The future of travel: what will holidays look like in ten years?
With the world becoming increasingly wireless, and our limits of possibility receding by the day, the face of travelling is on the course to changing completely over the next decade. But what can we expect? Check-in by robot? Budget flights to the moon? Virtual reality holidays? While these things may sound crazy, the technology exists. Believe it or not, here are a few changes you may well be seeing over the next decade:
The Hotel Room 2.0
From wrist bands that monitor your heart rate, count the calories you’ve burned and analyse your sleeping patterns, to wireless house remote systems, it comes as no surprise that the hotel room of the future will be hyper-interactive and hyper-connected. And we’re not just talking about a bluetooth connection to unlock the door or turn the lights off. From pillows ‘embedded’ with electronics to massage your neck and wake you up in the morning to hologram personal trainers, even your shower will interact with you, using sound technology to ‘agitate’ the dirt from your body and telling you when you’re clean enough to get out thanks to a traffic light system.
Space Travel
No longer relegated to the confines of Sci-Fi, space travel is becoming an increasingly real possibility and increasingly affordable possibility. For a mere $75,000, you could earn the ultimate in traveller’s bragging rights with a brief trip spent floating weightlessly in low Earth orbit. Those who had in mind a more Apollo-style excursion to the moon will, unfortunately, have to wait a little while longer. Once they get there however, they may well stay in a lunar hotel. Architects Foster + Partners have teamed up with the European Space Agency to explore the ways in which they could build structures on the moon thanks to 3D printers.
Staycations
With the rise of peer-to-peer collaboration sites such as AirBnB and Couchsurfing.com, you no longer even have to leave town to take a vacation. Just rent your neighbour’s house for the thrill of the unknown. Within the next decade, 5-10% of people could be renting out their homes to travellers creating a surge in the phenomenon of ‘social travel’. No longer wanting to feel like tourists, more and more travellers are opting for a personalised and authentic experience, with supper clubs and the like set to become a part of the traditional travel industry.
Extreme Tourism
Most people would get a sufficient kick out of bungee jumping, or a quick dip with the sharks, but for some that’s not enough. Cue ‘extreme tourism’, where more and more travellers are journeying to so called ‘forbidden-zones’, or destinations made inaccessible due to conflict or political turmoil. Whilst the prospect of flirting with danger and possibly even death, may sound appealing to some, our advice is to opt for a nice countryside mini-break. Who knows, you may even spot some wild animals!
Underwater Tourism
By 2024, sub-aquatic hotels are set to be just another of the accommodations options on offer to travellers. But you’d better start saving now. A week at the Poseidon resort, an underwater structure in Fiji will set you back a cool £9,000.
That being said, being able to sleep with the fishes and living to tell the tale is probably priceless.