Tourism marketing in a metaverse context: the new reality of European museums on meta

ABSTRACT

The ‘contactless’ culture established after COVID-19 and the development of metaverse technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain and artificial intelligence, serve as vectors of change in museum tourism. Contactless behaviours have forced European museums to reconfigure and strengthen their digital communication and marketing strategies, mainly through social media and audiovisual content, to connect with their audience by virtual means only. This experience has laid the foundations for hybrid communication (physical and virtual) by museums and acted as a pilot experience for their activities in the metaverse of the future. The aim of this research is to analyse the online tourism communication strategies implemented by 20 European museums through Facebook (Meta) in times of COVID-19. The results show the effect of lockdown on patterns of consumption and interaction, and the impact of message content and format on user engagement and participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism marketing
• COVID-19
• museums
• Europe
• metaverse
• Meta

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the iMARKA research group from University of A Coruña. This article is part of the R&D project Digital-native media in Spain: Strategies, competencies, social involvement and (re)definition of practices in journalistic production and diffusion (PID2021-122534OB-C21), funded by MCIN / AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and by ‘ERDF A way of making Europe’.

Notes on contributors

Eva Sánchez-Amboage

Eva Sánchez Amboage is Lecturer in marketing and market research in the University of A Coruña (UDC) (Spain) where she teaches in the Faculty of Economy and Business, Master of Tourism as well as in the Faculty of Audio-Visual Communication. She is member of the iMARKA research group (UDC). Her lines of research are mainly linked to tourism marketing, management of identity, image, communication and reputation of the brand of tourist destinations through social media. She participated in national and international research projects and was author and co-author of books, book chapters and indexed journal articles.

Matías Enrique Membiela-Pollán

Matías Enrique Membiela-Pollán is PhD in Economic and Business Sciences from the University of A Coruña. Specialist in Foreign Trade and International Marketing from CEPADE - Polytechnic University of Madrid. Lecturer in the Marketing and Market Research Area of Universidade da Coruña and member of the iMARKA research group (UDC). His research lines are linked to marketing and social capital; having published articles in various international journals, and books on the different roles of author, co-author, coordinator and editor.

Valentín-Alejandro Martínez-Fernández

Valentín-Alejandro Martínez-Fernández is a Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Communication Sciences in the University of a Coruña. He has been the Director of the newspaper “El Ideal Gallego”, as well as manager in other informative companies. He has a Degree in Information Sciences, Complutense University in Madrid. He has a Master MBA in Business Administration, University of A Coruña and a PhD in Information Sciences, Complutense University in Madrid. He is Leader of the iMARKA research group (UDC). He is the author and co-author of several articles in magazines and book chapters. His lines of research are linked to communication, marketing, neuro-marketing, new technologies, and tourism. He has participated and presented work in different national and international congresses and has participated in the organization of various seminars, conference cycles and workshops. He was part of the Prometeo-SENESCYT project.

Sebastian Molinillo

Sebastian Molinillo (PhD) is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Malaga (Spain). His key research interests lie in consumer behaviour, digital marketing, branding, technology adoption, tourism, and retail. His work has been published in journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Computers in Human Behavior, and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.