1 Introduction

This work is based, on the one hand, on the experience with the metaverse carried out in an exhibition that took place at the Matadero Contemporary Creation Center in Madrid (09.22.2022–January 29, 2023), titled Metaverses, Realities in transition (see Nave O. Centro de creación contemporánea, Madrid 22 de septiembre del 2022 al 29 de enero de 2023). Exploring new digital territories through art, and, on the other hand, we have based ourselves on the report The metaverse and the soul: Journey to the next challenge of tourism. Both works have been fundamental to developing the glossary around the metaverse and its application to the science of tourism.

2 The Metaverse: Exploring Digital Territories

The term “metaverse” refers to a futuristic concept of a virtual world in which people interact and participate in various activities through virtual reality. It is an extension of the concept of virtual reality, but instead of being an isolated environment, the metaverse would be a persistent digital universe shared by multiple users. Of the many definitions of the metaverse, we have chosen the most plausible within the virtual universe network.

The metaverse is the closest to stepping into thinking a lucid dream in which everything is possible or is possible to the extent that its creator allows us to interact. It is an evolution to an Internet of experiences where users can live incredible adventures in fictional places or travel with their friends to impossible destinations, such as a planet millions of light years away. […] Perhaps it is the most important step since the appearance of cinema as a catalyst for the human imagination, since here the viewer is teleported to another world, and that world is believable (Martín-Blas, 2022: 12–13).

It has been more than three decades since the term metaverse was first introduced in Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel Snow Crash (1992). Stephenson was seeking a word to describe and predict the cyberspace of the future. In this work, he not only predicted what cyberspace would be like today but also anticipated a “dystopian future” in which the American author foresaw a future marked by viruses and hyperinflation, leading to an irreversible loss of government power in favor of large corporations and global economic power. Stephenson, who has also published under the pseudonym Stephen Bury, is famous for his novels, short stories, and essays and is considered a pioneer of the post-cyberpunk genre. His goal is to apply his studies in physics and geography to his works and blend computer and nanotechnology concepts with other areas of historical, mythological, and political knowledge.

3 The Metaverse: Opportunities Versus Risks

A paradigm shift arrived in our society in the first decade of the twenty-first century, when significant technological changes at the social level began to affect our lives with the emergence of Generation Z, or digital natives, drastically altering our social habits. Social media became a priority in our lives. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a second paradigm shift, as social restrictions and the need for remote work generated new technological needs whose impact is still unknown. The inability to travel due to the pandemic and the shift to remote work through video conferences raised concerns among technological strategists (as we experienced firsthand with virtual learning in our university environment). In this recent stage, the scientific community has paid special attention to the metaverse as a tool that a considerable portion of the population will use in the near future. However, experts point out, “[…] we should consider whether the arrival of the metaverse will pose a bigger problem for us or, on the contrary, will allow us to consider the world's inequalities as a point of connection for every human being, regardless of race, religion, borders… and whether our digital counterparts will have the same ideals or thoughts as ours” (Reyes & Alonso, in Turium et al., 2022: 10).

The expansion of metaverses is not without controversy within the scientific community and also gives rise to political and strategic debates. On one hand, it is a subject of discussion among computer scientists, physicists, philosophers, medical professionals, and anthropologists. On the other hand, it is a topic of concern for public institutions due to the inherent problems that arise within the virtual world, such as digital crimes. In an article in El Periódico Digital (May 5, 2023), Pratel, N. J., a psychotherapist and activist against sexual crimes in cyberspace, pointed out that “What is illegal and harmful in the physical world should also be in the virtual synthetic world.“ Additionally, in the same newspaper article, the State Secretariat for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (SEDIA) states that “The EU already has a strong regulatory framework to address potential impacts that the metaverse may have on areas such as competition, cybersecurity, artistic creation, and privacy.“ However, according to experts, these measures are not sufficient to address many metadigital grievances (Muñoz, in Turium et al., 2022).

From the perspective of neuroscience, scientists predict a decline in mental health that can result not only from human isolation but also from disconnection from the real world, a phenomenon known as the Metacurse. On the other hand, environmental and sustainability issues, often caused, among many other factors, by the excessive and consumerist use of digital products, including metaverses, are reported to worsen the climate emergency due to the increased energy demand for the proper functioning of the required servers. Conversely, in a positive light, in reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), significant economic, social, and environmental challenges need to be met. In this regard, virtual spaces can also contribute to reducing CO2 emissions and polluting waste from many human activities that do not require physical presence.

