The future of travel

Horizons News - Thursday December 13, 2007

TRAVELLER'S TALES

The future of travel

DON ROSS

Technology has re-engineered travel and the way we book it, delivering self-service options that were previously dispensed by trained staff in travel companies and airlines.

I suppose that is what we appreciated the most about low-cost airlines. They cut out the experts and planted us in the driving seat, allowing us to tick boxes on their websites and complete the transaction with our credit card details in a matter of seconds.

While the traditional travel agent didn't, as earlier anticipated, gasp and fall over in a gutter stone dead, a new generation of technology companies emerged to push the self-service travel envelope even further into our laps.

A travel technology event, Web in Travel checks the milestones of this fast changing scene, where obscure online travel companies hold sway.

Held annually in Singapore, the event organisers manage to attract a mix of technology gurus and travel professionals, who identify the latest trends that are turning travel into a self-service and out-of-the-box experience.

Just two years ago it was called Wired in Travel. This year the event re-invented itself as "Web in Travel", a hint that even a cutting-edge travel event cannot rest on its laurels. It's all about catching the tail of swift shifts that now promise us a virtual life in travel if that is what makes us happy. So without a hint of a smile on their faces, technology experts introduce to Asia's travel industry the next round in challenges with phrases such as "second life, time compression and life extension."

Motoring through my sixth decade, the mention of a "second life" stirs me from my back row slumber. Web in Travel gets into first gear with one speaker telling us how old he is, before he tackles the subject of where web travel is going over the next 15 years.

He asks if there is anyone in the audience who might be older. That's optimistic. No one responds so he decides that's a cue to wander off into the history of 20th century communications. He forgets the old faithful telex machine, but I am not about to correct a youngster on that omission.

Now second life is an entirely different kettle of fish. I could sign up for that, I thought. But there is always a hitch. You have to be technology savvy enough to know about 3D web and own a super fast broadband for this ultimate ride into fantasy.

Yet there is no doubt that "second life" is taking off and marketing and media organisations know the commercial value of gaining entry to your virtual and private play pen.

So forget email broadcast, even the video clips of YouTube and the banal bantering of social community networks, the door is open to your very own digital second life.

Travel is almost a perfect fit for the future consumer to weave a second life on the web. But does this spell disaster for the travel agent struggling to sell tickets in real time? Probably, but none of the 250 delegates at Web in Travel seem to care.

There are more important subjects on the agenda like the "future travel consumer and what he will be doing two to five years down the road."

For sure, travel consumers will not be shuffling into a travel agency trying to buy a discount ticket. Every trend points to self-service with consumers planning travel, downloading booking widgets and executing check-in at an airport on their mobile phones.

Some will opt for a "second life" on the web where they will create their own space with travel experiences played out. Using 3D web technology, they will carve out travel worlds with fantasies and dreams bundled into the almost perfect escape from the humdrum of their domestic "real world."

Travel marketing gurus in Asia have yet to pick up on the opportunities second life space offers. Obviously, theme parks such as Hong Kong's Disneyland could create their own 3D tour of the park, making it as real as the actual visit.

Companies could create a virtual visit to their offices and showrooms; although experts believe current attempts are invariably carbon copies of a dull "real world" and lack imagination.

For some savvy second life creators, actually visiting a destination may become an option they can skip all in the name of reducing carbon emissions. Given the alternative of having to buy a couple of hundred trees whenever they book an airline seat, consumers may opt for a second life experience on the web - a cartoon-like vacation.

If you need a touch of reality you could always add digital taxi drivers ripping you off, or tourist police attempting to gun you down in a department store as you run amok to the refrains of Jingle Bells and I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus. We can take solace that for every trend taking us over the edge of reality, there's an equal and opposite force beckoning to go in the opposite direction.

Charting what he called "the new social dialogue," media and entertainment trend analyst, Michael Tchong, warned that we live in a "TMI" environment - too much information, constantly pushed at us and always invading our space.

Mr Tchong works for an online media and entertainment firm, Ubercool, but is described as a "serial entrepreneur" who has developed a variety of cutting-edge media and technology companies.

He calls our world the "too-much generation" but notes that there are conflicting trends. On one side we face "time compression" (that what's my mother called "not enough hours in a day") and on the other the move to "life extension."

That is typified by the emerging "slow-food movement" run by people who feel fast food jogs them along at a pace that is neither healthy nor graceful.

I doubt if there is a slow-food movement here in Thailand, but the propensity to grasp the latest mobile phone gimmicks means we are right up there with the herd rushing to the portal of a digital lifestyle and ultimately self-service travel.

To reach the future travel consumer, companies will have to recognise the emergence of "my space."

We will create a digital area where only the subjects and friends that we want to reach us will filter through. Reaching consumers will depend on how smart companies are at positioning their widgets and electronic barcodes with embedded information.

Airlines and hotels will seek to embed a search and booking tool in our space to allow us to book and buy products using our mobile phone. If we see a billboard or advertisement we like we will be able to download the barcode to our mobile phones by just pointing it at the advertisement. It will give us immediate access to the product and booking systems.

Not exactly what I had in mind for a second life, but as the Web in Travel speakers note there is always another option, such a nipping around the corner to your slow-food outlet and taking a nap on a park bench.

Contact Don Ross at info@ttreport.com

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