Kualoa Ranch AR Tourism Experience

An AR Tourism Experience in Oahu, Hawaii

Another Reality Studio (ARS) developed a custom (augmented reality) AR tourism experience for Kualoa Ranch, an incredible private nature reserve in Oahu, Hawaii. The immersive mobile app was developed to supplement their in person guest tours and features multiple augmented reality animations, movie site audio tours, and translations for Kualoa’s guests. Guests are wowed by dinosaurs that come to life through their phones and tablet devices. 

Kualoa Ranch Nature Reserve

The Kualoa Ranch location has been the scene for a multitude of Hollywood movies and television shows and is a popular tourist attraction. The interactive AR tourism experience section features multiple dinosaur scenes custom developed for Kualoa ranch. Specific AR image markers are available throughout the park, where the user is directed to view realistic animated scenes. The augmented reality experience features ambient light estimation, ground calibration, and sound effects to integrate virtual dinosaurs into the real world and enhance the guest experience.

Each amazing AR tourism experience is available for in-app purchase and isn’t restricted to specific tours. Guests are encouraged to explore the park, take photos and record video with the virtual dinosaurs. In addition, they can save photos and videos to their camera roll (with the Kualoa Ranch logo watermarked at the bottom right corner) that integrates real people in the virtual action. 

The AR Tourism Experience App Overview

Tourists begin interacting with augmented reality at the visitor center while they are waiting for their tour to begin. Multiple dinosaurs appear from both sides of the phone screen towards anyone standing on the marked location. This AR tourism experience recreates the famous scene with Chris Pratt from Jurassic World. Users can easily save photos and videos of the experience to share on social media with their friends and family for fun interactive publicity.

When guests stop at Low Camp to take pictures of the valley, they can scan the image marker (Kualoa sign) and when they point their phones in the valley.they see an amazing virtual dinosaur experience come to life! Pterodactyl’s fly through the air, a Brontosaurus walks in the valley, and a Jurassic Valley Logo appears in the air. This scene showcases the full scale of the valley and gives tourists an understanding of what it was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Improving the Guest Experience

In addition to the interactive AR tourism experience, the app has other features to improve the guest experience. Users select a language setup: (English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean) to make it available for more guests. An informative points of interest list of Kualoa’s tours are available to read and users can access each tours’ audio clips. Locations are numbered in the app to correspond with numbered signs throughout the tour. In person guides notify guests of upcoming audio locations and guests can match the number in the app to the sign they see. AI was used to develop the audio recordings from the transcripts provided by Kualoa’s team.

Key Mobile AR Marketing & Tour Features

• Augmented Reality Project Setup  
• UI / UX Design of the App 
• Audio and Text for 7 tours, 10-15 scenes per tour 
• Ambient Light Estimation  
• Dinosaurs Selection / Import 3d Models  
• Animations Setup  
• Interactions  
• Ground Calibration  
• AR Anchor points  
• Sounds Effects  
• Picture and Video recording  
• Sharing Capabilities 
• Optimization for AR
• Deployment of iOS to Apple
• Stores Deploy and Submit

Augmented Reality Tour Challenges and Core Considerations

• Kualoa Ranch needed a new marketing experience that would provide more engagement within their in-person guest tours. They wanted a digital experience that would wow their guests and create a revenue stream to offset the costs of their app.

Impact: The AR Machine Replacement Solution

• This AR tourism experience app creates memorable moments that engagea and immerses guests within the action. All augmented reality content is available for in-app purchase to create a revenue stream within the app.