Do online museum tours in countries like China and France have more positive or negative impacts on the travel industry, and how do they affect heritage conservation?

Online museum tours have emerged as a significant tool in conserving heritage sites by providing easy access to these places from anywhere in the world. Such virtual tours generate people’s interest, which results in better cultural preservation. However, while online museum tours offer numerous advantages, such as affordability, accessibility, and not requiring extensive travel plans, they also have drawbacks. One such limitation is the need for a local food experience, a significant aspect of cultural heritage and local economy. The sale of traditional food generates income for local communities in rural areas, promoting sustainable tourism. Therefore, the absence of such experiences in online tours may hinder heritage conservation efforts. This essay will discuss whether online tours in museums (in countries like China and France) positively or negatively impact the travel industry and how they impact heritage conservation.

The first virtual tour originated in 1994 and was an interpretive program designed for visitors to the museum. The project involved creating a 3D reconstruction of Dudley Castle in England, built in 1550. The tour was designed by using a “computer-controlled laser-disc-based system” created by the British engineer Colin Johnson [1]. On top of that, Queen Elizabeth II was among the earliest adopters of virtual tours and inaugurated the visitor centre in June 1994. The system was labelled “Virtual Tour”; a fusion of virtual reality and royal tour [2]. This innovation was described as a blend of virtual reality and royal tour since the Queen’s officials asked to include meticulous details of the castle in the virtual tour. Furthermore, the system was presented at a congress held by the British Museum in November 1994 and documented in a technical paper [2].

Indeed, museums have become significant cultural and educational institutions, offering visitors authentic representations of the past. Their collections attract a diverse audience, making them popular destinations for leisure, tourism, and cultural history conservation [3]. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020, many countries implemented lockdowns and travel restrictions. As a result, museums had to find alternative ways to remain open and generate income, such as implementing and investing in online tours. China was the first country to invest in tours of its museum sites during the pandemic, such as the “VR Panorama of the Palace Museum” in the Forbidden City, Beijing [4]. The museum’s digitisation used images and three-dimensional laser scanning techniques to transform physical museum collections and exhibitions into digital form [5]. Moreover, it is essential to emphasise that the Palace Museum’s digitisation aims to preserve and study cultural heritage by capturing real-time photographic records and three-dimensional scans of cultural relics during excavation, cleaning, and display. Overall, this process provides a better digital display of cultural artefacts and conveys their rich cultural significance [5]. In addition, preserving and studying cultural heritage in the digitisation process for online tours plays a crucial role in heritage conservation, since these tours offer an educational setting that actively exposes learners (in this case, online tourists) to diverse cultures and facilitates their participation in a multicultural environment [6]. In other words, online tours benefit cultural heritage by helping to spread and teach culture to people worldwide without needing to travel.

The “VR Panorama of the Palace Museum” is an excellent example of how museums’ online tours can positively impact the travel industry and help heritage conservation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, economic activities in China reached a standstill, including museum visits. The outbreak significantly disrupted the tourism industry. Due to lockdown measures, travel agencies, tourist destinations, and attractions were almost completely shut down [4]. This disruption threatened cultural heritage preservation. According to UNESCO, World Heritage conservation museums and interpretation centres are crucial in connecting World Heritage sites to people of all ages. They are not only educational and social powerhouses but also help preserve heritage, promote scientific research, and facilitate education [7]. Additionally, statistics also show that in 2019, the travel and tourism industry contributed 11.6% to China’s GDP, but following the pandemic outbreak, this percentage dropped significantly. For instance, data from 2021 shows that the total contribution of the tourism market in China was only 4.6%; in contrast, this percentage will increase to 7.9% by 2023 [8]. Furthermore, implementing virtual tours is partially responsible for this increase in the Chinese travel market post-pandemic. The tourism industry faced a significant challenge due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, virtual tourism emerged as a saviour, enabling tourist places like museums to continue operating. A 2022 study by Ye and colleagues shows that the online tour implementation of the Palace Museum in China resulted in positive effects for heritage conservation by increasing public curiosity to visit the museums in person after visiting them online. In both ways, tourists can learn more about local culture and spread it globally [4].

Moreover, virtual tours offer a brief escape from reality by showcasing stunning attractions that blur the line between virtual and physical realities, providing an authentic tourism experience. This experience can have a positive impact on individuals’ lives by providing stress relief since, during an online tour, individuals have the chance to escape from their reality for a few moments. This was especially impactful during the pandemic, where people’s stress levels markedly increased due to the uncertainty caused by COVID-19 [4]. Furthermore, it is essential to highlight that virtual tourism is not just a ‘temporary fix’; it has become a crucial tool because digital tourism helps to develop destinations by inspiring consumers to visit sites such as museums in person after having seen them virtually [9].

