Economy Middle East (EME) recently published an article on how the metaverse can change tourism and travel as we know it.
We follow this up with an interview with the Founder of GetTransfer.com, Alexander Pershikov.
A recognized leader in global mobility and transport with GetTransfer.com, Pershikov was an early pioneer in exploring digital experiences and adopting VR techniques, and later creating a metaverse marketplace for content creators to showcase their talent with GetExperience.com.
Who is Pershikov and what’s the idea behind creating a metaverse experiences marketplace?
The disruptor
Pershikov can best be described as a positive disruptor. Faced with illogical, expensive, or complex business services, he turns around and produces streamlined, competitive, and simplified business solutions.
Over six and a half years ago, Pershikov sought a concierge service to inquire about the cost of a car transfer from Courchevel, France to Geneva. To his shock, he was quoted 800 Euros.
He jokingly asked the service wherever he was offered to buy the car, instead of ordering a transfer?!?
“I dug deeper and I thought that’s a business I want to manage. That’s how I became the founder of GetTransfer.com,” Pershikov told EME.
The travel mobility ecosystem that Pershikov creates works to allow clients to get the best prices via bidding engines for airport transfers, rental cars, experiences, and way more.
A while back, people also started talking about traveling virtually and this got Pershikov curious.
“Same thing. I talked to tech experts, tested technologies, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook (meta), among others, and it became clear to me that the time has come for people to travel in VR and META,” he said.
“I started to learn more and found that for mass metaverse travel to happen, the resolution and the size of the $300 headsets had to be upgraded. I expect it will be solved this year or the next.”
Pershikov founded the company GetExperience.com, allowing travelers and tourists to enjoy offline and online experiences, including travel, gaming, and now via the metaverse.
The differentiator
It’s not enough to digitize services. They need to be streamlined, easy to use, and competitive.
For Pershikov, these are key differentiators for his business success.
He explains: “If you want to go on a safari, you are likely to go online and browse, look up ‘safari’, and find aggregator listings that include some 300+ safari trip offers and even much more, that are even hard to compare well. You scroll and scroll, push one button after the next one, get confused, and give up, making for a terrible user experience.”
“You’re also likely to address a concierge that does it for you. But here, you’re not in charge of pricing and you end up overpaying up to 200% for these third-party charges. We know of a better way.”
Let’s assume you’re in Dubai and have $300 to spend over 2 days and you are seeking the best possible experiences or combination for that budget.
“With GetExperience.com, you can use your smartphone to suddenly have people start bidding you to provide the best possible experiences for that money.
Some will give you great exclusive offers, others discounts from $500, while a few will put together a great bundle with free transfers to distant locations which you will hardly be able to resist,” Pershikov said.
“All you need to do is indicate your location, the budget, and the dates, and magically hundreds of service providers will start making you irresistible offers. This is our magical bidding concept!”
Pershikov explained that ‘experience’ providers “use our platform to compete for our best clients and provide hugely discounted prices, as well as bundle additional experiences for free or at a discount such as jet-skiing or skydiving, in order to draw users.”
“We believe in the invisible hand of supply and demand. We rank suppliers’ scores that allow them to join the platform, eliminate scams, purge misinformation and end up with a range of qualified 2–5-star experiences for any taste. We motivate providers to compete for customers who then rate their journeys with feedback on their experiences.”
Metaverse: The future of travel
Following years of know-how in the mobility sector, GetExperience is now piloting its way into metaverse travel experiences through a tender-based marketplace.
“As a platform, we don’t have our own metaverses. We help creators, owners, hosts, and guides by offering ideas in support of interesting projects, we show how best to generate great experiences, and we help to sell them afterward,” Pershikov said.
“The metaverse is the biggest travel market shift we have witnessed in the last 30 years since regular aircraft became a mass market travel option. But today, you might not want airplanes and might choose VR/META experiences instead. People can travel to the Himalayas at the push of a button and everyone will recognize how great this is.”
Travelers will simply realize they don’t need a ticket, don’t need to queue at airports or go through customs, and won’t need to spend $3000 in travel costs when a push of a button will bypass all that.
And the experience will be magnified, gamified, and much more exciting.
“Using a helmet, you could select the experience you like. Maybe visit Pompei and combat the terminator as lava ravages the city again. If in Egypt, perhaps you want to win against the Sphinx who is attacking you,” Pershikov explained.
And to make this happen, tools and devices for the metaverse market are ready to explode.
5G and 5 senses
“Microsoft will come up with new headsets soon. Apple is coming up with a never-before-seen cool headset, while Meta is introducing a new generation of its own Oculus headsets, all of which will natively support 8K resolution, a major upgrade from a mass 4K adopted market today,” Pershikov said.
“Currently, there are headsets supporting 8K resolution but they cost upwards of $3000, however the ones costing in the $300 range and supporting 8K are arriving soon.”
Many users don’t realize that headsets also relay big data about our eyes, whether we are blinking or zooming in on objects, and these are reactions that experience providers can understand to enhance the travel journey for users.
“This doesn’t happen in a classical experience with a tour guide, for example, who is unable to interpret human reactions as he just might not see or recognize them to ensure that what he is saying is understood by all or not,” explains Pershikov.
And to provide 8K resolution, 5G is a must. In Dubai, 5G is available, but according to Pershikov, 5G installations will increase soon as more pent-up demand for the metaverse develops.
As for recreating sensory experiences, VR headsets, and haptic feedback suits enable us to digitally touch, hear and even smell objects in the metaverse.
But, what about taste? Elon Musk’s Neuralink project could directly stimulate neurons in the brain.
“With Neuralink implants, we can theoretically manage the taste feeling virtually. Meta and Microsoft are not into the taste aspects yet, but one day the metaverse will simulate the function of our 5 senses virtually and maybe this will also disrupt restaurants as we know them,” assures Pershikov.
