Avatar Manipulation in Metaverse: The Consequences on Customer-Brand Relationships in Tourism

Technology development, such as immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, and the utilization in the virtual environment, i.e., metaverse, has enhanced and enriched customer-brand relationships (CBR). Particularly in tourism, which is experiential, CBR is formed throughout a holistic tourism journey. This study aims to explain how the different levels of interactivity to communicate with the customer (using avatar manipulations with deepfake in a metaverse environment) can affect customers, specifically brand attractiveness, affective/cognitive brand trust, and brand recall. Drawing from a literature review, this study provides a framework on interactivity manipulations that can help to what extent a brand can manipulate its deepfaked-avatar appearance and the extent of interactivity held on metaverse. At last, three research agendas are suggested, especially on how deepfake and metaverse affect brand personality and customer-brand self-congruency, deviant behavior or value co-destructions on tourism experience, and overall tourist journey on metaverse.