How Metaverse can shape the future travel experience

Consumers are looking forward to shifting a range of their activities to the virtual world.

New-age and immersive technologies like Virtual Reality, AI & Analytics have brought about a massive disruption in the everyday lives of consumers. From online game platforms like Roblox to immersive online shopping experiences with “try before you buy”, technology in many ways is slowly and steadily transforming businesses, their customers and their behavior and expectations.

Young millennials have comfortably adopted these digital technologies, which have made interactions in the virtual world closer to reality blurring the distinction between the physical and the digital world. This rising comfort and adoption of digital technologies is now giving rise to consumer expectations for a seamless and immersive experience. Consumers now expect a clear vision of the product or experience before purchasing.

As per a recent report by McKinsey, it is estimated that the metaverse may generate up to $5 trillion by 2030 across consumer and enterprise use cases. It is also estimated to have a market impact of between $2 trillion and $2.6 trillion on e-commerce by 2030.

These technologies are also revolutionizing the way people look at travel. Travel restrictions during the pandemic in last few years have already accelerated digital & contactless experiences, virtual tourism. People have started revising their approach to travel. The travel industry is therefore slowly realizing the value, the virtual world can bring in by enabling consumers to explore the destinations they had always been dreaming of visiting.

This paper showcases our point of view on how Metaverse and related new age technologies can transform the future of travel.

As per a research report by McKinsey, 62% of the respondents were very excited by the possibility of travel in the metaverse, especially the ability to visit “places I can’t physically go”—including space.

I. Entering the Travel Metaverse – Travel journey with Julie

Metaverse transforming Travel into Technology Singularity

Crafting Immersive experiences for the travelers across the journey

Fig 1: Travel Journey and technology touchpoints

To explain this better, let me take you on a travel journey for a fictitious character named Julie. Julie is a young millennial who loves to travel and explore new places and destinations. She is a loyal member of her favorite airline – ‘Virtuasa Airline’ and has collected lot of airmiles, which she is thinking of redeeming on her next trip.

This summer, she wants to visit an island destination to explore the world of water and have a fun-filled vacation with thrilling water sports & activities. She has started her research to narrow down the possible destinations. However, due to her current occupation, she’s not able to spend a lot of time researching and so she hasn’t been able to finalize her go-to destination.

She wants to talk to her friends & other people before finalizing her destination, but it seems that none of her friends have been to similar places. Her travel dates are approaching fast, and she is well aware that airfares would go higher, and the best of properties would be sold out if she doesn’t book in time. At the same time, she also doesn’t want to book anything in haste and spoil her experience.

If only she could actually take a sneak peek at the islands & properties herself and then take an informed decision!

She decides to open the Airline site to check the flight fares and to her surprise, she’s shown an option to take a virtual tour to the destination islands that the airline flies to. She clicks on the option to try and buy a destination experience.

Try and Buy Destination

The minute she clicks on the given link, she is taken into a complete new virtual world where she cannot just take a tour of the islands but can also view the possible activities, she can undertake e.g.: scuba diving, swimming with dolphins, numerous water sport activities! She’s mesmerized and enchanted by the whole experience. She can even take a complete tour of the properties where she can stay. She then finds a property right on the beach directly facing the sunset point! In this new virtual world, she quickly finds people who happily share their experience of staying at that property.

All her doubts have now vanished. She has found the place she wants to book.

In fact, she also finds a friend who is also looking at the same property around the same dates!

She clicks on the option to book and selects her travel dates and traveler names. She is shown a complete package with flight, hotel, car along with even optional services like travel insurance, destination events etc. All her worries have dissipated, and she is feeling lot more confident in making the booking now as she has a first-hand experience of the property and the destination. She can book everything right here in just a few clicks.

She is also delighted to see that she can use her cryptocurrencies to make the payment for her booking.

Aircraft tour

She carefully reviews her flight and starts to wonder how long her flight will take and what class to book. She finds that there is an option for her to take a virtual tour of the aircraft that lets her experience the services and also the view from her selected seat!

She clicks on the virtual aircraft tour and for a minute, she feels that she’s actually on the plane to travel to the destination. She carefully compares the options in different cabin classes and selects her class of travel.

Her booking is completed with just two more clicks. It couldn’t have been that simple!

AI BOT – Her new personal guide

Just as her booking is done and she heaves a sigh of relief with her thoughts wandering off to her dream destination she had just experienced, she gets a message from “Droid”. The airline has just assigned her an AI BOT who will be guiding her throughout the travel journey. That’s unbelievable! It has just taken away all her worries.

