Published: Jan 24, 2025

Using AR to deliver a more immersive tourism experience

Augmented reality: the future of tourism, today

The basic concept of modern AR – the merging of the real world and computer-generated content – has actually been around in primitive forms since the 1960s. But it wasn’t until 2009, when the open source ARToolKit was launched, that the scale of its potential started to become clear. It is now an extremely fast-growing industry, which is predicted to be worth US$198 billion dollars by 2025.ⁱ And with up to 2.4 billion mobile AR users,ⁱⁱ it’s not a market that can or should be taken for granted.

The possibilities are near limitless. Travel and arrival into the country can be informed and stress free. Tourism boards can develop interactive city tours or interactive navigation applications. Museums and cities can become more immersive, bringing the past (or present) to life by providing detailed information about objects and places.  

Hotels have potential to adopt AR for everything from keyless room entry to creating virtual tourist information areas in their lobbies. And navigating a new city becomes safer and easier with rich integration of information and transit systems into existing apps such as Google or Apple Maps. Essentially, every important moment of a trip away can be made easier and more memorable.

We all know that Australia is a wonderful place to visit. Fantastic weather. Some of the finest beaches in the world. Exceptional, diverse food.  Arguably, we have it all. And tourism is big business, with hundreds of thousands of businesses – and millions of jobs across the country – depending on it. Technology is playing an increasingly important role in attracting visitors. Travellers increasingly expect a seamless experience in which technology helps make every step of a trip away smooth – from booking the trip, to making the airport less stressful, to recommending restaurants on arrival.  

The use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology to provide an interactive experience combining the real world and computer-generated 3D content is already driving changes in the tourism experience – and it has the potential to do even more.

1968 - Ivan Sutherland develops the ‘Sword of Damocles’ at the University of Salt Lake City – a pair of glasses allowing users to view images in 3D. 

1990 - Boeing Computer Service researchers Tom Caudell and David Mizell coin the term ‘Augmented Reality’ to describe a head-mounted display for aircraft. 

1994 - Julie Martin uses AR in her theatre production ‘Dancing in Cyberspace’, featuring acrobats dancing alongside virtual objects on the stage. 

1999 - NASA use AR to assist with navigation during test missions. 

2009 - ARToolKit arrives, giving developers intuitive tools to create AR-based applications. 

2016 - Pokémon Go is released and is hugely successful, with over 500 million downloads by the end of the year

• Location-based AR – uses GPS to overlay digital content onto the real world. The hugely successful Pokémon Go AR game used GPS to locate, train and battle virtual Pokémon which appear on mobile devices as if in the real world. 

• Marker-based AR – this works by scanning a certain marker to trigger augmented content. It opens up a world of opportunities to make museum exhibits, and even entire cities, more interactive.  

• SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping)-based AR – this sophisticated technique recognises objects, colours and patterns around the user. Due to its complexity, it requires powerful hardware to make it run reliably.

There is a clear opportunity for the Australian tourism industry, from both the public and private sector, employees, employers and travellers, to come together to take an integrated approach to building a world-leading immersive framework. And there is some evidence of this happening already. For example, in 2021, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation partnered with Snapchat to provide an interactive look at reef restoration, powered by AR.ⁱⁱⁱ Projects like this tap into the same sense of community and gamification that Pokémon Go capitalised on so successfully. And with such an important – and sometimes neglected – history, it’s easy to see how Australian landmarks could use AR to bring the past into vivid, engaging life. There are also many wider opportunities and use cases for AR including in areas such as safety and training. 

An example of what’s possible is modelled in Singapore’s National Library Board’s (NLB) innovative collaboration with NCS.
 

National Library Board: unlocking Singapore's rich heritage through an immersive cultural experience

In collaboration with the National Library Board (NLB) to support its LAB25 (Libraries and Archives Blueprint 2025) Singapore Storytellers role, NCS leveraged AWS services to create an interactive AR web app prototype, enabling citizens to discover the stories behind iconic landmarks anytime from their devices. This prototype lays the foundation for a more connected and curious Singapore, unlocking the secrets of our shared heritage in thrilling new ways.  

Discover more about this regional case study and how NCS is supporting re-imagining the storytelling experience of Singapore’s historical landmarks through AR.

Domestic tourism spend reached over $100 billion in Australia in a recent year.^iv As well as attracting foreign visitors, persuading Australians to holiday at home is also potentially lucrative. 

The government’s previous high profile Come and Say G’day campaign, featuring actors Rose Byrne and Will Arnett, has shown that tourism is at the forefront of its thoughts. With tourism spend so important to a flourishing economy, investing in technology to ensure Australian tourism stays ahead of the competition makes a lot of sense. 

NCS’ KAI SENSE solution uses intelligent video analysis to detect and analyse objects, people and events in video feeds. It has a wide range of applications and can be used in a number of industries, including tourism, where it can support capacity management, evaluate exhibit popularity and improve visitor data. The platform is designed to work seamlessly with existing video infrastructure, including cameras and video management systems. 

Integrating AR and additional technologies further into the tourism experience fits with the Australian Government’s overall approach to the provision of digital services. Its digital strategy states that ‘by 2030, the Australian Government aims to use data and digital technology in innovative ways’.^v Projects like the Singapore National Library Board show what can be achieved quickly, with the right collaborative approach and the right partners in place.

NCS Australia provides services and solutions in consulting, digital, applications and cloud. Our diverse workforce has delivered a wealth of large-scale, mission-critical, and multi-platform projects for governments and businesses nationally. The NCS Australia team is able to draw on experiences and resources from across the region to support public sector clients with delivering services that are personal, timely and secure.