Rethinking Metaverse Tourism: A Taxonomy and an Agenda for Future Research

The metaverse is expected to be a game changer that starts a new epoch for digital commons and content creation in all aspects of tourism. Both opportunities and challenges will ensue. Current tourism research remains minimal with regard to this "next generation of the Internet," and the logic of its applications in tourism is still unknown. The metaverse does not only enhance customer experiences; it also, as reality and virtuality converge, changes the paradigms, norms, rules, and the way we define experiences. To fill this gap, in this conceptual paper we scrutinize the past, present, and future of the metaverse, with a focus on the tourism domain. In particular, this research sorts out the key technologies of metaverse applications and pioneers the exploration of virtuality-reality amalgamation by theorizing a "4Is" taxonomy of metaverse tourism: imitation, intensification, interaction, and integration. An agenda is set for future research.