Virtual Tour: What It Is And How To Do It

The virtual tour has become an exciting reality for small and medium-sized businesses. Until a few years ago, we could only see a virtual tour on Google Street View and other portals. There are many more of them today because the technology has been improved, and professionals can access the right equipment at more accessible costs than a few years ago.

What Is A Virtual Tour?

A virtual tour is a set of static or panoramic images that allow the user to move within the picture as he wishes. We can see the virtual tour as an interactive photo, through which we can visit places as if we were there, without leaving our desks. Tours are an excellent way to show, for example, the company to potential customers or partners who want to get an idea of who or what they will find on the other side.

They make a website or a social profile, a super effective business card that is complete and capable of providing more information. Furthermore, virtual tours can also be used with VR, i.e., virtual reality viewers wearing glasses to move freely within a place, giving even more of the impression of being inside that place. To date, some museums and essential sites offer a virtual tour on their institutional websites. This below, for example, is our virtual tour.

How To Take A Virtual Tour

To create a virtual tour, you need a 360° camera, i.e., a device capable of taking an image of the entire environment around it without turning it or changing its position. The higher the quality of the equipment, the higher the quality of the final result, without forgetting that the experience and professionalism of the operator also play an essential role in the success of image capture.

Once we have obtained the images of all the environments we want to include in the tour, we must combine them to create the actual time. I mention the street view for two simple reasons. The first is that it has a relatively uncomplicated use, even if it is not simple. The second is that at the end of the process, we can upload our tour right onto Google Maps and Street View to use it to increase the company’s visibility.

How Much Does It Cost To Take A Virtual Tour?

As you have seen, virtual tours are not a rare tool, but many industries, such as hospitality and real estate, already use them. And today is the right day to integrate 360 virtual tours into your business, too! At this point, you know what a virtual tour is, and you know the reasons why you should take one, too. Although the benefits may be many, sometimes they may not be enough to convince you that it is the right thing to do.

Ultimately, what is considered when evaluating a new proposal to be adopted is always the economic side. So, how much does it cost to create a virtual tour? The cost of a virtual visit can vary based on the technology used, the size of the environment to be reproduced, the panoramas to be taken, and the additional functions chosen. As we said, virtual guided tours can be customized with sound effects, audio descriptions, clickable buttons, pop-ups to read, and 3D objects. But all this has a cost.

The price of a virtual tour starts at 500–1,000 euros and increases based on the number of subsequent panoramic images and additional functions to be added. Before deciding which type of virtual tour to create, carefully consider your needs and goals. For example, if you have a limited budget, you can opt for a more superficial virtual tour, to which you will add advanced features as your business grows.