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A metaverse can be defined as a set of virtual common spaces indexed in the real world and accessible through 3D interaction. Ever since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of Metagroup, it’s a term that has been spreading rapidly in the media world.
While some people are cautious or against the idea, others see this technological evolution as an opportunity to develop new offers. As tourism is a forward-looking sector associated with information and communication technologies, it is entirely worthwhile to see how it integrates this virtual universe.
So how did Metavas come to dominate tourism that required physical travel?
Can tourism and technology work together?
There is a clear link between tourism development and technology. Indeed, from the computerized check-in centers of the 1970s to the introduction of the Internet in the late 1990s, technology has always been used to create new practices in tourism. Metaverse is part of this evolution of the Internet, which offers more immersive technologies Physical Experiences—that is, blur the boundaries between the real and the imaginary.
Whether for museums, national parks or heritage sites, the health crisis has enabled many organizations to offer virtual reality tours using technological tools. The Fly Over Zone application and navigation of World Heritage Cultural Sites show users what degraded sites looked like in their original state. The web giant Amazon has launched “Amazon Explorer” which allows people to “virtually travel the world”. They say this venture is an interactive live streaming service that lets you discover new places from your computer. Although this service is still in its infancy, in beta version these virtual tours will likely evolve to offer more immersive formats.
When it comes to tourism, Asia is leading the way, with proposals such as the Seoul Metaverse Project, which aims to become the first capital city in the world to enter the Metaverse, and has a tourist line that will tour the city’s main attractions. But we find one of the most successful projects with Moyaland in France, a virtual tourism state with a tourist office, museums, an airport and a historical center where residents and tourists can move through their avatars.
Other tourism stakeholders are likely to follow suit, with 25% of people forecast to spend at least an hour a day at Metaverse by 2026, according to US firm Gartner. So how can people experience tourism in this virtual environment?
Using metavas to inspire travel
There are two main trends that define the tourism experience: the first is related to the process, transforming the world into knowledge, the second is about the moment, focusing on hedonism and the feeling of success. While tourism by definition requires physical travel, there is a contradiction in the tourism experiences offered by the metaverse. Metavas cannot replace physical travel, but it can create the desire to travel.
In the immersive reality of Metavas, technology devices feed the user’s senses such as sight, hearing, touch and smell. In addition to acquisition costs, the use of these new devices calls into question the sensory perception that connects humans to their environment.
The opposite effect of meta is the interaction between the device, the user himself in the tourist shoes and other viewers. Although the experience is illusory, the senses work by inducing situations that are actually desired but not available at the time. Through immersion, virtual reality headsets or haptic sensors allow us to experience previously intangible things and reconnect with our senses. Through an avatar, the Metaverse user can embody a tourist.
Community and environmental constraints
Imitation, reproduction or impersonation, travel and holidays are tourist experiences that provide respite from everyday life. They are also an opportunity for some to see loved ones or engage in activities that are difficult to do in everyday life. Watching animals on safari, exploring archeological sites, or learning a foreign language are activities that generate unique, important physical and spiritual sensations that can be said to be created with flexible tools.
Moreover, Metavas, which is the technological development of the Internet itself, is not yet complete. It requires financial investment and building a regulatory framework to control user behavior. Because when Mark Zuckerberg expresses his desire to create a virtual and alternative world where users can travel, we must not forget the fact that users’ data will be used. And while some people see the change as a solution to fly away and move to sustainable tourism, the digital pollution it creates may work well with this ‘good’ form of tourism.
Although tourism in the metaverse cannot replace foreign experiences, some tourism experts can use it to promote sites that are not easily accessible or are overlooked by tourists, which they can actually discover.
Naima Aidi, a PhD student in Information and Communication Sciences, is attached to the Decen-IDF lab. Tourism and Smart Tourism, Gustave Eiffel University
This article is reprinted from the discussion under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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