The Internet’s evolution towards the metaverse unlocks new challenges and opportunities for tourism businesses and destinations to put in place strategies for crafting services and products which enhance the quality of the tourism experience along with new content which impacts users and communities in virtual spaces that add to the reciprocity between the physical and virtual worlds.
Indeed, as was showcased in the tourism of the future session at the 10th TurisTIC Forum organised by the Eurecat technology centre, initiatives being rolled out include setting up digital twins to display tourist accommodation before the trip, virtual events, virtual and augmented reality videogames to present a destination and its resources and buying or giving away NFTs after the visit, while the first destinations are starting to announce their presence in the metaverse.
In this respect, society’s hybrid behaviour may make it possible to generate new tourism products for different experiences throughout the customer journey, i.e. the interactions undertaken by the tourist in their purchase and with the brand during the trip.
