Zanadu China opens the world’s first virtual reality travel experience store in Shanghai
Zanadu, China’s leader in premium and luxury travel, officially revealed its cutting edge travel experience space, located next to Disneyland in Shanghai, China.
This is the first VR travel concept store in the world and the largest travel store in China, combining 360 degree virtual reality travel experiences with digital POS terminals as well as a seamless integration of mobile e-commerce and social media. The Space demonstrates the future of travel, from how we experience travel inspiration and retrieve information, to how we choose and purchase our vacations and bespoke journeys.
The highlight of the Zanadu Travel Experience Space is a collection of high-end cinematic Virtual Reality films, showcasing some of the world’s most amazing hotels, destinations and activities.
“Our VR films work as a teaser, which provide travelers with a virtual experience of what the
real vacation could be like. They can immerse themselves into spectacular destinations, living in luxury resorts, explore the wonders of the world and learn everything about their next adventure, before they actually go there. And then they can purchase our travel products or make a reservation right in our store with their mobile phones,” said Dirk Eschenbacher, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Zanadu.
After the VR experience, guests can continue to browse through travel inspiration and information on 20 interactive destination cubes. Each cube features a digital travel book, in which guests can browse through Zanadu’s luxury travel products, ranging from boutique and design hotels, to private villas, domestic short trips, luxury packages, bespoke journeys and high-end cruises. Every product is linked to Zanadu’s WeChat account. Guests have instant access to product details and pricing for online booking by themselves, or talk to a travel consultant to make the booking. In collaboration with the Beijing based design and architecture studio Shishang Zanadu developed the space design around the theme of a digital balloon journey. The space is made up of hundreds of physical pixels, creating the atmosphere of a journey in cyberspace. At the centre of the Space is the VR experience stage, with 5 gigantic balloons suspended in air.
Additionally as recognition of Zanadu’s business model and achievements so far, Prometheus Capital, with Chinese billionaire Wang Sicong as the Chairman, has recently confirmed investment into Zanadu. This has been another major financial investment following the strategic investment of Tencent at the end of 2015.
“The Zanadu Travel Experience Space opens the door to the future of travel. It is a revolutionary innovation in Travel Retail industry, and a milestone breakthrough for Zanadu after the launch of our Travel VR App,” said Zan Wu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of
Zanadu. “As the leading luxury travel expert in China, we are committed to developing new and creative travel products that resonate with the discerning Chinese luxury travelers, as well as producing more exciting travel content that will be shown in our WeChat channel, the newly launched Zanadu Travel Life magazine, the Travel Experience Space, and in traditional video format as well as VR. The investment from Wang Sicong’s Prometheus Capital also brings unique strategic resources and alliance. We are excited to collaborate with Wang on developing travel related IP and further build up our media assets in the future. This investment further enhances Zanadu’s strong and diverse investor base that includes Tencent and Matrix.”