If you’ve been on the internet regularly lately, you’ve probably heard a lot about the rise of the metaverse : users can fully immerse themselves in this immersive VR world, connecting and interacting with other real people. Mark Zuckerberg has renamed his company “Meta” and wants to show the entire digital world that his world’s largest social media company is now fully behind this promising idea. Initially, Meta was only seen as a tool for increasing productivity for remote workers, but its features now go beyond these tasks. The impact of the metaverse will also find its way into the travel industry. Now let’s take a look at how our travel will change in the future as a result of these innovations…
Interested parties can first explore a variety of places online
At present, we already have the opportunity to find out what others think about the place in question and how they experienced it before the actual booking. Websites like ours give practical and useful tips in most cases, which we are only too happy to use. But what if we had the opportunity to explore certain locations online for a longer period of time with the help of the metaverse or to spend a few days in these places if we felt like it?
Depending on how realistic and lifelike the new metaverse will be, you could also visit the place of your desire to explore the nightlife, for example, or other locations that you think you would like to visit on your trip.
Physical trips can be reserved for a few selected special trips
This could fundamentally change the dynamics of the travel industry, because one’s own personal trips will then be made into something that does not always have to be more expensive. For example, far fewer trips may be booked through the travel agencies concerned, which in turn will be forced to raise prices to compensate for the loss of the large quantities of services that are no longer purchased.
This will lead to physical travel quickly and primarily becoming the domain of those who have enough time and money to actually afford it. The rest of those willing to travel will have to make do with the adventures in the metaverse.
The non-travelers will still have formative experiences
For those who can’t afford to make the trip in person, or are simply too busy, or are prevented from doing so by disabilities or health issues, the metaverse will prove to be a kind of new lifeline. Because there you will be given the feeling of traveling together with friends or family, who may actually explore a wide variety of places in the real world. In this way, the problems of social isolation, boredom but also cabin fever can be avoided, because you will be able to virtually leave your own four walls.
Do you think that this kind of hybrid travel still sounds more like a dream that is a long way off? However, if you consider that a number of popular and daily activities have already been moved to the Internet without much friction, digital travel should soon become a reality. For example, we have replaced the cinema experience with Netflix, food is brought to our homes by a wide variety of food suppliers such as “Wolt” or “Lieferando” and many players no longer visit real casinos, but play in one of the countless online casinos that are open around the clock. It seems like the dream will soon become a reality, right?
Vacations could become a side hustle that you don’t have to wait for anymore
What happens to travelers who come home after two or three relaxing weeks and want nothing more than to sunbathe on a distant beach again? The return to everyday life after the most beautiful weeks of the year sometimes resembles a system shock that prompts many to immediately plan the next major short vacation. However, since this can take up to a year, this circumstance is depressing for most people who suffer from wanderlust. But even that fact could soon be a thing of the past, especially if the metaverse becomes what a number of leading industry experts predict.
After all, what would you do if you were offered the opportunity to go on vacation to one of the farthest corners of the world immediately after you came home from work, only to be back home in time for bedtime after a few hours? And if you feel like it, you can have these experiences over and over again. So you will actually be able to escape from the 08-15 cycle of daily life.
How will our health be affected by this?
It is certainly still a long time before we can definitively determine whether our health or well-being will be affected. However, it is clear that spending too much time on conventional social media often leads to feelings that manifest themselves in boredom, loneliness and jealousy. However, it remains to be seen what the effects of the metaverse will have on our well-being. One thing is certain, however: no matter how unusual and innovative the technology, it will not be able to surpass the attitudes and feelings of exploring the real world with friends or family.
Final Thoughts
Whether we agree with the concept of the metaverse or not, it looks very much like the rise of this new form of interpersonal existence will significantly change and influence our lives in the future. This technology is only at the beginning of its development and will certainly go through many different versions and iterations before a full VR journey to any place in the world will be possible, possibly even into the past. But it will certainly be exciting and interesting at the same time to observe how our traditional travel is influenced by this. We will continue to watch what is happening closely and will see how things will really be connected in the metaverse.
