  The virtualization of cultural events in the metaverse creates opportunities
to generate valuable and innovative experiences that replicate and extend
in-person events; but the process faces associated challenges. In the absence
of relevant empirical studies, the aim of this article is to analyze the
positive and negative aspects of the user experience in a cultural event held
in the metaverse. A mixed-methods approach is employed to test the proposed
hypotheses. The results from three focus groups demonstrated the difficulty
that users face in focusing their attention on the main elements of the
metaverse, and the inability of this virtual sphere to convey the authenticity
of a cultural event. Based on these findings, a metaverse-focused quantitative
study was conducted to examine whether perceived gamification mitigate the
negative effects of users failing to pay attention in their metaverse
experiences. When users increased their attention levels, their ability to
imagine the real experience and their perceptions of the authenticity of the
cultural event increased, which produced positive behavioral intentions. This
is one of the first studies to empirically analyze the tourist experience in
the metaverse; managers and policymakers can benefit from the results to hold
valuable virtual cultural events.
