Tourism is currently going through more than just another digital upgrade: it is quietly reassembling. Consumers are not abandoning physical travel but they are ceasing to see it as the only way to gain an experience. Against this backdrop, a segment has emerged that can be tentatively called “metaverse tourism” – formats where place, time and participation are accessible without mandatory physical travel.
A telling example is projects creating digital public spaces: virtual exhibition pavilions, digital museums, event venues, and the synchronous presence of people in these spaces. This is not just presence effect but actual presence, albeit in digital form.
This phenomenon is changing the tour guide profession. They no longer lead a group through a place — they guide an audience through a scenario, an event, and data.
The tourism industry follows rather old rules: location → route → guide → final experience. For decades, this scenario was static. But the last 3-4 years have changed the context of information consumption. A tourist is no longer satisfied with merely seeing an object — they need to perceive its state across different eras, as well as its development and context.
The physical environment does not provide this unlike the digital one.
Metaverse tourism and VR are not the same thing
VR solutions today are objectively at a half-baked product stage. Content is limited, hardware is cumbersome, and the user flow often frustrates more than it impresses. Mass adoption is less a technological question and more a behavioral one: most people are not ready to wear devices where the interface blocks out the entire world around them.
Digital environments, which users access via a browser as a platform, are already a working reality:
- co-presence
- synchronous interaction
- personal user analytics
- integration with real objects
- event formats that exist as content formats
This is not a separate trip into virtual reality; it is a parallel economy.
Why metaverse formats have proven more viable than VR tourism
1. Zero barrier for entry
No special device is needed. A smartphone or laptop is sufficient.
2. Mass simultaneous audience engagement
A physical museum cannot gather 30,000 people in one hall but an online space can.
3. Easy content updates
You can change the exhibition, data or navigation — and the entire world is already working with the new version.
4. No need for entry permits or guides
Architectural monuments, archival documents or closed collections — all become accessible in a safe format.
Metaverse tourism is not a replacement for a trip, but a first point of contact.
Just as tourists once chose tours after watching a Discovery Channel program, today their decision is shaped through digital touchpoints:
- a digital pavilion on a website,
- a virtual reconstruction of an exhibition,
- an event hosted on a digital platform,
- a “digital presence” at a museum curator’s lecture.
According to statistics from major European museums (data is partially available, but the trend is consistently confirmed by conference materials), more than 60% of visitors arrive onsite after prior digital engagement.
The tour guide is no longer a carrier of knowledge
Today, any user can access information faster than a guide simply by pressing “search.” This is an objective reality.
As a result, the guide now performs different functions:
- structuring attention,
- building context,
- translating information into meaning,
- moderating dialogue,
- guiding users through digital interfaces.
In essence, the guide becomes a content curator – and in some cases, the director of the interaction scenario.
In digital environments, the guide manages not only the narrative, but also:
- audience movement,
- exhibition switching,
- media activation,
- event triggering,
- navigation across layers of time.
When digital spaces outperform physical presence
There are sites tourists cannot access due to status, security, or physical condition. In digital space, access is always possible.
There are historical periods that cannot be physically displayed. In digital space, they can be reconstructed.
There are events whose significance lies in their interconnection. A digital exhibition can link them into a dynamic network.
For example, a city can be presented simultaneously:
- in 2025,
- in 1987,
- in 1748,
allowing the user to switch between temporal states with a single click.
The physical world cannot offer this – technologically, it is impossible.
How this is transforming the tour guide profession
New responsibilities include:
- working with platform interfaces,
- preparing scenario scripts,
- testing interactive points,
- monitoring synchronous participant entry,
- tracking route quality in real time.
New competencies include:
- group facilitation,
- online public presentation,
- attention management,
- content adaptation for diverse audiences,
- targeted participant support.
The tour guide is becoming an operator of the digital experience, and this is not a metaphor.
What the industry gains (objectively, not as marketing claims)
- Reliance on fixed site-visit schedules is eliminated.
- Tourism becomes “modular,” with travelers no longer required to purchase bundled packages.
- Digital engagement is transformed into a funnel that leads to offline purchases.
- Museums gain access to dynamic and scalable exhibition formats.
- Cities acquire an additional channel for positioning and representation.
This is not a speculative vision – it reflects solutions that are already functioning today.
Result
Metaverse tourism operates as a system where a territory is represented as:
- a data structure,
- a scenario-based object,
- a controlled event.
Within this framework, the guide is no longer someone who simply “knows the information,” but a specialist who:
- translates data into meaning,
- manages visitor attention,
- navigates and guides users through the architecture of a digital environment.
As a result, tourism stops being merely “movement through space” and becomes a journey through a particular state or experience. In essence, this marks a return not to technology itself, but to meaning.
The digital environment functions as a tool – yet it is increasingly becoming the primary gateway to travel rather than a supplementary add-on.
Global cases that have shaped the trend
1. Metaverse Seoul (South Korea)
Seoul has launched the long-term Metaverse Seoul project, creating a parallel digital version of the city. The platform already provides:
- access to government services,
- participation in city-wide events,
- guided excursion routes,
- site-specific locations such as squares, districts, and buildings.
Tourists are able to explore areas that are physically inaccessible due to renovations or restrictions.
For tour guides, the key advantage lies in the ability to conduct large-scale tours using a “single location – multiple content scenarios” approach, something that cannot be replicated offline.
Why this matters for tourism: it enables an initial introduction to the city and helps sustain interest in future physical visits.
2. Louvre Online Collections (France)
During the pandemic, the Louvre digitized tens of thousands of artifacts and integrated them into an interface that allows for the creation of personalized exhibitions. This digital museum platform positions the guide as a curator who designs thematic routes.
New formats have emerged:
- author-curated temporary exhibitions (without physical installation),
- guided tours of exhibit items removed from public display,
- event-based lectures combined with live, synchronous tours of the collection.
What changed: instead of being a “storyteller,” the guide now functions as an editor of exhibition logic.
3. Metaverse Expo Dubai (UAE)
Dubai is developing a permanent digital zone for its exhibition center, featuring demonstration pavilions for companies and territories. This essentially functions as a virtual exhibition district that can be visited both synchronously and asynchronously.
In tourism practice, these digital pavilions are directly connected to real expedition products, tour packages, and regional visits. In this model, the digital environment serves as the first step in the sales funnel.
Russian case study: MetaVDNKh – the first publicly accessible “virtual twin” of the large-scale facility
This pavilion operates as a fully digital space rather than a traditional 3D tour. The project allows visitors to explore both currently relevant exhibits and those that no longer exist in physical form.
For tour guides, this represents a significant paradigm shift:
- Before: “We tour VDNKh and look at the exhibits.”
- Now: “We immerse ourselves in the historical stages of the spaces’ development, understand their context, access exhibit data, and view items unavailable offline.”
In other words, the guide now works with models of time and meaning rather than simply navigating a physical route.
By Konstantin Negachev, Head of VRT, expert specializing in the execution of digital projects in urban and cultural development