Enhancing the Museum Experience on the Metaverse: The Blend of Technological Embodiment and Social Presence

The metaverse is currently highlighted as one of the technologies with the greatest potential, particularly in the tourism industry. Despite this fact, most of the research on this topic has been of a conceptual nature. This research aims to contribute to this nascent research field by analyzing how the use of the metaverse for viewing a museum can influence the different dimensions of the customer experience. For this purpose, the degree of technological embodiment of the device, as well as the presence (or not) of other users in the digital environment, will be taken into account. Two focus groups were conducted to explore this matter. The results bring to light the importance of the affective and cognitive states that customers feel when they are in the museum through the metaverse. In addition, participants indicate that they prefer to experience the metaverse museum with other people, noting that this closeness to other users may be greater when embodied technologies are applied. This research contributes empirically to this field of research by trying to delineate how the museum experience should be constructed to offer value through the metaverse.