Sustainability
www.parkworld-online.com
New heights
Park World explores the potential of VR in combatting over-tourism with Frontgrid’s ParadropVR
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nternational tourism is on the up and up since the world reopened following the COVID-19 pandemic. And during the global lockdowns,
domestic tourism skyrocketed in the UK, where areas renowned for their beauty and remoteness experienced an increase in footfall. Whether we’re abroad or on home soil, how can we reduce our environmental impact? This question is by no means a new one - and
the attractions industry is certainly not exempt from needing to address this challenge. When it comes to the impact of travel and tourism - and over-tourism in particular - Frontgrid has been able
to offer a solution. It comes in the form of virtual tourism. Enter ParadropVR. ParadropVR combines motion-based engineering
and cutting-edge gamification and VR environments to create sensational flying experiences. It has been developed by Frontgrid, which was set
up by entrepreneurs Matt Wells and David Wood. Both Matt and David started their careers in the British Army. Matt was a paratrooper and spent many hundreds of hours flying under canopy. The two then went on to set up overseas expedition companies, sending thousands of young people to complete adventure activities, community and environmental project work both in the UK and overseas. With some later experience leading tech companies, the partnership came back together to set up Frontgrid and to pioneer the next frontier of adventure in VR. Matt Wells, CEO, co-inventor, and co-founder
of ParadropVR, explains: “We wanted to be able to give people the opportunity to experience adventures they may not be able to do in the real world. Flying under canopy in VR, you can explore any environment you can possibly imagine from a different perspective.” ParadropVR offers multiplayer functionality,
Matt Wells, CEO, co-inventor, and co-founder of ParadropVR
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players can choose their own character, set up their own ‘flying log’ profile, and collect awards and achievements. Frontgrid also supports venues to consider the experience at all touchpoints across the customer journey, from creative theming, creating
360 film intros, to collecting email addresses, and sending out post-experience fact sheets. Venues also have the option of choosing from
subscription games already in the market, ranging from exploring the desert, to cities, mountain ranges and even outer space - or creating entirely custom content. ParadropVR is a versatile attraction that can fit
into many venues. There are two versions of the product hardware, one is called Rize, the other Pod. Pod is designed to be a more compact version of the hardware and can fit into almost any location.
Fly Snowdon Frontgrid is based in North Wales and manufactures its hardware in the UK. Adventure Parc Snowdonia is down the road from its offices and consists of a giant surf wave as well as other indoor attractions such as soft play areas and climbing walls. Matt consulted on the indoor entertainment element of the resort when it was in its inception. It was therefore the perfect place
JULY 2023
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