As her travel date comes closer, Droid reminds her to pack the necessities that will be needed for the trip, he also shares a link to declare her health passport details and baggage pick up details for a smooth and hassle-free travel.

Droid also informs her of her eligibility to get access to the premium lounge at the airport. She clicks to view the lounge and is able to book her preferred meal in advance.

The day of travel – seamless & hassle-free experience with Droid taking care of everything for her!

On her day of travel, Droid guides her through the formalities of registering her digital id and virtual queue for a seamless airport experience. Using the digital id and virtual queue number, it’s a simple walk in and she’s not required to wait at the check-in counter through the long queues. Droid also guides her way to the lounge through AR based navigation.

As she settles down in the lounge with her hot plate of favorite meal, Droid offers her a wide range of content offerings - from music to e-papers, books, games and OTT content streaming apps. She selects her favorite movie and starts watching it happily. In a few minutes, Droid informs her that her turn to board is here and guides her to the required gate.

She is amazed at the zero queue and just-in-time boarding experience and as she settles down in her seat in the aircraft, she happily resumes her favorite movie which has been automatically added to her inflight entertainment app as well.

What’s more, she realizes that her app also provides her with options to select her status (e.g.: do not disturb), meal at a given time and even select her drink/water which is served to her with just one click on the app. That’s a truly connected cabin experience!

She’s now confident that her arrival and destination experience will be even smoother with Droid on her side throughout the journey.

She happily dozes off dreaming about her vacation.

Smooth Arrival – All set to explore her destination!

As she expected, before she lands, Droid informs that her baggage has arrived as well, and she can either pick it up at the given belt or she can have droid arrange for a direct delivery at the hotel property. She chooses the latter as she’s now confident that it will be delivered safely and well in time.

Her other arrival formalities have already been taken care of and as she walks out, she is greeted by an agent who delivers the products she had ordered a few minutes back in the flight and along with it a welcome note, a personalized itinerary with list of destination events she can explore. She then walks out to see a cab waiting for her to take her to the property.

As she’s gazing outside the window, she gets a message from Droid prompting her to enter the metaverse to share her flight & travel experience so far. She happily shares her experience and connects with her friend in the Metaverse who is residing at the same property. She informs her of a gala event tonight and sets up a meeting time with her to explore the destination together.

And the journey continues..

It is therefore evident that Metaverse could drive a very different travel world within the next decade and whilst some may say it is a long way to go, we do not realize that some of these experiences like virtual tours, queues, AI bots are already becoming the norm.

Metaverse can unlock a lot of new capabilities, using new age technologies and by integrating with devices like mobile, IOT devices and the devices that we wear.

II. Understanding Metaverse and the underlying building blocks

To understand what Metaverse is all about, let us first understand what it encompasses.

Figure below shows the building blocks of Metaverse – the Component “layers” on which the metaverse experiences are based.

Fig 2: Metaverse – Key Building Blocks

As shown in the fig. above, while the Metaverse platform provides the core for building 3D experiences, it constitutes a lot of components like apps, Infra, digital identities and underlying technologies which form the enablers for delivering the experiences.

Metaverse cannot exist in siloed form and requires technologies like AI, web 3.0 to deliver a true close to reality experience.

Listed below are few of the key technology enablers that constitute the Metaverse and alongside some of their underlying use cases in travel which can elevate the travel experience.

Fig 3: Underlying Technology Enablers

III. Metaverse can solve potential business problems – Roadmap for the Industry

As can be clearly observed in the journey with Julie and technology use cases, Metaverse can open a whole plethora of use cases which can help in truly elevating the travel experience for end passengers. It can also enable the Aviation and Travel enterprises to solve their potential business problems and further elevate their capabilities by enabling them with more information driven advanced decision making.

Let us look at some of the key problems this industry has been facing and how Metaverse can enable solutions which can benefit the aviation and travel industry.

Fig 4: Metaverse as the enabler to address key industry challenges.

One of the highest operating expenses for any airline today is managing crew trainings and learning programs. The Metaverse can provide a near real life virtual environment or a replica of Crew Service Training (CST), aircraft, which can allow crew members to learn at their own pace along with practicing real life passenger service scenarios. This transformation of crew training on Metaverse will not just optimize costs but also improve crew service efficiencies to a large extent.

Similarly, Metaverse can also bring in a huge impact on flight operations using digital twins which can enable simulation of what-if scenarios by combining past flight operational data with machine learning to build better situational awareness to respond to real life situations and disruptions.

Listed below are few key Metaverse use cases that can benefit different stakeholders in the aviation value chain:

Fig 5: Potential use cases in Aviation

The metaverse therefore has the potential to impact everything from employee engagement to traveler experience, product innovation, marketing, flight operations as well as collaborative planning & community building.

