VIRTUAL TOUR AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO TOURISM DURING COVID-19 II #Topic 10

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to stay away from each other and reduce face-to-face communication. The impact of the pandemic makes it difficult for humans to interact with each other, which is a social creature. The virus spreads so fast to all parts of the globe that it also caused death (Harahap, 2020). The spread of the virus is a potential threat of disaster or danger to human interests and state order (Samudro & Madjid, 2020). Due to the threat and danger of spreading, Covid-19 was designated as a Global Pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. Furthermore, Indonesian President Joko Widodo also declared Covid-19 a public health emergency based on Presidential Decree Number 11 of 2020.

based on the data above, the death rate keep increasing since the pandemic occurred starting from 2020 until 2022. due to the uncertain situation at that time, the government also issued a Work from Home (WFH) policy as an effort to allow all work and activities from home. All activities of the government are conducted through an online system, including teaching, learning, and social interactions, such as online tourism caused by Covid-19 (Wibowo, 2020; Tunnikmah, 2020). Due to these limitations, internet usage has increased significantly to 15% of individuals based on a survey conducted by ICOM (2020). This includes the primacy of technology in accessing museum tours to stay on holiday during the Covid-19 period.

According to Akhtar, et al., (2021), the use of technology is very important in maintaining visits during the Covid-19 period in museums. Based on previous research, the role of technology in preventing the spread of Covid-19 is very significant for the continuity of human activities. Some museums have used various kinds of technology such as 3D Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (Hammady, 2020; Caciora,2021), and some have used the Zoom application (Wulandari, 2020). The benefit of using media during the pandemic was being able to support of government to reduce physical contact among people. Besides, the technology utilizes the effectiveness of promotion during social distancing, since the people just stay and monitor the event from home, it is so effective they can access tourism sites on the screen.

One example of a virtual tour nowadays is also conducted at the Tsunami Museum, Aceh. They provided a Zoom virtual tour for the audience in 2020 (pandemic time). There are several reasons why virtual tours should be implemented online.

First, the museum needs to continue to promote the programs annually that have been planned earlier.
Second, the inside museum program has an educational program in terms of that museum itself.
Third, the effectiveness of virtual tours using the Zoom application at the Aceh Tsunami Museum which was organized during the pandemic as a means of sustaining tourism services and learning disaster mitigation.
As we know, the Covid-19 pandemic has had plenty of negative impacts on global tourism and also social impact, this phenomenon has pushed Indonesian tourism actors to innovate and create a new type of tourism.
Here is the link to the virtual tour of the Tsunami Museum Aceh to see closely Virtual tour.
https://www.360indonesia.id/museum-tsunami-aceh/

another useful link to see and watch virtual tours of different sights.
https://www.3dvista.com/en/project/touristic-interactive-360-video/

Enjoy..

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