The Metaverse: A lifeline or a threat to Heritage Tourism?

Image by WangXiNa on Freepik

When Facebook rebranded as Meta in June 2022, it anticipated rapid growth in virtual and augmented reality. However, the structure of the market has not evolved as Meta had envisioned.

Metaverse platforms have struggled to achieve widespread adoption or sustained user engagement. Instead, growth in the virtual reality sector has been driven by business applications, such as digital twins. Virtual environments remain expensive to develop and maintain, requiring resources that the heritage sector often lacks.

Challenges related to data provenance and privacy have further constrained the adoption of these technologies as alternatives to in-person visits to cultural sites. With users questioning their added value, the heritage sector has had little incentive to invest time and resources into the metaverse concept.

At the heart of the problem is the failure to deliver engaging experiences for students, academics and general audiences within the existing budgetary constraints.

AI has been identified as a means to enhance quality while reducing costs. Large Language Models have the potential to partially automate content generation, Generative AI could improve the accuracy and richness of visual representations, and Physics-Informed AI could reduce the cost of data capture.

Key discussions on ethics, trust, and the authenticity of digital collections will take place at the upcoming International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) conference in Leeds UK, June 2025.

The preferred method of content delivery remains an open question. Should it follow the model pioneered by Facebook, or should cultural organisations operate their own dedicated platforms?

In our next blog we will explore the options available to creative industries.