[imagesource: Cape Town Tourism]

South Africa has suffered greatly from global travel bans over the past two years.

Especially the Mother City, which is particularly used to heavy foot traffic from people across the globe checking out our stunning nooks and crannies.

That’s why tourism organisations have been doing all they can recently to try and tempt travellers into visiting once more.

There was that heartwarming travel video from South African Tourism’s collaboration with agency Joe Public United.

And now, there’s a unique immersive travel experience (a sort of video game, if you will) by Cape Town Tourism.

Find Your Freedom uses the latest digital technology and game-style graphics to immerse viewers in interesting choice-driven video experiences, according to Cape Town Tourism’s CEO Enver Duminy via EWN.

“You choose your guide. You choose your adventure. It’s an interactive journey from start to finish,” he said via Bizcommunity.

Have a quick look:

Here’s Alderman James Vos, City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth:

“Our goal is to fuel faster recovery in the visitor economy. Following the pandemic, people worldwide are itching to explore, do more, and reclaim that sense of purpose. We want to encourage individuals in our key source markets to jump on a plane and come to Cape Town to find their freedom.

This new campaign really hits the mark not just in terms of being something original and fun, but most importantly, being enticing enough, I believe, to result in actual bookings.”

The game, hosted on the Cape Town Tourism website, starts off with an enchanting storyteller welcoming you and asking you to take your pick of the three explorers available.

There’s the Fearless Foodie, Nature Warrior, or Urban Adventurer – all aesthetic AF in full gaming-inspired, Afro-futurist vibes.

Once you choose your explorer, you get to pick between two options corresponding to the Cape Town food scene, nature scene, or the usual cool stuff you would find in a thriving metropolis.

The game is all about choice, which Leigh Dawber, chief marketing officer at Cape Town Tourism, says we will need to “govern virtual experiences that feel ever more real” as the Metaverse concept grows.

Then, combining real-life footage of Cape Town with whimsical CGI touches, the game takes you through a quick video tour of whatever adventure path you chose.

When I was playing around, I chose the Urban Adventurer and was given the choice between Graffiti or Drumming, and then Art or History:

Image: Cape Town Tourism

For Art, you’re shown videos of the glorious Zeitz MOCAA – Museum of Contemporary Art and for History, well, I’ll let you go down that path yourself.

The campaign is designed to let the user decide how they want to explore our beautiful city, with each path offering purpose and a personalised feel.

In the end, hopefully, the aspiring traveller’s confidence in Cape Town will be restored and they’ll click on the option to make a booking for a tour in real life.

Time to Find Your Freedom!

[sources:ewn&bizcommunity]