South Korea continues to develop Metaverse

South Korea has always attached great importance to the development of the digital economy. In the era of the new crown epidemic, South Korea's digital economy driven by the government  has grown rapidly. South Korea was once optimistic about the Metaverse, and since 2020, it has begun to deploy its efforts in the Metaverse. Among them, the cultural tourism industry is one of the key contents of South Korea's construction of the Metaverse.

In July 2020, the President of the Republic of Korea proposed the Korean version of the New Deal with digital and green as the two major policy axes to promote the upgrading of South Korea's economic and social structure. The South Korean government has prepared a five-year budget of 114 trillion won for this purpose. In 2021, South Korea established the Metaverse Alliance and the Metaverse Industry Association, which means that the Metaverse and artificial intelligence, blockchain and other technologies have become key projects for South Korea's development.

In the process of building a metaverse in South Korea, the cultural and tourism industry has always been the focus. In June last year, travel company TRAVOL UTION launched the "Seoul PASS" campaign at ZEPETO. Merchants have created many virtual spaces on ZEPETO for users to collect discount coupons, which can be used in real-life consumption.

In November last year, Seoul announced that it would construct a "Metaverse Seoul" within five years, and the platform should be completed by the end of this year at the latest. Culture and Tourism are two municipal administration services that will be introduced into Metaverse Seoul. Both domestic and foreign users can come to this virtual space to travel and become online "tourists" to visit famous attractions in Seoul. At the same time, historical landmarks that no longer exist are recreated in virtual space.

In addition, South Korea has taken the lead in converting many important cultural relics into NFTs and putting them on the chain and auctioning them. This means that South Korea is using the Metaverse platform as an important platform for cultural outreach.The metaverse has a vast space and huge potential, which undoubtedly further enhances the interaction and sociality between games and cultural tourism.