4 Network Space and Virtual Travel

Currently, in the university context, we are rapidly immersed in courses for learning about and understanding ChatGPT, a symbol and result of Artificial Intelligence (AI), among many other technological advancements. All of this has fully introduced us to the Network Society, a term coined by sociologist Manuel Castells, who pointed out that “The term network society refers to the social structure resulting from the interaction between social organization, social change, and the technological paradigm centered on digital information and communication technologies” (Castells, 2009: 21). Its goal allows us to interact with others through digital technology and create a new social structure. However, the major current debate concerns the limits and dangers posed by these innovations and their effects on ethics and society.

This social structure has changed rapidly in the last two decades, with new technologies becoming indispensable in our lives, both professionally and personally. However, facing new cutting-edge technological advancements requires not only learning to use them but also, since their social structure is multidimensional, understanding different logics and values in our society.

The advancement of technology has significantly changed the way we travel and has had a drastic impact on both users and the tourism industry. Platforms and various apps have transformed the way people choose travel destinations, offering many advantages to tourists and travelers. However, how can we classify the metaverse in the world of tourism? What sociological impact will it have on people? Will we adapt to experiencing the world, enjoying sounds, smells, colors, and the “essence of being” through AI? In short, the paradigm has shifted as human behavior has evolved, from exploring virtual social networks to exploring immersive technological spaces.

One of the experiments related to the metaverse can be observed in Metaverse: Pioneers on a Journey Beyond Reality by Martín-Blas (2022). In this work, the author recorded the first immersive F1 championship at the Mugello circuit in Italy in 360° as part of various experiments. “The goal was to experience it as if you were a co-pilot” (Martín-Blas, 2022: 71).

A group of experts came up with the Virtual Voyagers, the Virtual Travelers planning new areas of exploration in the metaverse sector whose slogan “the value of the team above all” provided them with the basis to investigate this virtual environment. One of the examples provided by this team was making a video game to attract tourists to Catalonia. The idea was:

The concept was to take users to a real place in Catalan geography and decorate it with a layer of fantasy, such as the Sant Jordi dragon, Dalí's elephants, etc., so that, once the adventure had been experienced, the visitor would discover that much of what was seen in that experience really existed, it was not fantasy. These were places that could be visited. Finally, once all the phases of the game had been overcome, an immersive piece appeared that took a trip to the real Catalonia and visited those dream places, but without that fantastic layer, showing the tourist part (Martín–Blas, 2022: 96).

This combination of tradition, culture, and geospace can be experienced by millions of users who can feel, and perceive the essence of a place from very distant places, and at a global level, and at the same time-space instant can visit a tourist route, a concert, a theater or a theme park.

Both experts and visionaries anticipate that the metaverse is already a reality, in the same way that the Internet came into our lives many decades ago, a new universe of communication that will allow us to connect with unimaginable spaces, from visits to theme parks with dinosaurs to experiencing other planetary systems, and finding out the origins of a city and its first settlements and in turn changing the behavior of people and society, enriching the imagination with experiences shared with creators can be an improvement of human communication, a way to democratize the way of knowledge in our society, as long as the ethical codes and the bases of sustainability and respect and inclusion are respected, in short, that it is accessible to all people.

5 The Metaverse and the Soul: Journey to the Next Tourism Challenge

When reading the introduction of the report The metaverse and the soul: Journey to the next tourism challenge (2022), you realize the complexity of combining the concepts of the “metaverse” and “the soul” into a common denominator. In this regard, the report has used several scientists- including philosophers, neuroscientists, technologists, developers, publicists, marketing experts, and anthropologists- to analyze with the highest academic rigor this complexity. Despite many pioneering studies, this complexity remains at the center of media debates as the General Director of Turium writes in the introduction of the report.Footnote 1 “One approach is the humanistic approach that aims to understand how this new technological development will affect us on a social and individual level. The other the sector: the tourism industry. The impact of the metaverse on the travel environment and its potential are exponential” (Jiménez, in Turium et al., 2022: 4). The State Society of the State Secretariat for Tourism (SEGITTUR), since its creation in 2002, has been betting on the use of new technologies, including the metaverse, anticipating not knowing the consequences of this, “[…] where people are the key and part of the travel experience” (Martínez, 2022: 5).

Although these statements are true to a greater extent, still, to what extent and in what way will these technological realities influence our lives at the behavioral level? As sociologist Zygmunt Bauman states, “Virtual proximity manages to deactivate the pressures that non-virtual proximity usually exerts. In turn, it sets the parameters of any other proximity. The merits and defects of all proximities are now measured in relation to the standards of virtual proximity” (Bauman, 2013: 88). Even personal relationships have been conditioned for decades to a greater extent by new technologies.

