How to develop effective Virtual Tours. CODECS Practice Abstract #3

This Practice Abstract presents a practical methodology for planning and creating online Virtual Tours of demonstration farms, developed under Work Package 5 of the EU Horizon Europe project CODECS. Five Virtual Tours were co-created across five countries, each produced by a CODECS Living Lab working with the James Hutton Institute to showcase digital agricultural technologies through immersive 360 degree imagery, video, audio and interactive content. The document sets out a ten step development process covering objective setting, storyboarding, media capture, tour assembly, stakeholder review, translation, publication and evaluation. It also summarises lessons learned across the five tours, including the value of co-creation with stakeholders, flexible navigation, and iterative review cycles, alongside risks such as underestimated time commitments, technical complexity of 360 degree capture, and confidentiality decisions around what can be shown publicly. Three best practices are highlighted: defining clear objectives and audiences, prioritising accessible and inclusive design, and building tours on a stable backbone with flexible, low maintenance linked content.