Abstract

This research aims to identify the reality of virtual tourism in Saudi Arabia, to clarify its role as a tool to revitalize tourist destinations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research is based on the descriptive approach through previous studies, research, books, websites and reports issued by the Arab Tourism Organization and the World Tourism Organization. The results concluded that the use of virtual tourism applications such as virtual reality or augmented reality is still not done within the sites for tourism promotion of tourist destinations. The research recommends that it is necessary to accelerate the application of virtual tourism in various government websites that are interested in promoting tourism to tourist destinations given its importance in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and after the end of this pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism's training programs include virtual reality technology programs to train cadres of Saudi youth with this technology to promote it.