Muslim 3D

From metaverse travels, blockchain bookings to NFT souvenirs, your holidays are about to get more digital

Imagine being able to close your eyes and being immediately whisked off to Bora Bora, to be greeted by the sight of glistening turquoise waters on the other side of a white sand beach, and lulled by the comforting sound of waves and of exotic birdsong.

While teleportation technology doesn’t yet exist, the Oculus Virtual Reality (VR) headset can bring you to any virtual destination in an instant. Web 3.0 is about to change the hospitality industry, blurring the lines between the physical world and the digital realm.

From avatar-based travel agents, through blockchain bookings, NFT souvenirs, and sightseeing in the metaverse, the future of vacationing will soon be transformed, and here is what it will look like.

Metaverse-assisted trip planning

Tatler Asia
Mecca Makkah Kaabah
Above Muslim 3D enables visitors to go to a digital recreation of the holy grounds of the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia (Muslim 3D)
Tatler Asia
Muslim 3D
Above In the future, we can expect personal service virtually as we do in real life (Muslim 3D)

With the metaverse, organising a trip has just gotten a whole lot easier. Dust off the VR headset you got for Christmas and slip into the metaverse to browse virtual destinations and seek inspiration. Muslim 3D, for example, allows visitors to explore a virtual reproduction of the holy grounds of the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia. But why stop there? Why not expand your horizons and travel through time to ancient Rome or the mythical Atlantis?

Furthermore, instead of relying on friends and search engines, technology enables instant connection with hospitality providers who can answer questions and provide clients with the same customer service one would expect offline.

Blockchain Bookings

Above The Emirates Oculus VR Experience invites would-be passengers into the First-Class cabin before booking

When you’re selecting real-world seats on Emirates, you may explore the aircraft through an Oculus headset and enjoy the first-class suite with its lounge and in-flight showers. Soon you will be able to treat yourself and book tickets on the whim right inside the VR cabin, too.

For the rest of your bookings, check out blockchain-based travel platform Travala and pay with crypto. With crypto, unfavourable exchange rates are now a thing of the past, as cryptocurrency’s value is universal no matter where you are in the world, with transparent and secure payments guaranteed as long as businesses accept them.

Hotel Perks

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Ca Di Dio Venice
Above Ca' di Dio Venice auctioned an exclusive first-night stay in the hotel (Ca' di Dio Venice)

Why just book a hotel room, when you can theoretically own one? Several innovative hotels are now issuing hotel room reservations as NFTs. These are no mere gimmicks in exchange for a twin bedroom with city views—these NFTs come with an access key to the most invaluable experiences of a lifetime.

Ca' di Dio, the only 5-star hotel in Venice, Italy, reopened with an auction, where the winner paid 1 Ethereum (then worth USD$3280) for the opportunity to have the entire hotel for themselves during its first night. R Collection Hotels’ Grand Hotel Victoria, a luxurious five-star hotel in Menaggio on Lake Como, has also digitised a two-night stay with dinner and massage for two into an NFT. Today, there are entire hotel booking platforms that have launched curated NFTs with utility, providing special rates and extra perks for their stay.

Exclusive Experiences

Any bartender can whip up a house specialty—but what about owning a cocktail under your name? The Sago House in Singapore has just launched a collection of 270 NFTs, where each digital artwork commemorates signature cocktails from its archived menu. Owning the NFT gives the token holder exclusive rights to a specific cocktail, meaning they alone are the only individual who can order the drink at the bar. How’s that for a flex?

There is also Tiger Being, Asia’s first travel and experiential NFT, a collection of 4,096 Solana-based NFTs where members can participate in a series of exclusive experiences and take in perks from partnering hotels, airlines, private yachts and more. Holders can combine NFTs of different rarities to upgrade their membership and become eligible for upper-tier benefits. In the meantime, keep your eye out for country clubs built on the blockchain in the near future.

NFT Souvenirs

It’s 2022, so put down the tacky magnets and mugs. Travel souvenirs can now be encrypted as a digital ledger—an NFT, in other words. Travellers can also collect cryptographic mementoes in the form of a digital collectable Proof of Attendance (POAP) NFT with loyalty and incentives tied to it.

Imagine travelling to the wonders of the world and collecting digital badges as a record of your experiences. The POAP concept is a new way of keeping a record of life experiences, as a digital memento minted into an NFT for a lifelong, immutable record. Instead of passport stamps, collectors can now also share memories through an NFT to prove they’ve attended an event or were part of a specific experience. The Saudi Tourism Ministry has launched the first-of-its-kind NFT souvenir, where 3D drawings of virtual Saudi landmarks are converted into NFTs, gifted to guests who then exclusively own the artwork and can take home a digital manifestation of their unforgettable moments spent in the Kingdom.

 

While the metaverse and a VR flight cabin may not convince you to substitute flying off in your private jet to real-world destinations, the metaverse and all of its Web3 components have provided a myriad of opportunities that will change the way brands reach customers. People can now visit all sorts of destinations, imaginary places of the future or even the past.

So while IRL holidays will not be replaced, but at least the virtual aspect can supplement the real-life, and perhaps a trip to the moon might not be so far-fetched anymore.