The New Head Trip

Virtual-reality travel might just revolutionise tourism, while turning us all into shut-ins.

- Kyle Chayka

“YOU MIGHT WANT TO SIT DOWN,” Mike Woods tells me. I recline in an office chair, and a moment later, after whizzing through a space-time tunnel that looks like a tornado made of pure light, I find myself standing on a beach in Hawaii, USA. The colours are vivid and rich, the sunlight dappled. The sound of waves echoes in my ears, palms sway in the wind, and the wide ocean sparkles to the horizon. I am alone.

I feel an immediate sense of calm. It’s uncanny, but I would swear my skin is growing warm in the sunlight, and a faint breeze is carrying a mist off the water. My heartbeat begins to slow. But as I crane my neck to check the trees for coconuts, the landscape becomes pixelated. It’s kind of like being on Matric Rage in World of Warcraft.

I’m immersed in a virtual-reality experience, aptly called the Teleporter, created by British digital media studio Framestore. The Hawaiian expedition, along with a virtual journey to the top of a London skyscraper, was designed for Marriott Hotels as a way for its guests to experience the future of travel. Woods, the founder of Framestore’s digital department, helps me off with my headset, an Oculus VR Rift. It’s then that I realise that the “ocean spray” was actually just beads of sweat that collected on my forehead around the edges of the bulky goggles.