The conventional virtual tour presents the user-navigable VR space on the screen of a computer or hand-held device. The user sees this as a narrow segment of their visual environment, and must stare at the screen and interact with it by using a mouse, or by dragging on the screen with a finger.
The head-mounted display (HMD), on the other hand, completely dominates the visual field of the user. It therefore isolates them from the distractions of the actual physical environment and encompasses the entire field of view, including the peripheral visual space, with the virtual-reality experience. Navigation is immediate and intuitive; move your head and/or rotate your body to explore the 360° virtual space.