How the Metaverse Will Transform Travel & Tourism Industry

What is the Metaverse?

The metaverse has evolved into a famous buzzword in 2022. Developing in science fiction author Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash, the term "metaverse" describes a virtual 3D world that people can examine through the help of VR goggles and other tools. It’s a general term for immersive virtual realms where individuals can interact with each other and the environment. Users can visit the metaverse using completely immersive VR equipment or using augmented reality (AR) techniques that project details of the metaverse over the person’s real surroundings.

Users will also be able to access the metaverse through mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, or game consoles. This will, of course, be less immersive. The metaverse is even in its early phases, as virtual reality technologies still require purification and the idea as a whole is presently developing. We don’t yet know how metaverse travel may influence the industry.

What is the distinction between the Metaverse and Virtual Reality?

It’s not clear yet how the metaverse will vary from living virtual reality experiences. It can be tempting to ignore the metaverse image as an attempt by Mark Zuckerberg and other enthusiasts to rebrand the current vision of VR and put their logo on it. While there’s a degree of truth to this, it’s worth examining the suggested differences between these images. The things that differentiate the metaverse as a picture from VR could be described as broadness and utility.

VR games might be entertaining, but they’re limited in scope; you study a limited game world, immerse in a defined range of actions, and follow a game script. In the metaverse, the idea is that you’d be engaging in a broader range of activities—attending meetings, examining the world around you, engaging with other people who are in the same part of the metaverse, and so on. Metaverse travel would let you enjoy travel experiences in VR.

What Is the Travel Industry?

The travel industry delivers services that are linked to travel. This isn’t limited to transportation and other services instantly connected to the act of traveling from one location to another. It also extends to services such as delivering food and beverages while touring and taking care of a consumer’s requirements once they have arrived. There’s a substantial overlap between the travel and hospitality industries. Although they’re closely connected, the travel industry is separate from the tourism industry.

The tourism initiative is cantered on delivering services for travelers who are traveling to a specific goal and wish to research and engage with that location. The travel industry is somewhat more general in scope, protecting all types of journeys for many other goals beyond tourism. The travel industry includes airlines, water transport, rail and coach services, etc., and travel management includes accommodation and catering for travelers. Metaverse travel could soon be another part of the industry.

Metaverse Influence on the Travel Industry

The rise of COVID and the introduction of travel restrictions have transformed the way that people look at travel. With many countries blocking incoming aviation, stipulating long quarantine periods, or pressing on costly tests, many people are shifting away from physical travel and examining alternatives. Even when conditions are lowered, the chance of contracting COVID and other conditions has made people rethink their usual approach to travel.

This difference in philosophy has naturally led to new travel trends and a growing interest in VR and metaverse travel. For those who would normally travel as a way of experiencing the world, metaverse travel delivers a safer and less expensive way to research new locations. For companies and travelers with work or study purposes, online meetings and classes have become increasingly popular. Metaverse travel could likely serve this place in the future. The technology isn’t available to deliver a full-blown metaverse holiday yet, but it may well be in years to come.

How Could the Travel Industry Benefit from the Metaverse?

On the surface, the metaverse might represent a threat to the travel industry. After all, if somebody can experience new places in a virtual 3D space, they might not choose to travel physically. Yet it’s doubtful that the metaverse could ever completely replace physical travel and only become a part of travel technology.

Expanding Travel Inspiration Sources

The most obvious benefit of the metaverse is to deliver new and better travel inspiration sources. The metaverse will probably supplement the travel industry, supplying prospective travelers with a taste of what they can experience. It will likely let travelers check hotel rooms and other areas before they book, even letting them try out the check-in procedure.

Travelers could take virtual tours and look at some of the major attractions in the area, encouraging them to see them in person and allowing them to choose how to pay for their time and money once they reach the site.

Improving the Booking Experience

Metaverse travel could also make the booking experience more pleasant and engaging. While more people book online nowadays, there’s a specific level of engagement that a website just can’t deliver.

Booking in the metaverse might be better than visiting a brick-and-mortar travel agency, allowing users to request questions from a (real or virtual) agent, bargain for deals, connect products and pay easily and conveniently. Even once a client is at their goal, they could still use the metaverse to raise problems, order meals and services, or look into attractions and experiences that they could book through the metaverse.

