During these pandemic times, the face of the travel industry has changed drastically. It’ll take years for things to get fully back to the way they were in the summer of 2019. And as we’ve seen in Israel, and in other places around the world, Virtual Travel has started. Meaning, virtual tours of different sites, states, and countries.
This is something that I’ve started working in as well, so I’d like to give you a little background on how this works. At least, the way I do it.
The ABC’s of Virtual Travel in Israel
In order to sign up for a virtual tour, it’s a relatively simple process. Just find a tour that interests you and sign up.
The process for creating a virtual tour is a little more complicated, and that’s what I want to share with you.
The first step is finding a client who is interested in virtual tours. I’ve started working with synagogues and JCCs (Jewish Community Centers).
In coordination with them, we decide which site/sites we’d like to offer tours of, and then I go out filming.
Now, I don’t go live via Zoom or Facebook. With all the internet connectivity issues that I’ve experienced, I don’t find this to be feasible. Nor do I go film myself guiding a site and show that to people either.
I film the site, from all different angles, for an entire day. I then edit the footage down into a 40-45 minute video, and then I do the guiding itself LIVE via Zoom.
The filming is a crucial part of this process, as it’s really what allows us to feel as though we’re actually there at the site. We get the background noise, we see all the people, or lack thereof, walking through the frame, hear the sounds of the birds, water, wind…really almost a cinematic feel.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Tours
One of the benefits of virtual tours is that you actually get to see quite a lot more in this video than you would if you were here on a guided tour. And, you don’t have to actually hike up any mountains, go up any stairs, or crawl through any tight spaces. I do all of that for you! So that’s a lot of advantages, or at least, what a lot of people would consider advantages.
The disadvantage — I’m not offering tours that people can just sign up for. As of right now it’s a tour that a body or group has to order in advance and then decide to open registration to the public in order to be able to sign up for the tours.
Honestly, creating a tour that’s open to the general public and hoping that people sign up is a terrifying thought for me, and even though eventually I would like to do this, it’s a very daunting thought and I’m not there yet.
I’m hoping that maybe in October/November I’ll have my first open tour.
Keeping my fingers crossed that I’m able to gather enough courage to get there!
In the meantime, for the virtual tours you CAN sign up for, check out the homepage.