Amanda Matthews, managing director of homeworking agency Designer Travel, said trips to the metaverse were unlikely to become people’s preferred holiday choice.

“If they take a short break, yes – but I don’t think it will be their main holidays,” she told members of the Hays Travel Independence Group (Hays IG) on Sunday (5 March). 

Matthews’ words were echoed by travel journalist Sam Ballard, who last year launched Leicester-based cruise-focused agency Club Voyages. Ballard said it remained to be seen how significant the scale of metaverse trips would be.

The comments came as consumer and shopper behaviouralist Ken Hughes told agents businesses have to become phygital – part physical and part digital – to better cater to customers’ needs.

“We are a digital-first world, we tend to do everything digitally,” said Hughes in keynote speech. “So you have to have a strong digital game.”