In partnership with immersive platform provider Strivr, MGM developed VR headsets that give aspirant front-of-house staff a realistic sense of what working at MGM casinos and hotels entails.
To navigate the exhibition, each visitor uses a “HistoPad” touch screen to take an immersive tour that allows interaction with physical elements: giant photographs, 3-D models of statues, replica flooring and stained glass, and audio of Notre-Dame’s organs and bells. In the wake of the fire that damaged the famous cathedral in 2019, French start-up Histovery produced an augmented exhibition on the history of Notre-Dame de Paris-motivated in part by an increased awareness of the fragility of physical landmarks.Virtual elements can be layered onto an established business: The metaverse could enrich the tourism experience in countless unprecedented, innovative ways-but which use cases have the most potential, and which are still deemed risky? Early adopters have already started experimenting, and several trends have emerged.
So how does a tourism player go about monetizing this virtual paradigm, which is still taking shape and many struggle to define? It’s time for the sector to take a serious look at these complex opportunities-and figure out what best drives traction in the new XR universe. Widespread use could lead to a radical extension of the global economy from physical into virtual life, not least in tourism. Immersive VR/AR devices may well follow the steep adoption curves of laptops and smartphones. After all, these are the travelers of the future-and players not keeping pace with their interests will lose out.īut does XR live up to all the hype-with appeal beyond a gamer demographic? A virtual trip can never replace the thrill of certain tangible, real-word experiences, and some traveler touchpoints have proved more ripe for disruption than others.ĭespite these hesitations, the XR ecosystem is maturing at pace. 1 Hristina Nikolovska, “Metaverse Statistics to Prepare You for the Future,” February 16, 2023. Currently, the user demographic trends very young, but it’s crucial for the tourism sector to appeal to this segment. This has potential to revolutionize the way we explore new worlds: already, you can attend concerts, shop, test products, visit attractions, and take workshops, all without physically traveling anywhere. Driven largely by inspirational advertising and virtual events, the potential rewards for the travel industry are already substantial: more than $20 billion by 2030, by McKinsey estimates. The underlying technology for this exists and is proving relatively cheap and fast to implement. The metaverse is seen as the next evolution of the internet-a collective space where physical and digital worlds converge to deliver more immersive, interactive virtual- or augmented-reality (VR/AR) user experiences, often referred to together as extended reality (XR). Others caution that this future might take a little longer to arrive, and that travelers resist “metaversification” of key parts of the tourism journey. Impossible? Or a tempting package trip that might soon be available from the comfort of your home? With the internet’s rapid evolution, many see this vision of transformed travel on the horizon-in the metaverse. Later you’ll do some shopping at the virtual souk and take a digital Nile cruise, before teleporting back home in an instant. Where you can join your friends in the front row of a concert by your favorite star-but the crowd is 300 million strong, your friends are on the other side of the world, and it’s all happening at the Great Pyramid of Giza. Imagine a future where your travel choices have no geographic constraints.
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