Culture Minister looks towards revenue potential in the Metaverse

“Serious revenue potential” awaits Vincentian creatives whose talent will be put on display through the staging of VincyMas activities in the Metaverse. 

This is according to tourism minister, Carlos James who spoke briefly this week about the country’s plans to leverage its culture through the use of emerging technology so as to benefit persons who make a living mainly during the carnival season. 

While making his contribution to the 2022 Budget Presentation in Parliament, James noted that St Vincent and the Grenadines could be the first Caribbean country to host VincyMas in the Metaverse this year. 

“…A lot of persons didn’t have a clear understanding of what I indicated then, which is not to replace our traditional and existing Vincymas, but to have an additional platform where our creatives can earn an income by exporting their talent in South East Asia, in the Pacific, in Eastern Europe, and other places around the world,” the tourism minister said a press conference this week hosted by the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC). 

It was announced that the cultural festival will be held this year, over two weekends with vaccinated events in keeping with COVID protocols; or in its full, unrestricted state if the country achieves a 70 per cent vaccination rate by March/April. 

James said that the technological space will provide an additional medium “for our creatives to earn income and to export our creatives to a wider target audience and to export our country’s natural resources electronically”. 

Since the announcement to explore the possibility of using augmented reality to export the country’s culture, the tourism minister said his ministry has received several phone calls from several international organisations including the Organisation of American States (OAS) and Meta, formerly known as Facebook; a telecommunications company headquartered regionally, and persons in the Diaspora “pretty much saying St Vincent is on the edge, leading the way in this…development”. 

James announced this week that local artist and entrepreneur, Calvert Jones was appointed as an advisor to the Ministry of Tourism to advise the minister and the CDC on an approach to “very vigorously” develop a platform to facilitate the exportation of SVG’s culture globally, through technology using the Metaverse. 

He also urged people to take it seriously, especially since other countries are also exploring similar possibilities as well.
 
“There is serious revenue potential to be earned from it for creatives and we’re doing this not to replace VincyMas in its current form but to give creatives an additional platform to earn revenue…some of them earn revenue within the VincyMas season and then that’s it, while other Vincentians have regular jobs that they go to. We have to provide all of the necessary and available means for them to earn a little more,” James said.