Royal caribbean virtual tour cruise

Royal Caribbean International will take its Voyager of the Seas megaship to land-locked destinations and beyond with a virtual reality tour loaded on a semi trailer truck, which will make the rounds of heavily trafficked events in major markets starting this summer and running through 2000.

The $2 million "Virtual Voyager of the Seas Touring Attraction," developed by McKinney & Silver, Raleigh, N.C., and GMR Marketing, Milwaukee, will offer consumers 3D Film of onboard amenities and destinations and tropical breezes laced with sea salt and eucalyptus. The truck will show up at festivals and state fairs, including Universal Studios' theme park in Los Angeles, starting with Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Regatta in August. The trek likely includes 20 cities this year.

Radio ads in host markets, continuing the "Like No Vacation on Earth' tagline, will build awareness of the tour, which is intended to give people a more hands-on idea of the variety of activities aboard Royal Caribbean and the Voyager. Voyager, a vessel about three football fields long with a rock climbing wall, ice skating rink, and promenade that winds through a myriad of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, has its inaugural Caribbean voyage from Miami in November. The megaship will be the flag bearer in RC's efforts to brand itself as a multi-faceted vacation experience and change consumers' narrow perceptions that cruising essentially means being stuck on a boat with a regimented schedule.

"We felt the only way to make that clear is to disrupt the convention about what cruising was by bringing the ship to Des Moines," said Chris Lloyd, M&S' svp.

Additional support will come from a yet-to-be-developed sweeps that will give away a cruise and merchandise.

The cruise industry is in a build-it-and-they-will-come mode, with new ships capturing the public's fancy and generating bookings. Capacity increased 16% last year and the number of passengers rose 8% to 5.4 million, per the Cruise Lines International Association. The industry is hoping for 6 million passengers this year.

Renaissance Cruises earlier scrapped plans to tour a virtual reality exhibit at shopping malls (Brandweek, Nov. 30, 1998).