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Wales has become the first nation within the United Kingdom to officially step into the metaverse — all in a bid to bolster tourism.
The initiative, spearheaded by Visit Wales (Croeso Cymru in Welsh), the tourism arm of the Welsh Government, in collaboration with the Meta architects studio, iCreate, offers a virtual environment mirroring real-life Welsh experiences and attractions.
Hosted on the Spatial metaverse platform, visitors can engage in various activities, such as exploring a historic castle housing a concealed map of Wales, or embarking on a cable car journey inspired by the famed Llandudno Cable Car in Conwy County Borough, Wales.
Within Wales Metaverse, visitors can also embark on quests such as dragon hunts and create a digital itinerary of must-see destinations for their future visits to Wales.
With this foray, Wales also marks itself as the first European nation to leverage the metaverse as a promotional tool targeting potential tourists.
Alongside this initiative, Visit Wales has also adopted an additional avenue for outreach by featuring billboard advertisements within Roblox.
Hannah Blythyn, Minister for Tourism, emphasized, “The Wales Metaverse has been created to reach new audiences – wherever they may be in the world – and inspire them to visit our awesome nation for real.”
Despite Wales being the first country in the UK to launch in the metaverse, other countries and regions have been leveraging Web3 technology to revive or increase tourism.
For instance, in February, Japan Airlines started NFT applications in collaboration with Hakuhodo to digitize local experiences, aiming to revive regional tourism and deepen visitor engagement.
Similarly, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government introduced a virtual metaverse experience and mixed-reality app during the same month, offering users interactive activities and gamified exploration of Tokyo’s attractions to promote tourism.
