The Effects of the Metaverse on Rural Tourism Marketing in the Torghabeh District of Mashhad County

Introduction
Rural tourism, as a productive and complementary activity, has played a significant role in the redistribution of income and job creation in the process of local development. For this reason, it is considered an effective means of economic and social reconstruction and development in rural areas. In recent years, the use of the metaverse approach has garnered attention from many countries around the world as a key strategy for developing tourism marketing, yielding positive results in the development of rural areas. The Torqabeh district, located in the Razavi Khorasan Province, contains 18 mostly river valley villages with numerous features that attract weekend tourists. Additionally, the proximity of these villages to the metropolis of Mashhad, which faces high demand for tourism from its residents and visitors, has led to increased tourism in the region. The villages in this county not only possess natural attractions and favorable climatic conditions but also have the electronic infrastructure, such as suitable hardware platforms, to promote and enhance tourism due to their closeness to Mashhad city. The research examines the effects of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing in the Torqabeh district of Mashhad County, seeking to address the following key questions: What is the extent of the impact of the metaverse approach on rural tourism marketing in the studied region?
 
Methodology
In the present study, in response to the question posed and aimed at providing a robust answer, the study elaborates on the nature and reasons behind the issue and its dimensions. Therefore, this research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of methodology. To collect data, methods such as questionnaires and observations were utilized. Consequently, this research gathered information and data from the studied region to address the research question and assess the validity of the initial research and its realities. In the first step, based on theoretical studies, the indicators of the effects of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing were extracted and identified. As a result, the variable investigating the effects of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing was quantified with 38 indicators. The second step focuses on the practical implementation of the study. Thus, the study area selected for this research is the Torqabeh district of Binalud County, as this region is one of the areas with high potential for rural tourism in Razavi Khorasan province. Binalud County annually welcomes numerous tourists whose primary goal, after visiting the holy shrine of Imam Reza (PBUH), is to explore recreational sites around Mashhad. Figure 1 illustrates the location of the study area and the sample villages. After determining the samples, data were collected through a researcher-created questionnaire based on the variable examining the effects of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing, featuring 38 items. It is noteworthy that two methods were employed to validate the indicators: reviewing prior studies and consulting a specialized panel consisting of university professors and experts. Furthermore, to evaluate the data’s reliability, the Cronbach’s Alpha test was employed, resulting in a high value of 0.93. This indicates that the data is robust and suitable for the research study. The descriptive section of the research examines the average of the items and analyzes the differences in responses among participants using the Chi-square test. In the data analysis phase, exploratory factor analysis was employed in the first stage to classify the indicators. In the second stage, a one-sample t-test was used to examine the mean of the factors obtained from the first phase of the research, all of which were conducted using SPSS software. Furthermore, the Markov model was utilized to prioritize the metaverse approach to rural tourism marketing. The weighting model used in this research is the entropy model.
 
Findings
In this study, factor analysis was used to interpret the relationships among 38 identified effects and to optimize their combination into 6 meaningful factors. The most significant identified effect in this research is the impact of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing, specifically “information dissemination and awareness”, which accounts for 17.23% of the explained variance. Within this context, the “impact of the metaverse on introducing and promoting rural tourism attractions and facilities” is prioritized first with a correlation coefficient of 0.797. The second effect of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing is “marketing enhancement” where “the impact of the metaverse in motivating you to book rural tourism homes online” ranks second with a correlation coefficient of 0.79. The third impact is “interactive participation” with “the effect of the metaverse in forming partnerships and collaborations to boost rural tourism marketing” ranked third and a correlation coefficient of 0.93. The fourth, fifth, and sixth impacts of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing are “sales growth”, “quality awareness”, and “incentive creation”, respectively. Furthermore, considering the normal distribution and interval properties of the factors derived from the previous section (due to the computation of the items) and having a theoretical median of 3, an analysis of the average indices was conducted using a one-sample t-test. The results of this test indicate that in all dimensions, the real average opinion of all respondents is greater than 3 and is at a medium to high level, with the significance level obtained for all dimensions being less than 0.05. Therefore, the results of the mean analysis of these dimensions are significant and can be generalized to the entire population. Additionally, both the upper and lower limits of all factors are positive, meaning that the average of the population in these dimensions exceeds the tested value. This result indicates that the metaverse has had a positive and significant impact on the development of rural tourism marketing in the Torqabeh area of Binalud County. Thus, the most effective aspect of the metaverse’s influence on rural tourism marketing in the studied villages is sales growth, with an average of 3.78. In second place is marketing enhancement, with an average of 3.75, and in third place, information dissemination and awareness, with an average of 3.71. For the spatial analysis of the metaverse's effects on rural tourism marketing, the multi-criteria decision-making model of Marcus was utilized. The results indicated that the strongest impact of the metaverse on rural tourism marketing belongs to the village of Azghad, while the weakest impact is observed in the village of Dehbar, as the former attracts the highest number of tourists.
 
Conclusion
The metaverse approach has played a significant role in the sale of traditional and local products, such as indigenous foods, local product packaging, and online product sales. On the other hand, the effects of the metaverse on rural tourism information dissemination and awareness have helped to showcase the diversity of tourism attractions, promote marketing through tourism networks, understand customer behavior, introduce cultural and artistic tourism exhibitions, inform about tourist locations and their safety, and more. Therefore, all of these aspects are crucial for leveraging the effects of the metaverse to enhance rural tourism. These findings align with the results of researchers such as Rezaei et al. (2022), Virantari et al. (2022), Buhalis et al. (2022), and Goursoi et al. (2022). Based on the overall results obtained, it can be said that the metaverse serves as a facilitator for rural tourism marketing, as it provides a pathway for the advancement of rural areas through urban amenities. In conclusion, the findings from this study underscore the importance of the metaverse in tourism marketing.