What Is the Future of Travel and Tourism?submitted on 4 March 2015
If you are planning a brilliant holiday for this year then you probably arenīt looking much further ahead than that.
However, if we take just a few minutes to look to the future we might be able to see what kind of tourism we can expect to enjoy in a few years time.
Space Tourism
Space tourism already exists but unless you are a multi millionaire you are probably still waiting for the chance to take off for a trip into outer space. To date there have been just 7 space tourists, paying between $20 million and $40 million each for the pleasure of leaving the Earthīs orbit. When will space tourism or a holiday on the Moon become a reality for those of us who have to be a bit more careful with our holiday budget? At the moment the work on printing off hotels and food using 3D printers looks like it could help but it seems likely that it will be a long time before the Sea of Tranquillity is a choice alongside the Med or the Caribbean. Spoiler alert; you wonīt find any water in the Sea of Tranquillity anyway.
Virtual Reality Trips
If you have ever seen Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger then the idea of a virtual reality trip probably isnīt top on your bucket list of things to do. In case you missed it, Arnie was sent on a virtual trip to Mars and it all went wrong and he met all sorts of weird characters and had to go on the run before gasp almost getting violently killed. I like to think that theyīll iron out these minor details before offering virtual reality trips in the local travel agency but when will this happen? Virtual reality technology is moving apace, with the likes of the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR opening up new worlds to us. It is hard to see virtual reality trips ever taking over from conventional holidays. However, before too long it should be available as something to complement our trips. For example, we could slip on our headset and check out our future destination or re-live our holidays all over again. Whether you are interested in hotels near Chester or a suite on the Red Planet, it would be good to look ahead to see what you are going to be getting.
Hologram Hotel Staff and Interactive Rooms
An interesting development that is already being talked about is the idea of filling hotels rooms with amazing amounts of technology. For instance, it could be that you donīt need to speak to a single human being after checking in because you could speak to hologram staff. You could use an interactive water-free shower and control the decoration through your choice of digital images. Some of the technology needed for this kind of digital hotel experience isnīt too far away from existing but is this the kind of travel experience you want? It may be ideal for some people but for many it may sound too much like a cold, lonely sort of hotel stay. If we compare that with the likes of the best hotels and wedding venues in Cheshire we can see that the warm human interaction is often one of the highlights of the stays and events there.
Underwater Holidays
Underwater hotels and underwater hotels are already things you can book, while there was also talk a while back of an underwater golf course being created in the Indian Ocean. It is clear that there is a lot going on under the water that is worth seeing and these new tourist attractions offer a safe and pretty spectacular way of seeing it all. Out of the places under the sea you might visit soon are Poseidon Resort in Fiji and the Ithaa Underwater restaurant in the Maldives, although you can expect to pay a fair bit for this sort of experience. Could you spend an entire 2 week holiday under the water before long? It sounds like a weird way to spend a holiday but there is no doubt that it would be a unique sort of trip.
More of the Same
Having seen all of the travel and tourism possibilities that the future might offer it is entirely possible that we all simply prefer to carry on enjoying our holidays in the same way we do just now. After all, if you love taking the kids to the beach in Spain or going hiking with your partner then maybe the Moon and the deep blue oceans donīt really hold that much appeal for you. Equally, if you like chatting to hotel staff and taking a shower with, err, water; then you might not be too interested in technology packed hotel rooms. Of course, there will always be those people who want to try out the latest novelties and see what the fuss is about. However, it seems safe to suggest that the classic types of tourism will remain popular for the foreseeable future.
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