Investigating the metaverse awareness of tourism academics

Metaverse has become a concept that has gained importance in the field of education and its use has become widespread. This technology is expected to guide rapid developments in the tourism education process of universities. In the light of all these expectations, it is important to reveal the awareness of tourism academics regarding the concept of metaverse and carry out academic studies on this concept to deliver qualified tourism education. The aim of this study is to determine the metaverse awareness of tourism academics working in public and private universities affiliated with the Council of Higher Education (YÖK). The data of the study were collected by using the 5-point Likert type Metaverse Scale developed by Süleymanoğulları et al. (2022) with one of the quantitative research methods, namely the survey application technique. The sample of the research consists of academics (n=402) registered in the YÖK academic system. Descriptive statistics and explanatory factor analysis of the scale were carried out to determine the demographic variables of tourism academics. Subsequently a t-test and one-way analysis of variance were conducted in line with the hypotheses formed in line with the purpose of the study. The results of the study revealed that there was a difference between the technology and social environment dimension and gender at a significance level of (p>.05). No significant difference was found between the other dimensions of metaverse awareness, namely lifestyle and digitalization, and gender at the (p