It is not surprising, then, that virtual proximity is the option of choice, practiced with greater zeal and abandon than any other kind of closeness. Solitude behind the closed door of a private room and with a cell phone at hand is a safer and less risky situation than sharing the common ground of the domestic sphere (Bauman, 2013: 90).

However, a new form of design of the world around us was already anticipated by the anthropologist Marvin Harris (1927–2001) in his work Theories of Postmodern Culture (2000), showing us how postmodern guidelines were anticipated in the years 40 of the last century, where they tried to replace science and reason with other mental activities of the human being such as “emotion, diversity of sensations, introspection, intuition, autonomy, creativity, imagination, fantasy, and contemplation” (Harris, 2000: 155) among many other characteristics of human potential. In this context, we refer to the heading referring to: “The questioning of reality and the suitability of language to describe reality” (Harris, 2000: 152), this explains that certain evolutionary processes have an impact on a progressive change in society and are essential for the evolution of the human being. Among other things, the anthropologist and philosopher of science Donna J. Haraway (1944–), takes as a reference the concept of cyborg, a cybernetic organism, a hybrid between machine and organism, a creature in social reality and in fiction. According to these premises, she developed the theories that have led us to this new reality reality and expressed in his work Science, Cyborgs and Women. The reinvention of nature. In this regard, Haraway anticipated that “the technologies of the body that produce the modern subject are becoming increasingly weaker and are gradually being replaced by technologies of a completely different order” (Haraway, 1991: 11).

These gradual changes in our lives with the technological revolution of the twenty-first century have substantially changed our habits in pursuit of the digital world. They have also conditioned communication at a linguistic level, in relation to lexical competition around virtual realities.

6 The Metaverse for Tourism Purposes

As observed in the report “The Metaverse as a Tourist Destination” (Reyes & Alonso, in Turium et al., 2022: 6–12), a reflection is made starting from the world of video games to help understand the process of the metaverse in real contexts. Video games are indeed the authentic precursors of the transition from the real world to the virtual world. In addition, virtual games have largely driven technological development towards the metaverse, a concept that, despite abundant literature, remains somewhat abstract. Both researchers have used examples from games like Pong (2D representations) to hyper-realistic graphics like Assassin's Creed, where players could explore cities like Damascus or Jerusalem in the twelfth century or visit Florence during the Renaissance. Games like Spider-Man (2018), where the hero recreates New York City. Finally, they have taken Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), as an example in order to show us a certain aspect of a city of dreams that could be Macau (Hong Kong) where reality can be confused with virtuality.

In all these recreations, the cities have been represented subjectively, however, within everyone's reach it is possible virtually, which is why it is an unprecedented advance in the transition from the real world to the virtual one and a challenge in the world of technological advances, both at the hardware and software level, as commented by the authors of the aforementioned report. Additionally, virtual travel will become accessible to everyone, democratizing it in the sense that individuals, regardless of economic, personal, mobility-related, or other limitations (including social and religious reasons), will have the opportunity to visit tourist destinations and interact with them from the comfort of their homes. Through virtual guides, users can explore museums, monuments, enjoy cultural experiences, and participate in various tourism-related activities specific to each destination. This transformation will be achieved through immersive and haptic technologies that allow users to observe real scenes, even perceiving scents, sounds, and more.

On the one hand, the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourist industry, set the need for reinvention by a potentially vulnerable industry, with the possibility of creating interactive virtual worlds and interacting in them. On the other hand, awareness of climate change is another factor to take into account in the spacing of tourist destinations, which is why these emerging needs have developed new trends in technological innovation. The possibility of traveling to virtual spaces will undoubtedly modify the way we travel and see the world. However, are we willing to experience virtual travel through an alternative fictional recreation of human reality? Fernando Broncano, a professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science, writes in his article “Metaverse: Between Reality and Fiction” that “the metaverse has emerged in just a few months as a transhumanist promise to create a new virtual reality where the border between fiction and reality ends up being confusing” (Broncano, 2022: 14). Furthermore, referring to tourism, he believes that it has been one of the human activities that have undergone the greatest transformations in our society and in this regard, he considers to what extent travel through immersion in virtual reality will affect tourism with the dilemma that perhaps it creates a new competition between physical and cyberspace travel, among the many other observations made.

