Virtual Helsinki Platform Hosts Performance by Finnish Artist ALMA as City Pushes the Technological and Creative Boundaries of its Digital Twin - Seite 3

Virtual Helsinki Day is the latest event to take place in Virtual Helsinki, following the unprecedented success of the virtual May Day concert which saw over 700,000 people tune into the virtual gig with Finnish rap stars JVG, totalling over 1.4million views by the end of the weekend.

In addition to the Virtual Helsinki Day event, the Virtual Helsinki initiative has recreated experiences of the city's most famous landmarks through virtual reality to provide an opportunity for Helsinki to be experienced without the dependence on carbon intensive travel.

While VR and 360-degree videos are used as a marketing tool by many destinations, Virtual Helsinki goes a step further, allowing visitors to move about freely in the digital simulation of Helsinki to explore at their own pace and create their own experiences in past, present and future time. 

Through this virtual city, users can experience different parts of Helsinki, as well as participate in activities such as concert, exhibitions, meetings, and events. Virtual travellers can visit the historical centre of Senate Square, the home of famed Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and archipelago island Lonna Island. Destinations and landmarks will be added to the experience over the coming months including Vallisaari Island.

Virtual Helsinki is a major initiative forming one part of the City of Helsinki's overarching digital strategy, which sets ambitions for the city to become the virtual capital of the world. The initiative is the culmination of a longstanding partnership with Helsinki-based studio Zoan. A digital twin of Helsinki has been built in Unreal Engine using 3D modelling from open data provided by the city, Zoan merged this with a series of drawings, hand-crafted modelling and imagery to create one of the world's most realistic VR experiences. Zoan was awarded second prize at the 2019 Unreal Awards: Experience Design for the design of Virtual Helsinki. 

In the future, Virtual Helsinki will also serve as a digital platform that will enable service providers to run their businesses through the platform.

Helsinki has ambitious goals in the pioneering and promoting of sustainable tourism, aiming to become a carbon neutral city by 2035. In developing Virtual Helsinki, Helsinki recognises the unique role that cities play in creating solutions to enable changes in lifestyles to address the global climate crisis.