Technology

Exploring the Metaverse for Travel and Hospitality Brands

By Aresh Mishra

Discover how the metaverse is reshaping travel and hospitality. Uncover strategies and opportunities for success in this booming industry.

What if there was a way to give guests a realistic preview of your hotel without travelling? The metaverse allows that. It is this vast network of interactive 3D virtual worlds. It allows travel and hospitality brands to create engaging customer experiences.

According to Bloomberg, the stock market of the VR world will be worth $800 billion by 2024. Metaverse is heading towards expansion. The travel and hospitality industry will begin to feel its impact in the real world.

Global leaders like Marriott have already adopted a few of these tactics. They have started to operate hospitality concepts in popular metaverses. The potential is vast, and entering the metaverse will bring strategic advantages.

We will see how brands can utilise this space to grow further. From hotels to restaurants and wedding venues to local tourism. This guide will take a deep dive into what metaverse is and its potential and challenges.

What is Metaverse?

Metaverse is a virtual area that blurs the line between the actual and digital worlds. A space where tech and consumer experience meet and focuses on social connections.

Users can interact with your brand, places and services you have to offer. For hospitality and travel management, it can bring new varieties for consumer satisfaction. You can captivate them with virtual previews and events. You can also let them experience live shows from the comfort of their homes.

The French hotel brand Accor has started utilising the metaverse's power. They let the guests imagine themselves in a hotel room or suite before they reserve it. They even try out a meeting space for their next big corporate event.

Customers have started to show interest in contactless tourism after the pandemic. So, the travel and hospitality industry must utilise this tech to stay relevant.

5 Opportunities for Travel and Hospitality Brands

How would you feel if you discovered a place you’d enjoy staying in without needing to be present there? Indeed, you would want to give that a try.

That is what Metaverse invites people to be a part of. It provides travel and hospitality brands with many opportunities. These opportunities let them enhance customer engagement and experiences.

Let’s learn about some of them below:

Immersive Destination Previews

In the metaverse, brands can allow customers to explore exotic locals and attractions. They can do this in a virtual mode before booking. It will enable them to preview the destinations and enjoy them.

Tourists can get a real-life experience, sparking their interest and increasing conversion rates. Some brands in the travel and hospitality industry have already started seeing results.

For example: Tourism New Zealand's 'Inside New Zealand VR Experience'. It showcases the power of immersive destination previews in user engagement and bookings.

Innovative Hospitality Spaces

Brands can offer their guests detailed, unique digital tours. These tours can showcase their hotels, facilities, and amenities. They can also invest in virtual resorts and event areas. Because of its virtual nature, these spaces can span thousands of virtual square feet.

Hospitality giants like Marriott International are leading the way. They are creating innovative hospitality spaces within the metaverse, offering immersive experiences. It allows the guests to explore every property element in a virtual way and from their comfort.

It enhances understanding and user experience at every level. Whether from rooms to suites to restaurants to lounges or vice versa.

Exciting Entertainment Options

For travel and hospitality brands, metaverse opens many entertainment options for travellers. It allows them to dance in virtual mode at nightclubs or attend live concerts. It also lets them tour museums, explore casinos, attend conventions, and more.

Brands have the opportunity to create captivating digital locations. It brings the fun and essence of popular tourist attractions to travellers. Brands can also use social media to create a sense of the physical world.

For example, First Airlines is a Japanese company. It provides domestic and international two-hour virtual flights. It allows consumers to fly to New York, Paris, Hawaii, and other states without taking off.

And this metaverse journey is less pricey than a traditional tour. The same decor and furnishings inside the plane will surround the user. It is a unique way to experience first-class travel.

Enhanced Food & Beverages Experiences

Travel and hospitality brands can use the metaverse to change their dining experiences. They can enable guests to explore virtual restaurants and menus before making reservations.

They can achieve this by digitising dining spaces and areas from renowned restaurants. It gives customers a preview of the cuisine, ambience and decor. This immersive approach enhances user experience. It also increases bookings and revenue for the brands.

Compare Destinations

The metaverse lets travellers compare and examine different locations. It offers them the chance to check their choices. These can range from landmarks and hotels to cuisine and culture.

Travel and hospitality brands can provide virtual elements. It lets the customers make informed decisions. These decisions may depend on their choices and travel styles. These drive bookings and maximise customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Challenges for Travel and Hospitality Brands in Metaverse Integration

Some challenges faced by the travel and hospitality brands are:

Technological Complexity

According to Gartner, 64% of businesses lack the expertise to adopt immersive technology. This includes technologies like virtual reality. Using or building metaverse technologies can be complex. It requires specialised knowledge that a lot of brands do not have in-house.

For example, smaller boutique hotels may struggle to afford and hire specialised developers. It becomes a barrier to creating immersive experiences for guests.

Implementation Cost

Developing immersive experiences often requires huge investments. Necessary software, hardware, and content creation could be expensive. This may be a problem for smaller companies with tighter budgets.

Marriott International invested millions of dollars in developing its VR-powered VRoom Service platform. It allows guests to have virtual tours of hotel rooms before booking.

Privacy and Security Concerns

It’s one of the major concerns related to data privacy and security. Operating in virtual environments introduces new demanding situations associated with data safety.

Brands must ensure that strong measures are in place. To protect user information and prevent breaches or unwanted access.

Accessibility

Brands must ensure that virtual experiences are accessible to all. This is necessary to increase their customer base on social platforms. They must design the experience regardless of physical ability or skill in tech.

It requires careful consideration of factors like colour contrast, compatible for readers and navigation.

Hilton launched an initiative to ensure its VR experiences are accessible to all. For its impaired users, it used audio descriptions.

Strategies to Enhance Customer Experience

We offer some expert strategies companies use in the travel and hospitality industry. Let’s look at some of them:

Always focus on personalisation and interaction and avoid static representations. Make use of realistic sounds, visuals, textures and dynamics.
Incorporate rewards and gamifications. To get more users, offer rewards like coupon redemptions, points systems and credits.
Ensure that your Metaverse tech is usable for impaired travellers. Add subtitles, text and audio alternatives. You can also enable screen reader compatibility.
Educate customers on how to use metaverse travel experiences. You can do this through demos or tutorials. You should also address privacy and security concerns.

Qatar Airways: Case Study

In response to evolving client possibilities, Qatar Airways launched Qverse. It’s a virtual reality VR experience offering immersive Hammad International Airport (HIA) tours. The users interact with “Sama”, the MetaHuman cabin crew.

She guides the users through the journey. She also shows the airline’s cabins and airport facilities. Through this, Qatar Airways aims to provide an engaging and seamless pre-purchase experience. It sets new standards for customer engagement in the travel and hospitality industry.

Qverse offers users a glimpse of the future of air travel. It also lets them make an informed decision.

Conclusion

The metaverse thrives and provides an excellent opportunity for travel and hospitality brands. It can change how people prefer and experience their vacations in the long term. But, integrating it for customer service is not without its challenges.

Through user authentication and continuous threat monitoring, the virtual world remains secure. It also provides an enriching user experience.

As you step into the virtual world, explore GrowthJockey’s offerings. It provides advanced technologies and commitment to grow your online presence. Embrace a verse that redefines and provides a swift and stable digital experience. Try the future now!