Where Are Virtual Tours Used? Examples from 25 Industries

Where Are Virtual Tours Used? Examples from 25 Industries

When people hear "virtual tour," hotels and real estate are usually the first things that come to mind. Yet the breakdown of our archive paints a very different picture.

To date, we have shot tours for 1,600+ businesses across 55+ provinces and 200+ districts. These tours span 25 different main categories, and the largest group is neither hotels nor real estate.

The real breakdown of our archive

The list also includes smaller groups such as hardware stores, stationery shops, pharmacies, opticians, pet shops, phone stores, and grocery stores.

What this table tells us is this: a virtual tour works anywhere customers make a decision before coming to the venue.

Why so many different industries?

Because each industry answers a different question:

• Restaurants and cafes → "Would I want to sit here?" The atmosphere, the variety of spaces, and how busy it feels.
• Furniture showrooms → "How much do they have?" A sense of range and scale; a showroom always looks small in photos.
• Stores → "Do they have what I'm looking for?" How well stocked the aisles are and how big the store is.
• Hotels → "Do the rooms look like the photos?" Matching expectation with reality.
• Clinics → "Is this place clean and safe?" An impression of hygiene and privacy.
• Jewelers → "I've never been there. What's it like?" Hesitation before a high-value purchase.
• Beauty salons → "Is the treatment room private?" The barrier to the first appointment.
• Gyms → "Is there enough equipment, and is it crowded?" A look around before signing up.
• Automotive → "What are the service and showroom areas like?" How established the business looks.

What they have in common: in every case, the customer makes a decision before coming, and the only information they have to go on is photos.

Unexpected areas that work well

Our portfolio includes categories that may come as a surprise but work very well:

• Florists: showing the range of seasonal products
• Home appliance dealers: conveying how many models are on display
• Stationery shops: product density before the school season
• Pharmacies: a sense of location and accessibility
• Opticians: the breadth of the frame selection

The logic is the same in all of them: range and scale cannot be conveyed with photos.

What changes from industry to industry?

The shooting method is the same in every industry: scene planning, 360° panorama capture, stitching, and Google integration.

What changes is how the tour is put together:

• Scene order: the patient journey in a clinic, the browsing route in a store
• Areas that are not shown: the safe at a jeweler, patient records at a clinic
• The detail that is highlighted: hygiene at a beauty salon, lighting in a showroom
• Hotspot type: a menu at a restaurant, appointment booking at a clinic

That is why we write industry guides: restaurant, hotel, clinic, furniture, store, and jeweler.

Where is satisfaction highest?

Average Google ratings in our archive:

• Clinics and healthcare: 4.73, the highest on this list
• Hotels: 4.45
• Stores: 4.26
• Restaurants: 4.18
• Cafes: 4.22
• Furniture: 4.18

The overall average is 4.28, and 509 of the businesses are rated above 4.5.

What if your industry is not on the list?

The test is not the name of your industry but this question: do your customers wonder about anything regarding your venue before they come?

If the answer is yes, a virtual tour will help. If the answer is no, for example if you run a fully online service, it will not.

To assess your own situation, see our article on the benefits of virtual tours.