Without leaving my home in Maryland, I am whisked away to go whitewater rafting in Idaho. Seeing the water crash into the boat, I feel like I am almost there to experience this adrenaline adventure in real time.

I can experience this thanks to a series of 360-degree videos curated by Visit Idaho that allows consumers to experience the Gem State without leaving their homes. Virtual reality (VR) is now giving markets the opportunity to share travel experiences, giving consumers a new level of exploration when it comes to planning a vacation.

"This gives us an opportunity to give consumers a bite-sized experience of Idaho," Idaho Tourism manager Diane Norton told KTVB.

Predicted to become a $1 billion industry this year and an $80 billion industry by 2025, VR has the potential to become the innovation tool the travel industry is looking for in the 21st century way of business. Let's look at how destinations, attractions and hotels are already beginning to incorporate VR.

Destinations

Houston, the fourth biggest city in the U.S., recently launched a VR campaign to attract more visitors to its city and get rid of its stereotypes.

"We still have to dispel beliefs that Houston is where the tumbleweeds and cattle are," Mike Waterman, president of Visit Houston, told AdWeek.

Created by VR company YouVisit, viewers can get a 360-degree view experience of Houston attractions such as Minute Maid Park, the Houston Ballet and NASA Space Center.

"We're trying to provide new visitors with experiences that are memorable, and therefore marketable," Waterman said. "We sat down and thought about the 12 most interesting venues that would entice people to watch the content. The hope is that once people see the content, they'll be so excited that they'll book a ticket to Houston."

Houston is not the only destination that has worked with YouVisit for VR campaigns — others include New York City, Berlin and Rome. On average people spend 10 minutes looking at YouVisit VR videos.

"In the online world, 10 minutes is an eternity," said Abi Mandelbaum, CEO of YouVisit. "For travel destinations, when you're able to put that prospective traveler in a VR set and give them a glimpse of what it would be like to be there, their desire to experience it in real life jumps dramatically."

Houston hopes that the VR campaign will help its goal of reaching 20 million visitors by 2018.

"When we go into a NASA buoyancy lab and capture astronauts training, or we film the Houston Ballet during the rehearsal, or the singing of the National Anthem at Minute Maid Park during an Astros game, that's content that people will want to watch. If we produce the right kind of content, people will want to consume it," says Waterman.

Attractions

While destinations use VR to promote attractions within their city, attractions themselves are using it to attract more visitors to their site.

Six Flags Great America in Illinois is opening a new ride next month dubbed an interactive gaming coaster. The ride called "Rage of Gargoyles" turns riders into fighter pilots whose job is to battle gargoyles.

"Today, we step into an all new world of technological advancements, and it advances our continuing effort to provide our guests the latest innovation in technology and we've paired it with one of our original rides here at the park," Park President Hank Salemi told the Lake County News-Sun. "On no other ride in the world can you have a VR (virtual reality) experience so immersive that you can play the game all the way through the ride."

Six Flags will launch the gargoyles game at eight other parks across the U.S. this fall.

While it is difficult to visit every attraction in the world, Google is making it easier to visit museums around the world. The Arts & Culture app originally released last year, was updated in July to allow users a portal to see artwork, artifacts and 360-degree museum tours online.

The VR tours allows users to explore different locations by clicking backward and forward with an audio narrating what you're looking at. The app includes a Google Cardboard tour of 20 museum locations and an Art Recognizer tool that turns the museum visit into a multimedia experience.

"There's no such thing as a replacement of an in-person visit," says Luisella Mazza, head of operations at the Cultural Institute.

Hotels

Hotels are also looking toward the benefits of adding VR to their brand.

Marriott has been using VR in their marketing campaigns since 2014. Known as The Teleporter, it allowed guests to be transported to exotic locations throughout the world. The company used the tactic as part of their "Travel Brilliantly" campaign, which sought to engage consumers through dialogue on how the chain could make travel "more brilliant."

Last year, Marriott launched a new experimental program called VRoom Service. This program allowed guests at the New York Marriott Marquis and London Marriott Park Lane to order a Samsung Gear VR to their room. From there, the device is preloaded with three videos dubbed as "VR postcards."

"A lot of people have never thought of virtual reality outside of gaming, so to put it inside a trip, what does it feel like to take a virtual trip?" Michael Dail, Marriott's Vice President of global brand marketing, told Fortune. "That starts a conversation. Are you really traveling if you just have the virtual sensation? And a lot of people who tried it said, 'Yes, this reminds me of what travel is, it makes me feel like I'm there.'"

While Marriott wants you to "travel," Best Western wants you to see it before you stay.

The Best Western Virtual Reality Experience allows guest to see each property's rooms, lobbies and amenities virtually before your stay.

"To me as a consumer, I think it's quite an amazing experience," Best Western CMO Dorothy Dowling told Skift. "For me, the first time I was doing it, I was looking at the nap of the carpet and it was a really shocking realization to me that I was looking at the nap of the carpet like I was in the room. That I could actually see that degree of texture and get that sense of size and scale. I think, for consumers, that’s really going to redefine the game."

Virtual reality is not an immediate hit with the travel industry just yet, but there is plenty of room to grow in this potentially innovative market.

"It's an experience that you can't get from Trip Advisor or Yelp," says Mandelbaum. "When you can get a traveler to feel what it's like to actually be there, it changes the game and moves your destination to the top of the list because you've offered them something memorable."