Mixed Reality Experience "UNESCO world heritage in Germany”

March 4, 202614:4832 views

Summary

Olaf Schlieper, Innovation Manager and Accessible Tourism lead at the German National Tourist Board (DZT — Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus), presented the organization's mixed reality app showcasing Germany's 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites for Meta Quest and Pico VR headsets. The presentation marks a significant milestone in destination marketing, shifting from passive screen-based inspiration to fully immersive, interactive spatial experiences under the motto 'Walk the place before you go.'

The DZT's journey into extended reality began in 2018, progressing through several platforms: the Oculus Go with 360-degree panoramic content, the Microsoft HoloLens for showcasing castles and palaces, a Metaverse nature experience on Meta Quest 2, and now the UNESCO mixed reality walkthrough app. The platform also integrates an AI-powered digital travel companion named Emma.

The app's interface centers on two key interactive objects: a table for browsing or alphabetically searching all 55 UNESCO sites, and a door that transports users into the selected heritage site. Once inside, users can walk around in six degrees of freedom, interact with the environment, take quizzes, view 2D photo galleries, and read or listen to audio descriptions of each site. Social features allow up to six users simultaneously to take guided group tours together remotely.

Accessibility was a core design pillar — not merely a compliance requirement. The app automatically adjusts to the user's height, accommodating children, wheelchair users, and tall individuals. It offers adjustable text sizes, text-to-audio reading, color blindness modes, no sudden flashlights or strong emotional effects for those with sensory sensitivities, and head-control navigation for users with limited hand mobility (such as electric wheelchair users who can only operate a joystick). The project recently won the German Digital Responsibility Award, one of Germany's highest honors for digital accessibility.

Distribution spans the DZT's 22 international offices, UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany themselves, universities and third-party organizations, and free downloads on Meta App Store, Pico (mainland China) and Pico International. A major new channel announced at the presentation: the DZT will become the first national tourist board to feature in an in-flight VR entertainment program, partnering with Lufthansa on long-haul flights. Given that 5–9 billion people fly globally per year, this represents enormous addressable reach, and testing on long-distance flights confirmed strong passenger enthusiasm.

Engagement metrics stand out sharply compared to traditional digital channels. At events, users spend 5–15 minutes in the experience on average. At home, average session length reaches 30 minutes — a figure Schlieper described as 'a dream' when compared to TikTok campaigns 'where you fight for seconds of awareness.' The planned operational lifespan of the app is approximately four years, making the economic investment highly favorable. Schlieper positioned the project not only as a marketing tool but as a knowledge-sharing asset and a technical foundation for the next generation of lightweight smart glasses entering the market.

Key Takeaways

•The DZT's mixed reality UNESCO app is available free on the Meta App Store and Pico App Store (both mainland China and international), making it accessible to any consumer with a compatible VR headset without a paywall barrier.
•Germany has 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites spanning historic cities, castles, industrial heritage, and natural sites — the breadth and geographic spread of these sites made them the ideal lens for showcasing cultural destination diversity across the country.
•Average in-home session length on the app reaches 30 minutes, compared to 5–15 minutes at events. Schlieper framed this starkly: 'There is no other channel where we can address people for such a long time where they focus only on our Germany content — 30 minutes. That's a dream if you compare it to TikTok campaigns where you fight for seconds of awareness.'
•The DZT will be the first national tourist board integrated into an in-flight VR entertainment program, partnering with Lufthansa for long-haul flights. With an estimated 5–9 billion air passengers per year globally and VR headsets becoming smaller and lighter, the in-flight channel represents a transformative new distribution frontier for immersive destination content.
•Accessibility was designed as a core feature rather than an afterthought: the app auto-adjusts interface height for wheelchair users, children, and tall users; offers text-to-audio for reading difficulties; supports color blindness modes; eliminates flashlights and strong sensory effects; and enables head-control navigation for users with severe motor disabilities who can only operate a joystick.
•The project won the German Digital Responsibility Award, described as 'one of the highest awards available for accessibility in Germany,' validating the DZT's approach to inclusive digital design as a model for the broader tourism industry.
•The DZT's XR investment journey spans over seven years (since 2018), covering Oculus Go 360 content, Microsoft HoloLens castle experiences, Meta Quest 2 nature metaverse experiences, and now the UNESCO mixed reality app — positioning each project as preparation for the next generation of smart glasses with six-degrees-of-freedom capabilities now coming to market.

Transcript

Um, we've talked a lot about AI this morning, right? With a lot of different perspectives. We talked about infrastructure, we talked about the tech fragmentation, distribution, MCP service and all these things. But now let's shift from theory to experience and uh we invited someone that will talk to us about what if you could walk through a destination before you ever bought the plane actually like you can experience it beforehand. What if inspiration wasn't just visual but really immersive? Lik...