Marriot Joins Metaverse with NFT Travel Art

One of the world's largest hospitality chains taps new digital horizons to curate endless experiences for tourists

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Marriot Bonvoy
Mixed RealityReviews

Published: December 7, 2021

Demond Cureton

Marriot Bonvoy has joined with several digital content creators to launch three non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aimed at promoting the global tourism industry, the company announced last week.

Digital artists TXREK, Erick Nicolay, and JVY are designing the new NFTs to promote the massive hospitality franchise’s “Power of Travel” global campaign, which debuted on Saturday at the Art Basel Miami Beach 2021 event.

Digital Content Creator Tarek Mustapha, or TXREK, constructed the MΞMORIED NFT, which explores multiple destinations complete with adventures connected by a stream of separate but interconnected memories recreated in blockchain-backed immersive content.

The artwork uses path connector technologies from Marriot Bonvoy, which showcases the firm’s huge portfolio of 7,900 properties.

Jared “Jay” Richardson, or JVY, developed ‘The Emotional Journey’, which focuses on environmental travel, namely for emotional impact on tourists by expressing past and future point of history.

Erick Nicolay’s THE EXPERIENTIAL IN BETWEEN also curates both indoor and outdoor travelling experiences while also promoting Marriot Bonvoy “as the final desination” using 3D immersve experiences, the company said in a press release.

Brian Povinelli, Senior Vice President of Brand, Loyalty, and Portfolio Marketing for Marriot International, said his company was excited to bring its “extraordinary portfolio of hotel brand and endless experiences” to the rising platform.

He explained the company’s NFT strategy, stating,

“We continuously seek opportunities to defy what is conventional and, with our entry in the digital goods space, we are further igniting the transformative power of travel in the virtual world, while supporting this growing community of incredibly talented artists”

Social media platforms such as video streaming platform TikTok and Pinterest have featured content for Marriot Bonvoy’s Power of Travel campaign, with the firm set to expand it further across the Metaverse in the near future.

NFTs, Metaverse Back Businesses in the Tourism Industry

The new NFT projects are set to fuel growth in the Metaverse, the immersive communications platform widely seen as the successor to the Internet, and will also lead to a booming market for content creators.

The news comes just after XR Today reported updates from Tourism Innovation Summit (TIS) officials speaking at the VRARA Global Summit in Europe, who explored new XR solutions and support for startups to restart the global tourism industry, which was badly hit by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Barbados recently shocked global audiences after announcing it had struck a historic deal to sell sovereign digital real estate to build the world’s first Metaverse embassy with Decentraland, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency real estate firm. The initiative aims to streamline digital processes and offer support for visitors, as well as promote the Caribbean nation’s tourism industry, among other services.

 

 

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