Riverland on the Verge: Promoting International Wine Tourism Through Virtual Reality in Riverland, South Australia

Wine tourism is a fast-growing industry that can be particularly important to the development and sustainability of rural areas such as the Riverland wine region in South Australia. Capitalising on this growth can be quite difficult as wine regions struggle to differentiate themselves, and attract tourists due to the lack of consumer awareness of the region and inherent feelings of uncertainty and risks faced when selecting and paying for a destination before pre-experiencing it. Successful promotion of a wine region should enhance tourist knowledge of the region, mitigate perceptions of risk, improve attitudes towards the region and increase involvement. To tackle this challenge and promote international tourism, a Riverland wine region virtual reality experience was created that simulates the reality of the tourism destination and its attractions in order to enable potential tourists to pre-taste and learn about a destination before committing to visit. Virtual reality is proposed to provide a new approach to wine tourism destination marketing.