Table of Contents
A global viral pandemic, extreme weather conditions that have become the norm, and economic recession. How can the Web 3.0 token economy and metaverse change the situation?
Since the global spread of the new coronavirus, the travel and tourism industry has been hit hard. Regulations and their effects are gradually lessening, but it will still take some time for the industry to recover to the same level as before. And the damage is greater in rural areas, where tourism accounts for a higher percentage of the industry.
Under these circumstances, the “NFT” and “Metaverse” of Web 3.0 are considered to have great potential.
In the NFT, models that generate revenue by converting local content into NFT, such as local characters, local specialties, and red seals, are attracting attention. In the metaverse, attention is focusing on models that can attract people over the Internet without worrying about distance or risk of infection by building tourist attractions in the metaverse.
Especially in the Web 3.0 era, the combination of NFT and the metaverse will enable the construction of a more realistic economic zone in virtual space than before. This will generate revenue from people who have not been able to visit due to distance and time constraints, and if multilingual support is provided, inbound tourism from overseas can also be expected to increase.
Fortunately, in the era of Web 3.0, translation and interactive AI are evolving at an astonishing pace.
In addition, the NFT market basically tends to favor those with high scarcity. This means that there are ample opportunities for localities, small-scale facilities, and obscure tourist attractions that are not major players in the market.
Established as Japan's first art museum specializing in NFT art, the NFT Naruto Art Museum in Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, is currently attracting attention from a wide range of fields.
The museum originally opened as the “Naruto Galle Forest Museum,” which mainly exhibited the works of craft artist Emile Galle, and was renamed the museum in 2021. The museum has undergone repeated renovations since then, first in March 2022 and then again in March 2023, and handles cutting-edge NFT art in a manner that responds to the changing times.
Major works in the collection include those by Hiro Yamagata, a Japanese artist active internationally since 1970, and Koji Furuno, an internationally acclaimed craft artist. The collection also includes works from the collaboration between the fashion brand “ANREALAGE” and Mamoru Hosoda's animated film “The Dragon and the Freckled Princess.
The NFT Naruto Museum of Art is not only collecting artworks, but is also making efforts to convert artworks into NFT. By publishing existing artworks as NFT, the museum is attempting to bring out new possibilities and values of artworks and deliver them to a wider audience.
This NFT conversion has enabled the company to manage distribution and financing differently than in the past, leading to the development of a new market.
Last May, in cooperation with Cluster Corporation, which operates the “cluster” metaverse platform, the “NFT Naruto Art Museum Metaverse Space Site” was announced, in which artworks and events are presented in a metaverse space.
This project, based on the concept of “sociality x economy,” was designed not only to attract visitors to the artworks, but also to ask whether the artworks have social value and empathy, a question that was widely communicated from Japan to overseas.
The company also sells “Tommykaira ZZII PremiumNFT Membership,” an NFT of a vehicle from the “Tommykaira” sports car brand of Yoshikazu Tomita, founder of the “Tomita Dream Factory.
Purchasers of this NFT will receive a miniature car, a key chain, and even an actual car from the 3D data of “Tommykaira ZZII,” the original sports car of TOMMYKAIRA. The NFT allows for secondary and commercial use of the 3D data, including the creation of miniature cars, key chains, and even the production of actual cars. Even now, the museum's website allows purchases to be made.
In March of this year, the museum launched “Personal HistoryStorage,” which digitizes personal letters, diaries, artworks, collections, etc., and stores them in the museum as NFT.
This service makes it possible to store items related to the “history” of ordinary people in museums through digitization and NFT technology, something that has been difficult for conventional museums due to space limitations. If he wishes, he can sell the NFTs and exhibit them in the Metaverse.
▶︎The apparel brand “Anrealage” and the animated film “The Dragon and the Freckled Princess” collaborated on this NFT work, which was collected by the NFT Naruto Art Museum.
As part of the ▶︎ “Tommykaira NFT Project”, an actual complete car “Tommykaira ZZII” NFT is available for purchase.
The “Digital Mall Ureshino” is a virtual metaverse space that appeared on the Internet in conjunction with the opening of the West Kyushu Shinkansen and Ureshino Onsen Station, a real facility.
The “metaverse,” which allows visitors to move freely within a three-dimensional virtual space, is a field that is attracting attention from various perspectives for incorporation into new endeavors. In the field of leisure and tourism, in particular, there are hopes that it can be used in a way that connects to the actual real space.
The Digital Mall Ureshino is a virtual space created in partnership with DNP and Ureshino City in Saga Prefecture, using the area in front of Ureshino Onsen Station as a metaverse. It was opened to the public in conjunction with the opening of the West Kyushu Shinkansen Line and the actual Ureshino Onsen Station, both of which opened last September.
No dedicated device is needed, and anyone can easily enter the virtual space using a PC or smartphone. Since it can be enjoyed via a browser, there is no need to install an application.
At Digital Mall Ureshino, you can freely explore various places around Ureshino Hot Spring Station and the adjacent “Ureshino Tourism Exchange Center” with your avatar.
Note that the CG spaces of Ureshino Onsen Station and Ureshino Tourism Exchange Center were reproduced based on actual architectural data. Of course, in addition to recreating reality, there are also a variety of other fun features unique to the “Metaverse”.
