualise