London is a brand before it’s a city. It sells to an international audience that has never been there, and anything pairing that name with a modern prefix inherits some of that reach. Meta is the right prefix because it outlasts the technology it’s currently associated with. The virtual worlds reading is real enough: a digital London, a mirror-world project, a VR venue, an immersive studio working with the city. But meta has been a productive prefix in English for far longer than any platform, and meta-London also reads as London about London.

No city on earth is a better candidate for a digital twin. Fixed footprint, no cars, a strict and instantly recognisable visual language, and more visitors than residents. Venice already behaves like a simulation. That makes the virtual worlds reading unusually credible here rather than generic. But the name survives without it, because meta-Venice also reads as Venice about Venice, and the city generates an enormous quantity of writing, art and argument about itself.

Care homes, hospitals and accessibility organisations use virtual travel programmes seriously, and the sector grows as the technology gets cheaper. That’s the reading most people miss. The larger commercial market is planning. Hotel and destination previews, walkthrough tours and immersive content all drive booking decisions, and the tourism boards and operators funding them have budgets. People about to spend thousands want to see a place properly first. The name suits a content platform, a VR tourism producer, a destination marketing product, or a publication.