If Wales wants more tourists, it should be spending money on anything but this

Wales has become the first UK nation to launch in the metaverse. Or, rather, “Wales has become the first UK nation to launch in the metaverse”. Because this is PR speak, and all boldly original marketing claims – especially those relating to the digital realm – have to be treated with a fair degree of scepticism.

Remember Second Life in the 2000s? Remember Pokémon Go in the 2010s? Remember VR holidays during the pandemic? Weren’t these all sensational, revolutionary, potentially addictive digital ventures with a travel dimension that sort of fizzled out after the over-excited media got bored, and the not as many users as expected had tried them out?

While we’re on the subject, remember the metaverse? After all, Facebook aka Meta slimmed down its verse-oriented operations in 2023, sacking lots of staff over two rounds of dismissals, when ChatGPT stole a march on generative artificial intelligence.

So, what is Wales bringing, albeit late, to the meta-party?

Having been criticised often for not listening to what tourists want, Visit Wales hopes by offering an “immersive experience … to inspire future tourists by showcasing the range of experiences, places and attractions available to explore across Wales in real life.” Experience, twice – which is probably because everyone knows any experience online is, at best, halved.

Virtual visitors are invited to navigate a “Welsh-inspired landscape” that gives snapshots of the country’s culture and heritage. Highlights include a visit to a historic castle with a hidden map of Wales, a cable car ride – inspired by the one in Llandudno – for visitors to travel from one side of the metaverse to the other, and an amphitheatre, like the one that once stood in Roman-era Caerleon.

I had a go. To be honest, I thought initially I was only watching a promo video. It reminded me of those clunky scanning 360-wraps used by estate agents too lazy to meet you at the house you want to look at. When I visited, the counter said “1 online”. Was that me? Anyway, what I was looking at turned out to be the Welsh metaverse, and so I took a swig of Brains and bit into a Welsh cake and opened it out to fill my Mac monitor and set off.

The setting was a small, hilly island with the sea on all sides – perhaps a projection of what most Welsh people would like to live on. The avatar was a slack-jawed, hangdog urbanite with a taut Action Man rug in a sick-coloured puffer jacket and burgundy slacks (a cross between Michael Portillo and Jamie Redknapp), who has found himself in a green field surrounded by the sound of waves and seagulls and aeroplanes and bells ringing and sheep. All Wales, at once. Or all anywhere. He, in this pastoral-rural milieu, looked a bit like the losers in Trainspotting who tried out the country for about a minute. Using the keyboard, shift key and space bar, I could make him run, walk and jump. So off we went.

I directed the man – me? – past the flapping green and white flags and artificial-looking trees towards a modern looking building that I thought might be a café or museum. It was a space dedicated to nature and landscapes, I was told, in English and Welsh. I clicked on an information board. Nothing happened.

I managed to leap on to the castle but then got stuck on the turret. I noticed searchlights streaking across the daytime sky. That was weird. Planes kept landing, with far greater frequency than at Cardiff International. We did some somersaults and I left. Or rather, I left the site. I get bored and frustrated with non-intuitive interfaces, whether that’s getting a pint in a London pub or exploring the metaverse.

The graphics? To be honest, they seemed a bit basic, designed to give the impression Wales is sunny and clean and unspoiled. And boring. I’d have appreciated a slate mine scar or an amusement arcade on a rainy day to enhance the reality of the virtuality.

But I am perhaps not the intended market. I’m 58, have been to Wales many times, have even lived in Wales, and I don’t have an Oculus headset or anything similar.

But global visitors to the metaverse, it is claimed, number 600 million annually across a number of platforms; Wales’ is hosted on one called Spatial. Younger users attuned to gaming might enjoy the promised quests, which include collecting dragons hidden across an “island”.

I’m not sure though that they will want to spend hours “building a virtual interactive itinerary which showcases real-life places to stay, attractions and events.” I mean, if you’re going to go to so much trouble, why not go to Wales or, if you are a curious, open-minded traveller living in the US or Ghana or Thailand, somewhere real and near to you? That way you can create a real itinerary and actually do the things: drink Mai Tais, dance to Highlife, eat an XXXL pizza with a drum of cola.

The Welsh metaverse only launched on May 13, so it’s too early to judge its usefulness as a way to attract international tourists.

Minister for Tourism, Hannah Blythyn, said: “The Wales Metaverse has been created to reach new audiences – wherever they may be in the world – and inspire them to visit our awesome nation for real.

“By showcasing some of the best Wales has to offer visitors in this incredibly innovative way, we’re putting Wales in an online sphere where millions of people already meet every day.”

With only 4.2K views and 41 loves to date, it’s got some way to go. Meanwhile, some other tourist board will be trying to “launch” on ChatGPT. Oh I forgot, that’s already taken all our postcards and dreams and itineraries and travelogues and mashed them up, without a fee, and is spewing them back all at once. It all makes me feel like taking a very real, analogue, unplugged, unshared holiday.