Metaverse Travel is the next big thing to hit the travel industry, even if we’re not there yet. Like space tourismAnd If you build the idea, the fans will follow. However, unlike taking travelers to some distant spaceship to spend the night among the stars, the metaverse is actually here. It just needs to improve it to become a huge hit with the craving travel audience.
To that end, CitizenM, an elegant luxury hospitality brand, is taking a place in “The Sandbox,” a popular decentralized gaming virtual world where users will eventually be able to explore a virtual hotel and interact with other users of things like NFTs, which can be Purchased in the digital space.
Marriott, too, is moving toward the new, unconfigured space that tracked travel can inhabit. The hotel company entered the travel metaverse space last December with three items of virtual art seen last year at Art Basel Miami Beach 2021, the leading annual exhibition of contemporary art.
Marriott views the alternate universe as a new form of digital marketing and for a new audience. But those who watch the travel industry develop believe the metaverse could be more into travel, perhaps transforming the concept as we know it.
A study on metaverse travel published by Emergen Research this month posits that the concept has the potential to change the way travelers engage in purchases before, after and after a trip, and to become an essential part of the travel ecosystem.
Rapid technological adoption by travel and tourism companies to create alternatives to real-time travel, increased investment to create 3D virtual tours, and increased use of metaverse platforms to enhance hospitality services are some of the key factors expected to boost market revenue growth during the forecast period.
Additionally, the increased use of the metaverse by travel and tourism companies to enhance their reputation as a destination, create immersive marketing experiences, and provide key information to customers about room reservations, room size and features, is another key factor that is expected to boost market revenue growth going forward.
Widespread adoption of metaverse travel explorations, which require sophisticated goggles and precisely defined products that integrate AI and real-time 3D integration, have been years away due to the unaffordability in equipment, time, and expense involved in creating these products for high-end platforms.
But the thought of traveling to a beloved destination, entering a hotel as an avatar, interacting with other avatars, and perhaps having a virtual dinner at an exclusive metaverse restaurant with friends who serve as an avatar and using crypto money to pay for it is no longer a dream. Dine and then take a walk around town or to a museum, all in a virtual world that you can almost see and touch.
In such a vision, the to-destination segment is expected to represent a significant share of revenue in the global market as awareness grows about the potential of the metaverse to change the dynamics of consumer experience in choosing destinations, landmarks and accommodations, according to Emergen.
Virtual reality, augmented reality and metaverse platforms will enable users to experience destinations without actually traveling to their desired location, and allow them to peek into the experience that hotels and resorts can bring. Thus, test drives and various flights are expected not to replace but encourage bookings, the report says.
There are drawbacks besides timing in building and adopting this type of entertainment. Not only are these projects slow and complex—many of them go into 3D mapping of places, spaces, and destinations—but the use of the required safety goggles that can reach these new lands is said to cause dizziness, nausea, fatigue and may lead to bodily injury.
Questions remain, too, about the privacy items that users might sacrifice.
The main players in this evolving field to date are: The Boeing Company, Mytaverse, Marriott International, First Airlines, LynKey, Ariva, Color Star Technology Co. Ltd. and Powerbridge Technologies Co., Ltd. and Beyondvision Cultural Development Co., Ltd. identification platforms. Inc. and Google LLC and Microsoft Corporation.
Former Disney CEO Robert Iger is also involved in a project based on the metaverse through a company called Genies, a 3D startup that allows users to create custom digital avatars or personal metaverses for their social media profiles and to travel in this space.
Airlines are looking into the metaverse travel channel as a premium seat selling feature, allowing visitors to get a glimpse of what first or business class feels like in the hope that they once tried they might never want to go back to the economy cabin.
Hotels are expected to be able to offer rooms and suites, showering visitors with a dazzling resort experience that will dictate their choices in booking options.
Meanwhile, the metaverse is on track to become decentralized independent organizations powered by blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. This could mean being able to pay for select experiences and travel preferences in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, even while in the alternative landscape.
NFTs, or the non-fungible personal tokens we now see making a lot of buzz in technical creations and online trading, have become an ideal digital asset for travel companies to use to represent products like airline tickets and hotel reservations.
Since NFTs are actually crypto assets that buyers can store in their crypto wallet, they then have everything they need to travel in the real world, such as money, airline tickets, and hotel reservations stored in one place.
Travel advisors may become servants of the metaverse and meet their clients in this world to manage their travel experience avatar to avatar, create new ways to design the journey and add sales to clients as they move through their vacations.
Currently, as metaverse travel technology progresses through the beginning stages of physical evolution, there are few places or ways to explore the metaverse in motion. A startup called Ariva might be one place to start. The travel company offers tours and travel products for pricing and buying in cryptocurrency on many exchanges.
In its next step, the company is developing a concept called Ariva Wonderland, and while few details are available, it offers This is a joke.
Make it what it will be. As the world makes its way down the next rabbit hole, it’s best to know what to expect and the characters you might meet there.
Photo: shutterstock
