VirtualCruiseTour: An AR/ VR Application to Promote Shore Excursions on Cruise Ships<bold> </bold>

This work presents VirtualCruiseTour, an AR/ VR-based application dedicated to ship cruises' guests for the promotion of organized shore excursions. It can be exploited also in travel agencies to showcase future customers the sites of interest that can be visited during the cruise. The AR module allows augmenting a map showing the cruise route, the ship current position and the ports in which the liner will stop. Tapping one of the port (or the ship), the user is shown more details about the shore excursions organized for that stop (or the ship facilities) and has the chance to experience the site of interests watching 360 degrees pictures or videos either in an immersive (VR) or non-immersive mode. A pilot study to validate the application as a marketing tool is foreseen. The experiment evaluates the customers' purchase intentions and their knowledge of the product in comparison to traditional marketing media (web sites and brochures). Preliminary results of the study conducted enrolling nine participants are presented and discussed.<bold> </bold>