Firms have begun to use Phygital and Metaverse almost in all sectors, which makes these strategies important to gain competitive advantage in markets. Recently, tourism can be considered as one of these sectors as travel agencies and hotels have introduced these strategies gradually to improve the customer experience. Theoretically, research in tourism marketing is starting to give an interest in Phygital tourism and Metaverse that still insufficient. Thus, this chapter seeks to understand and provide insights to scholars on Phygital in general and Phygital tourism in particular. The review of marketing literature confirms that the Phygital phenomena is a new marketing strategy that is affecting more specifically the sector of tourism and offering new opportunities to managers and marketers of hotels and travel agencies. This is due to the change of tourists' behavior, and in response, tourism practitioners may introduce Metaverse to create a unique experience for their customers.
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Today, tourism is one of the most important sector in all economies that are affected by the rapid evolution of marketing and digital tools. So, deeper mutations are witnessed. Actually, tourists take into account the digital content, especially on social networks, as a reliable source of information. Castro et al. (2017) stated that they usually start with searching for other consumers’ opinions and interacting with them. They, then, plan their trips online and finally share ideas about a destination. Therefore, managers in hotels and travel agencies are always called to try to understand this behavioral transformation and tend to digitalize their services. They begin by offering interactive websites displaying popular tourism content (Munar, 2012) and from now on, they set up alerts for targeting potential consumers on social media (Berhanu and Raj, 2020). They tend to generate new opportunities by using new technologies in order to create tourism experiences (Buonincontri and Micera, 2016) that will be unique and personalized (Wang and Fesenmaier, 2013).
Digital tools evolve leading travelers and tourists change constantly their behavior. They are now looking for new experiences. They go beyond a purely physical behavior to be totally immerged in a parallel world with possibilities of virtual interaction (Neuberger et al. 2018). This new experience is referred to “phygital experience”. This notion emerged as a trend topic and it is defined as “the use of technology to bridge the digital with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experience for the user” (Del Vecchio et al. 2023). In a tourism context, the tourism experience is enhanced by personalization, contextual awareness, and real-time monitoring (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2013; Gretzel et al. 2015a; Marchesani et al. 2024). Thus, individuals seem to be immerged in an hybrid experience allowing them to interact virtually while they are present in a physical world (Akmermer, 2022).
Still within the same vein of ideas, technologies continue to develop to reach the post-reality era or the Metaverse level (Putra et al. 2024). It is regarded as a disruptive technology within this industry (Gursoy et al. 2022), as it has the potential to transform the way customers and hospitality organizations of a tourist destination collaborate in the creation of tourism experiences, products, and services (George et al. 2021; Buhalis and Karatay 2022). Indeed, according to Doğan and Bayar (2024), today travelers costs to have a better travel experience from the moment they seek and need more control and flexibility over their journeys. Metaverse has the potential to revolutionize the tourism industry (Karaka and Baran, 2024), providing a new platform for immersive experiences and a shared virtual space for stakeholders. It becomes a prominent subject in tourism (Mihalic, 2024; Putra et al. 2024).