People are planning their vacations around Pokémon Go

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Louise Thomas

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People are planning their vacations around their Pokémon Go aspirations.

From honeymooners to mountain climbers, Pokémon Go’s vast adult audience has taken their dedication to the popular mobile phone game to the next level: planning their trips around locations where they can “catch” the most digital monsters.

Since Pokémon Go owner Niantic incentivizes Pokémon Go travel by hosting Go Fest fan events and unleashing rare Pokémon - including “shinies” and “trims” - only available in certain regions, Pokémon Go tourism has seen a marked increase.

“It is just a bit of novelty,” avid player and actor Seth Green explained to the Wall Street Journal, adding that a highlight of his foray into Pokémon Go tourism was when he found a virtual creature in Portugal’s Chapel of Bones. “In a world where joy itself is a commodity, that is a pretty easy exchange.”

The game’s popularity hinges on its use of augmented reality, imbuing adorable Pokémon creatures into the real world via your screens. Whether you're strolling down the streets of Paris or hiking Mount Everest, there may be a Pokémon in your vicinity, which is the ultimate draw for players.

If there is a rare Pokémon nearby, a player’s phone will vibrate, indicating there is a creature to capture. With their smartphone’s camera, players can “catch” the Pokémon, and add them to their collection. Fans claim that the game’s immersive nature can lead them to explore more of their chosen destinations than they would have otherwise.

Lene Grooss, 62, and her husband Ole, 59, told the WSJ that as they played Pokémon Go across Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia they found that the game gave them fun routes to explore, both on and off the beaten path. They also liked the sense of community while running into other fellow travelers playing the game, and found it an easy way to meet other people abroad.

Initially, they began playing the game to connect with their children, but they soon enough found themselves far more obsessed with the game than their children ever were. Nowadays, whenever they travel with family, they’ll go out creature catching, either early in the morning or evening when everyone else has taken to relaxing. Lene noted that she loves how the game encourages her to go outside and interact with her surroundings.

“Sometimes we go back to the hotel and we look at one another and say ‘Maybe we should take half an hour,’” Lene said. “And then we go back out again.”

Thanks to the commercial success of Pokémon Go, travel experts have noted how the augmented reality game incentivizes travel and enhances the tourist experience. Some players have begun to regard the game as a more reliable travel guide than websites like Trip Advisor, with Go Fest events often transforming cities into nexus points filled with PokéStops that guide tourists to the biggest sites in the area.

“People can meet Pikachu and Eevee, we can visit our special event pop-up shop and most importantly play together,” said Divya Erram, global lead for Pokémon GO Fest, said to local news outlet. “Pokémon GO is here to stay.”

With an estimated 190,000 people flocking to Pokémon Go Fest in Madrid in June, leading to hundreds of thousands of foreigners exploring the city, and the most recent one in New York City drawing an estimated 600,000, the popularity of Pokémon Go travel indicates that augmented reality tourism is the next travel frontier.

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