Book your trip to exotic virtual destinations
A couple of weeks ago someone asked me if I had ever been to Second Life. I nodded and the person then asked me if I knew about a travel agency in that world that could show her around. I have heard about travel agencies within virtual worlds. The uneasy thing about those agencies is that you’ll have to find them first. So why not start an agency that can be googled. A brilliant idea, and here it is: Synthravels. Launched by two Italians last week, Synthravels offers a variety of tours in virtual worlds (Second Life, Everquest, Horizons, The Sims Online, and a dozen more). The concept is simple. You just register with Synthravels, and choose your travel destination and travel date. At the arranged date you log in on the selected virtual world and an experienced guide will be waiting for you. Be cautious, from now the virtual world is no longer save from herds of tourists…
What types of guided tours will Synthravels offer? According to the website Synthravels uses a typology of five types of tours: Basic tours are like classical sightseeing tours. VIP tours will give you the opportunity to meet famous ‘avatars’ (’oh boy… I screendumped Cory Doctorow!’). Third, there are shopping tours (your avatar NEEDS accessories), fourth, danger tours (get killed), and fifth, new trend tours that allow you to become part of the creative class among avatars. Forget the Carribean. A virtual holiday is what you want next.
There is more. Synthravels is still looking for guides that are experienced players. For those who want to become professional virtual guides, Synthravels will publish a board with the names of the best guides every month. They will receive a special certificate attesting the skill and knowledge of the avatar. Synthravels’ business models offers great possibilities for so-called ‘minipreneurs’ (find out more at Trendwatching).
And now we wait for the first TomTom to help you plan your trips in Entropia Universe.
