Purpose

Although virtual worlds, such as the Metaverse, can disrupt the hospitality sector, few empirical investigations have critically evaluated the scope and scale of this disruption from an industry perspective. This study aims to rectify this knowledge gap by exploring the opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse as seen by hospitality professionals.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a Delphi study conducted with UK-based senior hospitality industry practitioners experienced in designing and implementing digital innovations within their organisations.

Findings

The Metaverse is most likely to be adopted by hospitality organisations willing and able to take risks, such as large and/or chain-affiliated enterprises. The Metaverse will not replace traditional hospitality services but supplement and enhance them with new layers of service. The main applications are in the context of events and experiences. The Metaverse will also provide the “try before you buy” option, revealing the opportunities to design digital twins of physical businesses. Young and technology-savvy individuals are most likely to first adopt the Metaverse. The key challenges of the adoption are attributed to the technological unpreparedness of hospitality organisations; market immaturity; inflated customer expectations; a skills gap among hospitality employees; and regulatory issues. These challenges require the engagement of various stakeholders to create an operational and monitoring framework for hospitality organisations to embrace the Metaverse.

Practical implications

This study highlights how the Metaverse can disrupt the hospitality industry at the level of strategic planning and business operations.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first empirical investigations of the potential of the Metaverse from the viewpoint of hospitality industry practitioners.

中文翻译：

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元宇宙如何增加酒店服务的新层次：资深行业从业者的视角

目的

尽管虚拟世界（例如虚拟世界）可以扰乱酒店业，但很少有实证研究从行业角度批判性地评估了这种扰乱的范围和规模。本研究旨在通过探索酒店专业人士眼中的元宇宙的机遇和挑战来弥补这一知识差距。

设计/方法论/途径

这是一项德尔福研究，由英国酒店业资深从业者进行，他们在组织内设计和实施数字创新方面经验丰富。

发现

元宇宙最有可能被愿意并能够承担风险的酒店组织采用，例如大型和/或连锁企业。元宇宙不会取代传统的酒店服务，而是通过新的服务层次来补充和增强传统的酒店服务。主要应用是在事件和经历的背景下。元宇宙还将提供“先试后买”选项，揭示设计实体企业数字孪生的机会。年轻人和精通技术的人最有可能首先采用元宇宙。采用的主要挑战归因于酒店组织的技术准备不足；市场不成熟；夸大的客户期望；酒店员工之间的技能差距；和监管问题。这些挑战需要各个利益相关者的参与，为酒店组织创建一个运营和监控框架来拥抱元宇宙。

实际影响

这项研究强调了元宇宙如何在战略规划和业务运营层面颠覆酒店业。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这是从酒店业从业者的角度对元宇宙潜力进行的首次实证调查之一。