The metaverse has also been studied in Neuroscience, as researchers in this field point out: How does the brain interpret digital reality? David Bueno and Diego Redolar start from the hypothesis “[…] how the nervous system interprets digital spaces and can compare them with a real environment” (see Turium et al., 2022: 21). Furthermore, these researchers consolidate in their study the relationship between the digital and physical world and its implications in relation to the brain, and how this relation influences learning contexts both in the educational field, as well as in tourism, thus forming a common dichotomy, comparing it between different environments:

In a sense, education should be a kind of “intellectual tourism”. Thus, if tourism is defined as “the set of relationships and phenomena produced by the movement and stay of people outside their home, for reasons of leisure, sport or culture”, education would be “the set of relationships and learning phenomena produced by displacement and permanence beyond knowledge and intellectual and cognitive limits. Education understood as intellectual tourism means that both concepts can be intertwined.

Finally, viewing the metaverse from an anthropological standpoint and its impact on individuals provides a new way of understanding human societies. Based on anthropological theories by Marvin Harris, which suggest that humans are in constant evolution, the anthropologist Pablo Mondragón (see Turium et al., 2022: 30) observes “that humans may prefer to live in parallel realities rather than in their own”. He suggests that this is the most recurrent debate when imagining the possible social impacts of metaverse popularization.

7 Lexical Competition in the Field of Tourism

There are many didactic tools in the context of lexical competence around the teaching-learning of tourism lexicon and their purpose enriches the work of teachers, as well as students and tourism professionals who require very rigorous lexical competence regarding lexicon.

To achieve this, we have access to digital dictionaries that are equipped with corpora related to various tourism areas. These dictionaries can be monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual and are increasingly extensive in thematic areas, among which are: specialized monolingual dictionaries for tourism, bilingual dictionaries or multilingual tourism glossaries, and monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual repertoires, all of which favor the acquisition of vocabulary in various thematic areas, generally provided with multilingual textual reference corpora and which are increasingly extensive and complete in the digital field. Among them, we highlight here, the Multilingual Tourism Dictionary prepared by COMETVAL, in the three reference languages, Spanish, French, and English, whose information is connected by hyperlinks that offer additional information offering linguistic and regulatory clarifications, it is designed with new technologies and free online access and offers the user to make all kinds of queries in relation to the science of tourism. In various fields of science, glossaries with specialized corpora are available online to users. As an illustration, we can mention the SEAH (Sharing European Architectural Heritage: Innovative Language Teaching Tools for Academic and Professional Mobility in Architecture and Construction) glossary, developed by five European universities, composed of an academic corpus and designed for architecture and construction and carried out in five languages. In addition to the dictionaries collated on the internet, we have not found lexical varieties around the metaverse. To do this, and after comparing several texts on the matter, we have developed an example of a glossary that allows us to understand not only the word but also the definition in order to be able to apply it in specific contexts and situations adapted to this regard.

8 Lexical Competence Around the Metaverse

Concerning the lexicon of tourism related to the metaverse, there is not yet a specific language that we can use, as it is a concept still in development and has not been fully implemented. However, if we examine various bibliographies, we find that it is already possible to use generalized terms and concepts applied to tourism and adapt them to the virtual environment. The lexicon of tourism in these virtual spaces includes terms related to virtual travel booking, navigation of virtual destinations, descriptions of virtual tourist attractions, interaction with other users, and participation in virtual events and activities. Nevertheless, we will limit ourselves here to using basic definitions and glossary terms to be able to transfer them to the language of tourism in the very near future.

Below, we propose a selection of terms specific to this area of knowledge as a sample. For this purpose, a lexical search has been carried out based on the cited work by Edgar Martín-Blas (2022) Metaverse: Pioneers on a Journey Beyond Reality, together with other works and manuals (See Reference list for an overview). These can help not only in understanding the term itself but also in expanding its definition. According to this author, the pillars of the metaverse, even though they are virtual worlds, should be based on human principles, including Identity, Exploration, Group Membership, Experimentation, and Ownership.

8.1 Pillars of the Metaverse: Metaverse Principles

Glossary compiled from the previously cited work (Martín-Blas, 2022: 15–20).

