But the Virtual Margaritas Don't Quite Do It

An emerging fad in Second Life is virtual tourism. The latest example: a model of archaeological wonder Chichen-Itza.

What's fascinating is that it was commissioned for Second Life by the Mexican Tourism Board, not some historical society. So the point seems to be to get people interested in traveling to Mexico to see the real Chichen-Itza -- not simply to get people to see the virtual Chichen-Itza and understand a little more of Mexico's history.

Also interesting is how this plays out in the fidelity vs. convenience trade-off. Tourism is a super-high-fidelity experience -- the whole point is to take in the fullness of a place, which involves more sensory information than any imaginable computer system could supply. But, of course, tourism is highly inconvenient -- perhaps one of the most inconvenient things you can experience, outside of surgery. The travel, the planning, the cost -- it's all a big barrier to going.

So the Mexican Tourism Board may be getting this right. Virtual tourism by itself is a very long way off, but virtual tourism as a relatively low-fidelity teaser seems like a good idea.

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