South African Tourism to take adventure VR on the road
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Visitors to bars in London and Manchester looking for some escapism in April may get more than they bargained for, with South African Tourism launching its ‘Five-minute holiday’ promotion. 
SAT is taking over bars in the two cities to surprise visitors with the chance to ‘escape’ to South Africa by watching a short film on the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift. Through 360-degree head tracking, Oculus Rift allows viewers to explore the virtual world just as they would in real life. Innovative binaural sound accompanies the video, creating a truly immersive experience.
The ‘Five-minute holiday’ takes the viewer to Table Mountain, where they experience what it’s like to abseil down a sheer cliff, with full-circle views of the sea behind and city in the distance. Viewers are then absorbed into other adventurous scenes, such as kite-surfing, paragliding and feeding elephants, before relaxing in a bar in Johannesburg’s Neighbourgoods Market.
All scenes were filmed exclusively in South Africa, where the Oculus Rift technology was adapted accordingly. A shark cage-diving scene in Cape Town required the footage to be shot underwater, using a specially 3D-printed underwater camera rig.
Two lucky winners can visit the country for real, courtesy of KLM, which is giving away two pairs of tickets to South Africa, departing from either London Heathrow Airport or Manchester Airport. Bar visitors just need to register their contact details on the day with the ‘Brand Warriors’ on site to be entered in to the competition.
The first bar takeover will take place on Friday 24 April at Corbet Place, Brick Lane, London. The next venue is NoHo, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, on Thursday 30 April. Further dates will be announced over SAT’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
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