Meet Your Digital Twin in Space? Profiling International Expat’s Readiness for Metaverse Space Travel, Tech-Savviness, COVID-19 Travel Anxiety, and Travel Fear of Missing Out

Abstract

The metaverse promises an unimaginable future for digital travelers by enabling them to gain unique experiences (e.g., space travel) that would otherwise be impossible in non-virtual reality. Moreover, COVID-19 travel anxiety has triggered growing interest in virtual environments (e.g., metaverse travel) in the aftermath of the pandemic. The cost-conscious and tech-savvy behavior of travelers has been resurrected in the ‘new normal’; however, the fear of missing out (FOMO) is now dictating travelers’ choices for newness, immersive and rewarding travel experiences. To address these emerging trends, promising new technologies, and untested relationships, the present study explored the effects of COVID-19 travel anxiety on the readiness for metaverse space travel. In addition, the moderating influence of tech savviness and travel FOMO was tested on this relationship. Drawing on data of international expats (N = 386) in UAE, the finding based on structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that the international expat’s readiness for metaverse space travel is positively influenced by their COVID-19 travel anxiety. Moreover, expats with high tendencies of travel FOMO and tech savviness will experience a stronger impact of COVID-19 travel anxiety on their readiness for metaverse space travel. These novel findings guided by prominent theories (e.g., self-determination, SOR, and protection motivation) offer new insights for policy makers and practitioners to strategically achieve digital-tourism transformation and sustainability through emerging and immersive metaverse technologies.

Research on the Impact of Media Credibility on Risk Perception of COVID-19 and the Sustainable Travel Intention of Chinese Residents Based on an Extended TPB Model in the Post-Pandemic Context

“…In the last two years, China entered the post-pandemic era, which means that the COVID-19 pandemic is largely under control in China, but has not subsided and may break out in a small scale or even large-scale event at any time [1][2][3]. However, studies have shown that COVID-19 has triggered a wide range of travel fears [4][5][6][7][8]. Moreover, the continuous variation and mutation of COVID-19 reflects its capricious nature, with the internet being flooded with mass amounts of false information about the COVID-19 pandemic [9][10][11], which may also lead people to panic, fear, or hesitation to travel.…”

Development and Transformation in Digital Marketing and Branding with Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies Dynamics in the Metaverse Universe

“…Journal of Urban Culture Research Meet Your Digital Twin in Space? Profiling International Expat's Readiness for Metaverse Space Travel, Tech-Savviness, COVID-19 Travel Anxiety, and Travel Fear of Missing Out [48].…”

“…COVID-19 travel concern has boosted virtual world interest (e.g., Metaverse travel). FOMO affects travelers' choices for interesting, creative travel experiences [48].…”

Space tourism flow generated from social media data

“…Targeted groups of potential space tourism customers were investigated to collect data through a designed questionnaire on the platform, Wenjuanxing, with a majority population database providing functions equivalent to Amazon Mechanical Turk [2] . The reliability and validity of all constructs showed that the questionnaire was proper for measurement [3] . Data analysis applied the structural equation model with Mplus to examine the CFA model and research hypothesis.…”

“…Most space tourism research is conceptual because data from the nascent industry is limited [2] . Thus this data is constrictive for conducting empirical studies to contribute to quantitative analysis in space tourism [3] . Data from this study were collected by recruiting 361 respondents through snowball and convenient sampling targeted to samples interested in space tourism; 339 responses were adopted after the valid screening of missing data or data bias [4] .…”