THE IMPACT OF METAVERSE-ENABLED DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ON TOURISM MARKETING

This exploratory study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the published academic material on metaverse in the context of tourism marketing. This is done by examining leading journals with published articles related to the phenomenon, the authors shaping the discourse and conducting coauthorship analysis to reveal the collaborative networks. Additionally, the study identified common themes among the published documents to comprehensively understand the metaverse's multifaceted impact. Drawing from peer-reviewed research articles published until November 1, 2023 from prominent scientific databases, a bibliometric and content analysis of 26 articles was performed. Findings revealed that the use of the metaverse in the tourism industry is still in its infancy, with studies only gaining momentum in 2023. Despite the transformative potential of the metaverse, this study sheds light on the current state of academic research on the metaverse and tourism marketing, providing insights into its key contributors and thematic trends. The study bridges gaps in existing knowledge and contributes to explicating an avenue that guides future research and advances understanding in the field. The study argues that the metaverse is causing a paradigm shift in tourism marketing, making the research relevant to practitioners interested in digital transformations in tourism and thus have managerial and policy implications.