However, before an enterprise decides to take a leap into metaverse, building the right business and technology strategy is crucial in order to secure maximum business benefits from the underlying technologies.

Fig 6: Building your Enterprise Metaverse Strategy

First and foremost, the enterprise should identify the potential business problems that can be addressed with Metaverse and then define goals, identify business opportunities and associated use cases.

Once the business use cases & associated business impact has been ascertained, the enterprise can look at building a technology strategy and roadmap which encompasses identifying the right technology platform, partner, associated apps and tech enablers to implement the identified use cases.

IV. Coforge’s Metaverse COE – Transitioning your Enterprise Business to Metaverse

At Coforge, we have set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) which aims to be at the forefront of Metaverse immersive experience and the possibilities it offers to the enterprise world.

The CoE has –

• Identified & trained 100+ people on Metaverse with multiple masterclasses.
• Created a dedicated Coforge Dedicated Immersive Studio (CODIS) to showcases our capabilities, demos, walkthroughs, EBRs, QBRs to our current & prospect clients, investors, and other officials.
• Secured hardware and software to power CODIS with headsets, glasses, licenses, and other special equipment.
• Articulated a learning path on specific technology stack for 3D Artists, Developers

Based on our two decades of experience in aviation & travel, we have formulated the below roadmap for the travel enterprises with different use cases with increasing value, complexity.

Fig 7: Roadmap for Enterprise Metaverse

As the above roadmap depicts, it is recommended to first build the foundation of the platform starting with use cases which are minimal risk but can yield short term benefits or in other words low hanging fruits.

The first phase would therefore focus on building and implementing a Metaverse environment for your enterprise which can drive immersive, collaborative and engaging experiences to all employees whilst allowing the Enterprise to learn, operate and scale the Metaverse for future uses.

As we begin with internal use cases which can benefit internal employees, crew members, we can slowly transition into moving to more tactical use cases like virtual tours, Try & Buy experiences, AI Bots, Marketing events which can benefit business.

Further, the platform can scale up and build & integrate additional use cases with high business impact and value like Digital twins – flight ops, collaborative decision making, live simulations etc.

Coforge and Virbela partnership - building future-focused Metaverse solutions

Coforge has partnered with Virbela®, an immersive technology company that’s building the next generation of products for the Metaverse and VR, to provide unique and engaging virtual experiences that enable organizations to connect with their customers, partners, and employees.

Through the partnership, Coforge will leverage Virbela's portfolio of offerings, including Virbela Private Campus™ and Frame™, to build customized virtual worlds and environments for its clients. These solutions will include virtual events, conferences, trade shows, training and development programs, and other immersive experiences.

Virbela's product offerings allow users to create avatars, move around in a virtual world, and interact with other users through voice and chat. The platform also supports the use of 3D models, presentations, and other multimedia content.

Coforge's partnership with Virbela is part of its broader digital transformation strategy, which includes the adoption of emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. The partnership will enable Coforge to provide its clients with cutting-edge virtual solutions that enhance engagement, productivity, and collaboration.

Authors

Pranjali Bhatia

Pranjali Bhatia is AVP, Travel solutions at Coforge Technologies. She has 20 years of experience of working with leading airlines, airports, travel technology & hospitality companies across the globe. She is a travel domain enthusiast and has been driving transformation for leading travel enterprises using disruptive digital solutions.

Deepak Saini

Deepak Saini is AVP in CTO Organization of Coforge Technologies. He has 20+ years of IT experience in Financial Services, Telecom, Travel and Hospitality.  He has strong technology leadership experience in Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning, Deep Learning, NLP, Speech, Conversational AI, Contact Center AI, Responsible AI), Search, Intelligent Automation, Analytics, Cloud, Enterprise Metaverse Platforms, 2D/3D wayfinding solutions.

References

• McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022
• McKinsey & Company - Value creation in the metaverse – June 2022
• PWC VR Training Efficacy study, 2020

About Coforge

Coforge is a global digital services and solutions provider, that enables its clients to transform at the intersect of domain expertise and emerging technologies to achieve real-world business impact. A focus on very select industries, a detailed understanding of the underlying processes of those industries and partnerships with leading platforms provides us a distinct perspective. Coforge leads with its product engineering approach and leverages Cloud, Data, Integration and Automation technologies to transform client businesses into intelligent, high growth enterprises. Coforge’s proprietary platforms power critical business processes across its core verticals. The firm has a presence in 21 countries with 25 delivery centers across nine countries.