The Future of Tourism is Tech

Technology has had a seminal impact on travel, and its effect will be even more visible over the next 20 years

- BY DEEP KALRA

IMAGINE A SITUATION where your travel booking platform is an interactive part of your holiday plans. Based on your choices, moods and aspirations, the platform could integrate and recommend destinations. Not just that, it could even give you an immersive peek into that destination be it marvelling at the Northern Lights or the Great Barrier Reef; you could actually 'be' there with your travel partners in the metaverse-while sitting in your living room.

Travel and technology are all about going beyond and seeing the yet unseen. The expanse of self-service technologies has limitless potential. Indeed, technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) have already started reshaping how we look at travel. Future developments in the coming years will only accentuate this trend further. From no-contact flight boarding, our mobile phones could ensure the correct temperature of rooms and amenities customised according to preferences and health conditions at the time of hotel check-ins.

Technology has had a seminal impact on travel, and its effect will be more visible over the next 20 years, providing people with convenience, safety, and fewer touchpoints. However, we must remember that travelling is, after all, a transaction in experience. We travel for enjoyment, to discover fresh delights and mysteries, to engage with nature, and experience new joys. While technology is rapidly assisting in making that experience more complete and immersive, it will never be able to replace the actual experience of physical travel.