Jason Palmer appointed Co-Chair of our Travel and Tourism Committee

We are excited to have James Palmer co-chair our Travel and Tourism Committee!

(Join us for our next Online Meet on April 7th with two guest speakers: Gal Hanna, Director of Tourism for Israel & Jerry Grymek, Vice President LMA and VP, Travel Media Association of Canada. Email info@thevrara.com to be added to the invite!)

As the Director of New Media at Winged Whale Media, it’s Jason’s responsibility to help transform the client’s vision into something that will make a difference. A background in digital communications from the University of Waterloo in Canada, Jason spent the last 10 years in content creation with traditional media in videography and photography. Jason has spearheaded the use of 360 degree VR video content for clients across the travel and tourism industry for major hotel brands, national tourism boards, and cruise lines.

The Travel and Tourism industry is typically very slow to adopt new technologies and processes. I am really looking to bring the benefits of VR/AR training and education into mainstream travel trade thinking. Travel and Tourism has been hit particularly hard by Covid. Covid has presented a great opportunity for distance learning and upscaled learning and VR/AR can become a major part of that. The travel industry needs to reimagine itself in times where travel has become much more complicated and in some cases dangerous. Through industry engagement, speaking engagements, trade shows and presentations we can help do that.

James Palmer

Chris Koomen of KLM, David Dicko of Skylights VR, Terry Schussler of Deutsche Telekom join our speaker lineup for Travel and Tourism Webinar

RSVP here

Come meet us at the VR/AR Global Summit Nov 1-2

Chris Koomen, KLM

As a child I always was interested in new technologies and I was dreaming about becoming an airline pilot. I passed all exams and was ready to start flying when I was in an accident. I could never fly again. I became a ground engineer and started working at KLM in 2007 in the Engineering & Maintenance domain.

In my spare time I have always been experimenting with new technologies and back in 1996 I tried to build a flight simulator on glasses. Though it was really hard but my experiment succeeded and the glasses worked! This is where my love for Virtual Reality started. Unfortunately, there was no market for this technology yet which made it too hard to keep working on it.

In 2015 Google cardboard came out which relighted my fire for VR. I started experimenting again and developed an interactive VR evacuation training for KLM. This turned out to be a success! I’m no longer work as a ground engineer. The last 3 years I’ve joined the Digital Transformation team at KLM where I was the VR-expert and created a team “the VR team” who makes proof of concepts with a thin slice approach. I currently work as VR specialist/consult for AF/KLM to guide and implement many different fields of VR, such as cabin crew training, social media, marketing and ground operations.

Terry R. Schussler, Deutsche Telekom

Terry works within Deutsche Telekom’s 5G group driving spatial computing research and the creation of immersive products that leverage the value of 5G and edge compute services. He collaborates with vendors of XR devices and enabling technologies to build a future that delivers pervasive and personalized B2B and B2C immersive experiences. While innovating 200+ software products for over 50M users he has focused on making software smarter for users while leveraging technology to enable new forms of communication.

Lynn Rosenthal of Periscape VR will Co-Chair the VR/AR Association Travel & Tourism Committee

Come see the latest in immersive tech at the VR/AR Global Summit Nov 1-2

We are thrilled to announce Lynn Rosenthal of Periscape VR Experience Centers will co-chair our Travel & Tourism Committee along with Darshan Lama of Expedia and Craig Vezina of Realcast.

Email info@thevrara.com if you would like to participate!

This committee will create best practices, guidelines for Travel & Tourism. Specifically, we will identify opportunities and accelerate widespread adoption of VR/AR technologies in the travel industry by OTAs, Airlines, Airports, Lodging, Conference Centers, Destination Marketing Organizations and other Travel companies, for marketing, branding and enhancing the user experience through each phase of the traveler’s journey (dream, plan, shop, book, pre-trip and post-trip)

I’m excited to Co-Chair this committee and look forward working aside my esteemed colleagues to drive our mission forward globally

— Lynn Rosenthal

Call for Presenters and Invitation to Participate in our Tourism-Travel Committee and Webinar with Expedia and others

The VR/AR Association Tourism & Travel Committee is inviting speakers for a Webinar we are planning for June. Please email info@thevrara.com if you’re interested to present! Let us know if you’re also interested in Sponsoring this webinar. Our webinars get 200 people attending live, and 1000’s watch the recording.

This committee will create best practices, guidelines, and call to actions (e.g., recommendations for standards) for Travel & Tourism. Specifically, to identify opportunities and accelerate widespread adoption of VR/AR technologies in the travel industry by OTAs, Airlines, Lodging, DMOs and other Travel companies, for marketing, branding and enhancing the user experience through each phase of the traveler journey (dream, plan, shop, book, pre-trip and post-trip)

Join our Committee and representatives from airports, travel agencies, service and solution providers! 

Regards, 

Darshan Lama, Expedia

Craig Vezina, Realcast

VRARA Co-Chairs