Application of Metaverse in the Hospitality Industry

Introduction

Metaverse is the prime tool of today's marketing, which brings many changes, new experiences and new learning in the digital World. There are different applications of Metaverse used in marketing with an updated version to show virtual reality to the consumer and bring change to the next generation. Metaverse and block change work together and create a network in which different categories of people work together and bring virtual reality in 3D animation. Different marketing-based companies used the Metaverse platform and recently Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced rebranding and it is now Facebook to Meta (Kim, 2021), with the help of Metaverse digital companies get a new look and companies connect with their customer in decentralized ways. By the end of 2030 entire market convert into a digital market, where the entire LED screen been used for marketing along with all the Print Media will get a new shape. The impact of the digital market was seen in the period of COVID-19 when the entire hospitality sector, education section, and shopping sector used digital technology and made everything possible online mode and consumers become habitual and day-by-day demand increasing. It will encourage marketers to introduce new norms of metaverse like avatars (Bibri & Allam, 2022), artwork, music, property, etc., and promote their brand and visibility. The worldwide hospitality and tourism business is going through some major changes right now, not only as a result of COVID-19-related travel limitations but also as a result of disruptive technological advancements like the metaverse development. For instance, Tokyo-based First Airlines has started providing virtual flights (Martin, 2018). For virtual trips to numerous locations, such as Hawaii, Rome, Paris, New York, etc., the company reports 100% occupancy. Another manifestation of the metaverse is the National Geographic VR membership, which enables users to virtually kayak across Antarctica's icebergs (Gursoy et al., 2022) or discover Machu Picchu's undiscovered treasures using Oculus VR gear. Similar to this, “Wander” allows users to stroll through any of the areas mapped in Google Street View throughout the globe (Kostakos et al., 2019). Due to the potential for improving the visitor experience, many hotels are also investigating the metaverse. Atlantis, M Social Decentraland, the first virtual hotel in the metaverse, was unveiled by Singapore-based Millennium Hotels (Millennium, 2022).

Figure 1.

Millennium hotel

Source: Millennium (2022)

One of the first hotel chains to develop and market its own NFT was Marriott, and The Palm in Dubai provides guests with a 360-degree VR movie of the area around the property. The hotel highlights its salient attributes. The largest room in the hotel, the Royal Bridge, unusual underwater suites, the renowned Nobu restaurant, the pool, aquarium, and waterpark, as well as a stroll through the lovely gardens, are all available to prospective guests. As a result, the hotel has already begun the transfer to the metaverse. For its theme parks, Disney developed a novel metaverse technology that allows guests to project their own 3D customized visuals. The park is also looking into ways to introduce an environment similar to augmented reality without headgear. A patent was granted to the business for its “virtual-world simulator.” The TUI Group of hotels is investigating the metaverse to train staff using this technology (Zagalo & Morgado, 2011), which can project 3D graphics and fascinating virtual effects onto real-world environments. In the metaverse, companies like Marriott, Atlantis, Movenpick, and Anantara are creating their digital twins. They are supported in this endeavor by the metaverse platform RendezVerse.