Virtual tours increase the chance of matching a property to the purchaser’s requirements **REALTOR.com.

A joint press release issued by ICE Portal and Leonardo in May of 2006 states, "Current research indicates that moving images, such as animated images and virtual tours, generate 46 percent more bookings than still images."

RISMedia's 17th Annual Power Broker Report and Survey conducted in 2006 stated that 73% of the top 500 real estate brokerages in the USA, offer Virtual Tours. This is a 23% increase from 2005. The increased percentage of real estate agents offering virtual tours indicates a growing understanding of the value of virtual tours amongst industry leaders.

NDP Group, Sept 2006 The average online listing with a virtual tour receives 38% more views than listings without tours. (REALTOR.com® internal logs. Jan 2007)

Research by Gómez travel-related products and services are the #1 purchase made by consumers over the Internet. Additionally, while only 15% of all hotel bookings are made over the Internet, 65% of all travel bookings are researched online. The Internet has become the top choice for consumers to investigate travel destinations, whether for business or leisure. From the last research (July 2006) Hotel Virtual Tours increase on-line bookings by up to 85% and The estimated Return on Investment (ROI) for Hotel Virtual Tours is less than 4 weeks.

People enjoy taking virtual tours; it gives them the ability to visually walk through the property, hotel, or resort without having to be there.

Opens the Property/Hotel/Resort doors to the online public in a detailed and fast-loading virtual reality environment, allowing you to showcase key features in an entertaining new way.

Virtual Tours can be persuasive in getting customers to upgrade rooms if they can see how much more they get for their money.

Virtual Tours are interactive; viewers can select which “room” they would like to view and navigate as they choose.

Home buyers, holiday makers, meeting planners, and wedding planners can have an immediate “feel and mood” of the home, conference room, pool, restaurant, public area.

Increases web visitor retention or "stickiness": detailed visual information helps viewers to finalise their decision to make a reservation (20+ minutes average visit vs. 2-3 minutes without a tour)

Provides detailed visual information to your prospective client beyond merely text and one or two still photos. (A photograph is worth 1,000 words, a virtual tour is worth 1,000 photographs.)

Virtual Tours give your customers the chance to see more of what is on offer in advance, and this means more phone calls (of the right kind)

Sales tool for your Sales & Marketing departments: provide your clients/sales staff with digital presentations on a CD Rom or via Email.

Keep up with the competition (soon every real estate agents/hotel/resort group & management company will offer virtual tours)