The Exploration of the Metaverse by Destination Management Organisations Towards Sustainability

Abstract

Purpose

Scholars have increasingly researched on how the uprise of Technologies 4.0 will alter the way in which the tourism destinations, the hospitality and tourism sector will operate. Research points out to the fact that the massive digital transformation can lead to a human-centric experience design perspective which is against the principles of tourism sustainable development. In fact, one of today's challenges is predicting how destinations can use immersive digital experiences like metaverse to instill sustainable behaviours. Bearing that in mind, in this chapter, one first explores the concept of metaverse in general and after in the context of tourism destinations management organisations, showing that metaverse that seeks to turn imagination into reality using a panoply of technologies should be seen as the perfect mean for sustainable tourism.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The study proposes a conceptual framework to create an understanding of metaverse experiences envisioning sustainable practices.

Findings

Finally, one identifies research gaps and proposes an agenda with the potential of benefiting destination's management organisations. Furthermore, it was our intent to identify opportunities and challenges involving the use of metaverse with sustainable ends by tourism destination management organisations.

Originality/Values

This study assumes that metaverse can be used by destination management organisations to educate potential ‘tourists’ by providing to them innovative educational environments where they can ‘live’ all sorts of non-human-centric sustainable experiences. With that intent, a model for the implementation of metaverse was created with its foundations on current experiments happening worldwide.

Citation

Martins, M., Costa Guerra, R.J., Santos, L. and Lopes, L. (2023), "The Exploration of the Metaverse by Destination Management Organisations Towards Sustainability", Tučková, Z., Dey, S.K., Thai, H.H. and Hoang, S.D. (Ed.) Impact of Industry 4.0 on Sustainable Tourism, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 105-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80455-157-820231007