Another example of how online museum tours can positively impact the travel industry and aid in heritage conservation is a case study from the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The Louvre Museum had the highest number of visitors in 2017, with 9.6 million in 2019. However, just like what happened with the Palace Museum in China during and after the pandemic, the number of visitors to the Louvre Museum significantly decreased to 2.7 million in the years following the pandemic [10]. Online tours also played an essential role in keeping the French museum open during the pandemic by investing in the creation of online events and podcasts to attract online visitors and increase their level of interactions with exhibitions [11]. Furthermore, these online tours are still available on the museum’s official website. They are focused on education and provide a pleasant experience for virtual tourists. Additionally, they also help to design heritage since they shape how people learn about and connect with the past. By choosing how artefacts are displayed and which stories are told, museums guide the public’s understanding of cultural history.

For example, the “Louvre for Kids” section on its website allows children to take an online tour of the museum’s galleries. This section also contains explanatory videos and the history behind some of the museum’s works, such as A Portrait of the Louis XVI, which is narrated in a ludic way. Thus, young visitors can enjoyably learn about the history behind the museum’s artefacts, resulting in an enjoyable experience for the virtual visitors.

Another example of how online tours can help with heritage conservation, especially during events such as a pandemic, is the online tours in Museums such as the Louvre and Palace Museum inspiring other museums to invest in online projects to bring people’s attention to artwork. This includes the “Getty Museum Challenge”, which was held by the Getty Centre in Los Angeles, USA, home to ancient artefacts from Greek, Etruscan, and Roman civilisations. The challenge saw people from all over the world recreating their favourite art using just three objects from their homes and then posting the pictures on social media. The challenge resulted in thousands of re-creations and an increase in online tours in museums, since it inspired people all around the world to seek more information about their favourite art piece to recreate it [11].

Using online tours has profoundly positive impacts on heritage conservation and the travel industry. On the other hand, the use of online tours is a controversial topic, as heritage conservation has limitations and drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is that people need the opportunity to experience local food as part of the entire local cultural heritage experience. Since online tours in museums can be done from people’s own homes, this means there will be fewer tourists around to consume the local cuisine. Bessiere argues that local cuisine influences tourists’ perceptions of heritage sites since, for some cultures, the food smells, tastes, and sights have the power to connect people with their ancestral heritage [12]. For example, offering and sharing meals is a common way for people to create new friendships or strengthen existing ones in Chinese culture [13]. Furthermore, the consumption of local food by tourists also contributes to the growth and economy of rural areas. Gastronomy serves as an identity marker for regions and helps to promote locally sourced farm products, meeting the needs of consumers and producers and enhancing rural tourism. Promoting culinary heritage can also support community initiatives and rural tourism by generating extra income [14].

Eunice Lee, the director of strategic partnerships and events at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, perceives online museum tours as a threat to cultural heritage because she believes that promoting digital programs is counterintuitive to the museum’s goal of experiencing the artwork in person, as some regions of a museum can provide a deeper understanding of the culture being presented [15]. For example, when we talk about the cultural heritage of the Louvre Museum, this not only refers to the historical artefacts that the museum houses, but also its architecture. The Louvre, presently serving as a museum, was once the French royal family’s home and heart. It was originally built as a fortress around 1190, purposefully located on the banks of the Seine. As the monarchy’s power in Paris grew stronger, the Louvre was expanded to accommodate the expansion of the French court [16]. Online tours focus more on showing the museum’s pieces than the architecture of the building itself. This can result in online visitors missing details of the architecture that reveal a lot about the history of the French monarchy, since their historical markers are still printed in the Louvre’s walls. Missing such details can result in an incomplete tourist experience and a loss of historical significance. Additionally, the time tourists spend visiting the museum can completely change their experience. For example, the Louvre pyramid’s futuristic architecture outside the Museum contrasts with the surrounding heritage buildings. It cannot be experienced on online tours since the digital resources cannot fully capture the beauty of the museum’s night-time lighting, making seeing the lit-up pyramid in person an incomparable experience [17].

To conclude, this essay discusses whether online tours in museums in countries like China and France have more positive or negative impacts on the travel industry and how they help heritage conservation. Online tours can increase accessibility and affordability, but at the same time, they can threaten museums’ real meaning. Additionally, they address concerns about the negative impact online tours could have on food heritage and local food industries. However, a study by Ye and colleagues refuted this hypothesis and showed that online museum tours increase people’s curiosity to visit these museums in person. Based on the evidence presented in this essay, online museum tours in countries such as China and France have a more positive impact on the travel industry and cultural heritage than a negative.