Niantic Collaborates with the World Tourism Organization to Promote Global Cultural Tourism through AR Games

“PokémonGo” and “Ingress Prime” developer Niantic announced that the company is working with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to promote worldwide travel through its augmented reality games.

Niantic hopes to explore and build awareness of global attractions by allowing players to interact with real-world locations in their mobile apps. These unique events will also raise awareness of the UNWTO “Travel.Enjoy.Respect” event launched in August.

“Our goal is to create interactive games, encourage exercise, social interaction and exploration, giving players the opportunity to play together in the real world and discover the incredible history hidden in their own communities,” Niantic Marketing Leader EMEA Anne said. “We look forward to working with UNWTO to create new adventures for our users to enhance their understanding of the culture of the destination.”

Ion Vilcu, director of the UN World Tourism Organization’s membership, said that Niantic has recently become a subsidiary member of the UN World Tourism Organization, which has led to natural cooperation between the two. “Niantic is a pioneer in creating a real-world mobile gaming experience that not only motivates players to discover new places, but also the culture and beauty of the world around them,” he said.

Niantic’s “PokémonGo” was first launched in 2016 and quickly became a game phenomenon. According to the market intelligence mission, Sensor Tower, it still generated $85 million in revenue last month. So far, it has downloaded about 522 million times, and its revenue has reached $2.01 billion in its two-year life cycle. Niantic relaunched its first AR game, “Ingress Prime,” earlier this month, and a new trailer for its next augmented reality game, Harry Potter: The Wizards, was released a year later.