Rising Booking Volumes

For those who travel to experience different locations, there are some items the metaverse probably won’t be able to deliver even with advances in technology. Even the most detailed 3D recreation of a space can’t completely replicate the experience of being there. Instead, metaverse travel can whet a user’s need for the real thing.

Travelers who take a VR tour of a location or use VR to try out an experience are more likely to secure the real thing. One measure would be Thomas Cook’s VR excursions of Manhattan, which showed visitors to their stores a five-minute "taster" of the city. Related bookings increased by 190 percent for the company.

Instances of the Travel Industry Taking Benefit of the Metaverse

While the metaverse is still in its infancy, some travel businesses are already taking advantage of the new technology.

VR Tourism - Immersive Virtual Travel

Some organizations are already delivering virtual 3D versions of real-life spaces and locations. For instance, you can now study the Paris Louvre Museum in VR. Virtual guests can choose shows, enjoy concerts, or even meet friends for a virtual stroll around the museum.

The metaverse can provide individuals (who might not be able to travel physically) with a way to study the world, either as a substitute for an in-person visit or as a way to prepare for an upcoming trip. Offering virtual tours and excursions through the metaverse is one way that the travel industry can benefit from this new technology.

Augmented Reality in Travel

Augmented reality is distinct from virtual reality. Instead of being engaged in a virtual world, virtual elements are overlaid onto the real world around you. A familiar instance would be the game Pokémon Go, where a user visits the titular monsters overlaid on the natural world as seen by their phone’s camera.

In the context of metaverse travel, augmented reality can supply prices and points for a restaurant, historical data relating to a building, train times and links from a station, and more. This enables travelers to engage more thoroughly with their location and presents the possibility of making additional purchases.

Facilitating Online Trade Shows and Expos

Metaverse travel is already delivering new methods to conduct trade exhibitions and expos. In 2022, students from Assumption University’s tourism program created and realized a three-in-one expo in the metaverse, featuring career, travel, and tourism expos.

Event Management students created virtual exhibition booths to showcase travel brands like Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott-Starwood, concentrating on career possibilities. It’s easy to see how this type of immersive online knowledge could be used for all types of trade shows across many different industries, although it’s of particular relevance to the travel sector. Virtual trade shows and expos can allow travel businesses to market their services in a new and exciting way.

Virtual Theme Parks and Other Attractions

With COVID restrictions limiting journeys and closing down some destinations entirely, theme park fans are increasingly turning to virtual versions of their favourite rides and attractions. First-person video footage of rides and other theme-park experiences is nothing new, of course, but the metaverse empowers users to experience attractions in a new way.

Imagine visitors booking a virtual tour of a zoo, for example, or taking a "ride" on a roller-coaster without the queues. Virtual interests could be a new source of revenue for beleaguered spas and theme parks at a time when visitors may be unable or unwilling to come in person.

Hospitality and Blockchain Technology

Curious about blockchain technology? This recent invention is set to transform the way that numerous people carry out transactions online. Blockchain technology is particularly relevant for the hospitality and travel industries, facilitating payments and delivering new methods to provide tickets and identification.

Functioning as a virtual public ledger, blockchain technology builds a permanent record of all transactions, complete with time stamps and other vital data.

VR and the Travel Industry

From metaverse travel to fast VR tours, virtual reality is already having an outsized effect on the way that people pick destinations, make bookings, and discover travel inspiration. With VR headsets becoming a common customer item, VR is rapidly finding its way into many people’s everyday lives.

Despite having its origins in the gaming industry, virtual reality is becoming increasingly necessary in other sectors, particularly travel.

How Will PerfectionGeeks Technologies Assist You with Metaverse in the Tourism Industry?

The metaverse is expected to be the most essential technological innovation since the internet, with long-term implications for tourism and how people live, communicate, and work. Brands will have to rethink their trade and communication techniques to fit the emerging virtual global order. However, the metaverse will eventually help companies better understand their consumers and form meaningful relationships with them.

You should contact an AR or VR app development company if you wish to use the metaverse in the tourism industry. Contact us PerfectionGeeks Technologies will help you execute all you need to know about the metaverse for the company and navigate it with ease.