Avatars can jump as well as move. There are also game-like elements, such as the “athletic” floating in the air in the plaza in front of Ureshino Station, which must be successfully climbed in order to reach a certain spot.
Also, by collecting “coins” on the field, you can spin “capsule toys” and get special offers that can be used at actual shops in Ureshino City.
Also, from the Tourism Exchange Center, visitors can go to a space where famous sightseeing spots in Ureshino City are photographed by a 360° camera, and experience as if they have been there. In addition, a quiz game related to Ureshino City is also available in the plaza, allowing visitors to obtain sightseeing information about Ureshino City while having fun.
Of course, participants can also interact with each other in the Metaverse. You can exchange information and report the current situation with people you have met on your trip using chat rooms. This Metaverse was created with the concept of “Traveling around, Traveling inside, and Traveling around” in mind to promote tourism and revitalize Ureshino City.
Before your trip, you can obtain information on sightseeing in Ureshino City in advance, and you can use the benefits you obtained in the metaverse during your trip. After the trip, you can further deepen exchanges with people you meet.
Future events such as online distribution using real stores as studios will be held within the Metaverse. This is a metaverse where you can cross real and virtual worlds, and enjoy Ureshino City before, during, and after your trip.
▶︎ Images of “Siebold's Footbath” in the metaverse and in real life. Each landmark of Ureshino Hot Springs is realistically reproduced using a 360° camera.
What are the costs and benefits of “NFT-ization”?
NFT-ization is actually easy to create and cost-performant because it is a topic of conversation. A nationwide movement to NFT-ize local products and places of interest has begun with the aim of revitalizing local communities and boosting the environmental industry.
Castles are often the subject of NFT. This is probably because they are uniquely Japanese, are the pride of each region, and look good when photographed or illustrated.
Lula NFT, which has been converting hot spring resorts, sake breweries, castles, and other tourist resources throughout Japan into NFT, is publishing and selling an NFT series called “12 Existing Castle Keeps” in 2022.
This is an NFT of photographic images of the 12 existing castles in Japan and audio commentary by popular voice actors. One of the main features of this series is that visitors can actually visit a castle within a two-kilometer radius to purchase a copy of the book. This is an example of using NFT not only to sell NFT images, but also to assist visitors in enjoying sightseeing.
Another example of NFT related to castles is the conversion of castle seals (commemorative certificates given to visitors to castles) into NFT. This is the “Gojo-in NFT” sold by Excellence and others in 2022. In this project, a limited number of 100 copies each of the castle seals of the Umabashi Castle, Maebashi Castle, Ishikura Castle, Shirai Castle, and Soukai Castle in Gunma Prefecture were sold.
Meanwhile, Geo Technologies, a company known for its car navigation business and the “Trima” application that allows users to earn points based on the distance traveled, announced the “Location-based Map Icon NFT.
This is an NFT version of the icons of buildings and landmarks displayed on digital maps, such as car navigation systems, with latitude and longitude location information added to them. As the first in a series of NFTs called the “GT Building Collection,” the company is selling artwork depicting Japanese castles in dot-picture form.
We can expect to see more and more attempts like this to convert famous landmarks throughout Japan into NFT and use them for tourism and regional revitalization. While there are various methods for regional revitalization, NFT-ization is considered to be relatively cost-effective.
In fact, NFT of images and illustrations is not that difficult, and can be done quickly if one knows how to do it. Even so, the novelty of NFT conversion has the advantage of making it easy to become a topic of conversation. Another advantage is that NFT, being a digital product, does not leave any inventory on hand even if it remains unsold.
However, the time when “anything NFT can sell” has already passed. In order to gain enough buzz to appeal to the whole country, the local community and the tourism industry will need to work together to make the project a success.
In this way, it seems that there are only advantages for the travel and tourism industry and regional development. Of course, there is no doubt that there is great potential. However, it is simply wrong to say that “introducing” metaverse and NFT in the dark is the only way to go.
For example, even if a product that has been popular for a long time as a famous local souvenir is linked to NFT, the number of people who buy it will not increase unless they find it attractive, and some people may think that simply purchasing the product by mail order is enough. Some people may think that they can just buy products through mail-order.
It is only natural that a metaverse will not attract people unless there is something interesting and attractive about the metaverse of the region and its tourist attractions. Even today, many metaverse already exist and are competing with each other.
Even for those who live far away from the region, there are other “nearby tourist destinations” that are easy to get to.
Although the current situation is a kind of “bubble” that is attracting attention, it is ultimately necessary to create “brand value unique to NFT” and “tourism benefits unique to the metaverse. This is something that many creators, including artists and designers, are currently struggling with.
In order to succeed with Web 3.0 in regional development, travel and tourism, it is necessary to have directors and planners who can grasp and understand the characteristics and advantages of NFT and the metaverse, as well as the unique characteristics and attractions of each region.
In addition, in building an economic zone based on NFTs, it is also necessary to take into account the risk of a price collapse of crypto assets, which are closely related to NFTs.
Trying to ignore such risks is as foolish as ignoring the risk of a global pandemic that could reduce the number of customers.
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