Introducing Combined Metaverse XR Experiences: When the Ionian Film Office also Serves as a Tourism Location Guide for Ionian Islands in Greece.

Abstract

This case study describes our attempt to extend the reality of visitors of the Ionian Film Office, a public service inaugurated and supported by the Prefecture of Ionian Islands in Greece, using proprietary Metaverse environments. After the cash rebate regulation law, Greece became one of the most attractive locations to film in Europe. Film Offices is the first stop that a producer or a director makes in order to decide if their going to locate the production of their film in that place of somewhere else. The availability of metaverse environments offering advanced interactivity, supporting various types of interaction modes are important factors that allow virtual/physical collaboration to be realized. In this work we explore various developmental aspects that should be considered from different perspectives that include: adaptation of the intended interactivity scenario and use of the virtual space for other complementary purposes beyond its original intended use; various issues that commonly arise during collaboration as officials have to be present and interact in both the actual and virtual spaces with producers; designing for potential tourists or tourism office representatives who explore the available information gathered from a visiting-touristic perspective; the incorporation of various uses that include providing a shared visiting space for virtual exhibitions within touristic expos; the ethical and legal implications that arise. During the implementation of the project, the research team obtained copyright information on creative materials already existing outside the metaverse, such as paintings, photographs and other images used by the Ionian Islands Film Office as a physical space. For the creative material that is protected by copyright, we ensured copyright clearance, that is, we obtained the required authorizations to reproduce and share online the digitized material for the purposes of the project.With regards to ethical implications, the research team took into serious consideration the ethical challenges raised in a virtual immersive environment by acknowledging that the metaphor of a virtual activity may give rise to a very different digital crime than within the physical world. In light of the above, it was decided that the commercial activities that require credentialed access to content and engagements will need to have a mechanism of verifying the identity for each user.