Virtual tourism: pros and cons

The purpose of the article is to reveal the features of virtual tourism. The relevance of the tourist virtual space system development is due to the need to comply with innovative processes affecting modern virtual reality technologies, allowing to receive visual information in a new way and develop new tourist products. The authors attempt to trace the influence of virtual reality technologies on the creation of virtual tours and excursions. The comparative analysis made it possible to trace the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and virtual tourism. The article emphasizes that virtual reality technology can significantly increase the sales of travel products, allowing people to get interested by visualizing the information provided. The scientific novelty of the article lies in its attempt to present the most complete range of benefits of virtual tourism. As a result of the study, the authors conclude that the process of tourism virtualization brings prospects and commercial benefits for participants in new tourism markets and companies.