Virtual reality will help travel companies become the “next generation retailers” – that’s the rallying cry from one travel tech provider this week.

A developer at Amadeus-owned Navitaire in the US has created what the company is claiming is the world’s first “virtual reality search and booking experience”.

The patent-pending technology allows the user to search for destinations on a giant globe, using their hands to spin it to find a location.

After exploring a destination they can search flights, including taking a walk-through of the aircraft to selection a seat, before adding additional products such as car rental.

Hotel search and booking is expected to be added in the future.

Here’s a clip:

The technology was created by Justin Wilde from Navitaire’s Salt Lake City office.

Head of R&A for Amadeus in the Americas, Rashesh Jethi, says:

“We’re not just thinking of the next big idea, we want to execute ideas that help our customers to do things more effectively, more creatively and more easily to deliver value to their business.

“Our internal culture of openness and experimentation means we can identify ideas for doing things differently from teams that work day-to-day with customers, and test different ideas across our base, and Justin’s project is a perfect example of that.”

The technology is currently considered only in “project” phase as is not available for use by travellers.