Glossary

Definition

Identity

According to the RAE “Set of traits characteristic of an individual or a community that characterize them compared to others”. Within this new world, each person will have an appearance, a role, and a personality that may be similar to reality or invented”

Exploration

We will enter a virtual world where we can visit each house, each city, each world, each universe, etc. There will always be a new horizon to aim for […] Since there are no physical laws, the places we will find will surprise us and we will always want to travel to the next metaverse

Belonging to the group

In each metaverse, we will find ourselves in a world with a story that is happening in real-time, from an intergalactic war to a historical event. […] Once trapped by this background, we will be another inhabitant of this place and we will belong to it

Experimentation

Here we can really live experiences that are very close to reality. Virtual devices already offer us interaction with hands, head, and body that allows us to drive cars, fly, dive, fight, or even walk in these virtual worlds of the metaverse

Ownership

This is the last fundamental pillar of the metaverse and the most widespread in the world in which we live, the one that moves markets, and the one that has even caused the rise and fall of empires. […] Currently, these belongings are only available in each metaverse in isolation, but work is already underway so that we can take these properties from one to another as if they were real assets, thanks to blockchain technology

8.2 Immersion Within the Metaverse (Martín-Blas et al., 2022: 13–15)

However, according to Harris (2000), human language is unique in possessing semantic universality, or the ability to produce an unlimited number of new messages without loss of informative effectiveness. The objective of this communication is to update and define concepts in this regard, which are sometimes somewhat diffuse from the perspective of semantics. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to providing examples based on the literature consulted.

Glossary

Definition

Virtual reality (100% immersion)

(VR) A technology that allows users to immerse themselves in a computer-generated simulated environment, which can be a part of the metaverse. This is achieved by wearing a headset that completely blocks our view of the real world, replacing it with a digitally generated one

Mixed reality (50% immersion)

A combination of elements from both virtual reality and augmented reality in a single experience. It is a recent typology, still in the phase of early prototypes, but it will almost certainly be the massive way to enjoy the metaverse in future decades

Web3D (10% immersion)

It is based on displaying the metaverse on a classic PC, mobile, or tablet screen version using a 3D programming and visualization language called Web Graphics Library (WebGL). This is what we call transition technology or protometaverses and is intended for users who do not yet have virtual or mixed viewers

Augmented reality

(AR): Technology that combines real-world elements with computer-generated virtual elements. Augmented reality based on pattern recognition. Augmented reality based on image recognition. Augmented reality based on geolocation

User interface (UI)

How users interact with the metaverse, usually through devices such as virtual reality headsets, haptic gloves, motion controllers, or other peripheral devices

Immersive experience

Refers to an experience in which users are completely immersed in the metaverse, feeling present and actively participating in it

Content creation

Users can create and customize their own content within the metaverse, such as objects, virtual spaces, clothing for avatars, etc

Virtual socialization

Social interaction between users within the metaverse, which may include voice conversations, chat, virtual meetings, events, and more

It is important to keep in mind that the lexicon of the metaverse is constantly evolving, and according to experts the various classifications and typologies change depending on the new challenges of technology and new terms that constantly emerge as this technology develops and expands. Here we have limited ourselves to naming certain concepts and definitions that will be applied in the field of tourism in the very near future. A great challenge between the real world and the virtual world and new approaches is appearing at a dizzying pace, benefits will be expanded and functionalities will be extended. Furthermore, it is planned in the imminent future that we will already use concepts about specialized professions in the metaverse, such as Metaverse Hardware Engineer, Metaverse Marketing Specialist, Metaverser Metahuman Doctor, Metaverse Tour Guide, etc.

9 Conclusions

With this brief exposition of the glossary around the metaverse and its possible applications in the science of tourism, we show that it is important, to perceive the world around us, be critical of the alternative reality, and not to confuse it with the real world. With the virtual world, our task as teachers is to create teaching methods for all students and transmit knowledge in order to perfect their skills. The use and expansion of disruptive technologies such as AI and ChatGPT in the field of teaching–learning is currently a topic of debate in the scientific community in general and in the educational community in particular. Antonia Pades, Doctor in psychology and communication, in a recent article (El economico 1. 6. 2023) referring to the communicative abilities of Sophia the humanoid robot, asks herself “Where will the curiosity and desire for learning of students be left?”.

Lastly, for those of us who believe that the writing process is a consequence of human intellect, stemming from ideas, study, knowledge, and extensive reading, we continue to ask ourselves: How can AI manage the mental and emotional capacities of human beings, given that we are biologically unique and irreplaceable? In conclusion, we wonder if one of the latest works created exclusively through AI, Death of an Author, published under the pseudonym of Aidan Marchine (2023), an analogy taken from Roland Barthes’ concept of the death of the author (1915–1980), following the premise that “infinite ideas intersect in every text” Here, AI adapts to the text as it recreates or replicates an existing idea. However, the question remains: Will a work of such nature be considered part of the canon of Universal Literature? Therefore, we believe that AI represents the evolution of our technological society, a step beyond postmodernity, and the most immediate consequence is a progressive increase in the use of digital technologies in our educational context, potentially overcoming physical limitations in the learning process.