The concept of the metaverse has the potential to bring about revolutionary changes in several dimensions of smart cities, including the utilization of energy, supply chain, and operations. However, for it to become a reality, several inhibitors need to be analyzed and addressed. Hence, this study identifies the barriers to Metaverse applications in building smart cities and analyzes the causal relationships among them using the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach. The results obtained by analyzing the responses from fifteen domain experts reveal that the security and privacy concerns as well as the digital addiction of users are the most significant barriers to the metaverse applications