While consumer trends such as sustainability, workations, and taking pets with you on vacation are impacting how hotels, resorts and airlines manage customer requirements and expectations today, new technology is developing which will shape how, why, and even where we travel tomorrow.

The pandemic has had a significant role in adopting new technology in the travel sector. Virtual tours, contactless amenities, augmented reality attractions, and UV-light disinfecting robots are a few examples of technologies that will be used in the tourism business in the future.

In a recent article for Travel Pulse celebrating National Travel & Tourism Week, Lucy Pfalz looked at how technology such as this is shaping the industry’s future in exciting and unexpected ways.

1 Contactless Security Measures Using Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is an emerging technology that is becoming more common in airports. Companies like CLEAR and Corsight, the latter of which worked on IATA’s Travel Pass, use biometrics, or the unique shape of your face, eyes, or fingerprints (sometimes all three), to speed up the process at airports and provide a contactless security check for those passing through security checkpoints.

CLEAR is already in over 55 airports, stadiums, and other events across the United States and North America. However, more people want a faster, contactless way of identity verification due to the pandemic, and facial recognition technology can precisely deliver that.

2 Cleaning and bartending robots

The first reports of robots working in the tourism business date back to 2015. But not in the way anyone could have predicted.

Bartenders onboard Royal Caribbean’s Quantum-class cruise ships were the first robots in the business. These robots act like the robotic arms operating in factories and are programmed to do the same thing repeatedly: create beverages.

When COVID-19 spread over the world, however, robots began growing in number and function for reasons other than amusement.

They assisted in disinfecting airports, airlines, and even hotel rooms utilizing UV light technology, such as that used at Key West and Pittsburgh airports, improving sanitization methods while shielding at-risk persons from COVID-19 exposure.

The robots used to improve cleanliness are not intended to replace individuals paid to clean hotel rooms or airports; instead, they work alongside them to eliminate viruses, bacteria and germs that may be left behind even after routine cleaning.

The need for these robots is projected to rise and expand beyond bartending and sanitization. Pfalz reports that last year, a GlobalData study questioned over 475 organizations on what they would invest in over the next year. Robotics was named by 31 per cent of those firms, making it the third most frequent answer overall.

3 Experiences in Virtual Reality

The worst days of the pandemic brought a rise in creative alternatives to traditional tours and travel experiences, effectively triggering the surge in virtual reality travel experiences.

With cities and countries on lockdown and travel completely halted, the worst days of the pandemic brought a rise in creative alternatives to traditional tours and travel experiences, effectively triggering the surge in virtual reality travel experiences.

Many organizations and companies across the travel industry realized the importance of investing in unique, creative, and innovative ways for travellers to interact with a destination or attraction, sometimes even before they leave on vacation. As a result, Tour operators like InsideJapan Tours and destinations like the German National Tourist Board and Visit Malta have invested in AI or VR experiences. And with good reason.

According to new data from Accenture, nearly half of consumers are interested in purchasing a virtual or augmented reality travel experience, such as a virtual hotel stay or an augmented reality tour in the “metaverse”. This term now refers to any virtual reality space that users can interact with in real-time.

“The metaverse is not intended to replace physical travel, but rather provide a complementary enhancement to an overarching experience. Giving the option to sit in a virtual first-class seat, experience the lounge, or walk around a hotel resort or room, opens up opportunities to truly engage and inspire people before they travel,” said Emily Weiss, senior managing director and global head of Accenture’s travel industry group.

“And, through ‘trying-before-you-travel,’ recreating landmarks in all their past glory or allowing travelers to investigate parts of nature, which they cannot explore within real-life interaction, the metaverse can also help create a more meaningful travel experience that delivers on or even exceeds customer expectations.”

While VR and AI will never be able to fully replace actual travel, the metaverse may be utilized to educate and market a location, tour, cruise line, or other travel-related events.

4 Tourism & Space Travel

Another new technology, space flight, has the potential to alter our perceptions of travel drastically. Thanks to groundbreaking enterprises like Space Perspective and Orbital Assembly Corporation, it won’t be just for billionaires and celebrities for much longer.

As early as 2024, Space Perspective will begin transporting passengers into space using SpaceBalloon technology, a more environmentally friendly and carbon-neutral means of reaching Earth’s orbit. In addition, its Space Lounge, which will be built of sustainable materials and give almost 360-degree views, will cost $125,000 per ticket, far less than the alternatives offered by Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos.

“Now, more than ever, people are seeking purpose and meaning in their travel experiences and once-in-a-lifetime moments. Space travel offers not only a brand new destination but also the opportunity to have the quintessential astronaut experience and enjoy the phenomenal beauty of Earth and the vastness of space. Space Perspective offers travelers the thrill of space exploration with the world’s most comfortable and gentle voyage to space,” said Jane Poynter, Founder, Co-CEO and Chief Experience Officer of Space Perspective.

Meanwhile, Pfalz reports that Orbital Assembly Corporation is developing gravity ring technologies to build the first orbital space station where people can live, work, play, and even visit for tourism purposes, all with gravity similar to that found on the moon. This makes space travel safer for everyone’s health and allows them to eat and sleep as they would on Earth.

OAC plans to launch the Pioneer space station, a smaller prototype of what would one day be a space station for up to 400 people, as early as 2025. It will be spacious enough to accommodate up to 28 people.

Whether corporations focus on getting to Mars, the Moon, or merely into orbit, it’s believed that space tourism will become more accessible to all in the following decades and that future technology like artificial gravity will aid in developing safer space travel.

5 Cybersecurity

Issues linked to cybersecurity will have a more significant emphasis on the tourism sector in the future as technology advances for everything from airport security to hotel sanitization and virtual experiences.

In collaboration with Microsoft, the World Travel & Tourism Council recently released a new report titled “Codes to Resilience” which details the challenges and threats that the industry’s increased digitization may face in the future, as well as possible cybersecurity solutions that can be implemented to address them.

According to the report, 72 per cent of all small and medium-sized businesses in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe have previously reported at least one cyberattack; 80 per cent of the travel industry is comprised of small and medium-sized businesses, demonstrating that cybersecurity is a serious concern for the industry.

“Technology and digitalization play a key role in making the whole travel experience more seamless, from booking a holiday to checking in for a flight or embarking on a cruise,” said Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO. “But the impact of cyberattacks carries enormous financial, reputational and regulatory risk.”

Scenic Group’s security breach was highlighted earlier this year. While no stolen customer information was discovered when the breach was initially disclosed, the website did go offline during the cyber attack.

As we look at the future of travel and tourism, issues concerning cybersecurity should remain a constant concern and a top priority.

“Automation and self-service have always been something that most industries strive for to make sure processes are as seamless and efficient as possible. You can see that in airports all over the world with examples like self-service kiosks for check-in and apps for check-in and getting your boarding pass. Those two things seem like an obvious part of the travel process these days, but thinking back to 15-20 years ago, that technology would have blown people’s minds,” said Jordan Bradshaw, Vice President of Northcutt Travel Agency.

“So I like to take that into consideration when thinking about new technologies to come. It seems like technology advances at a slow pace, but when you step back and look at decade over decade rather than year over year, it’s amazing how far we’ve come and to think about what the future has for us!”

The travel industry is at a crucial turning point as the world continues to reopen and recover after COVID-19.

Emerging technologies may never completely replace people’s favourite travel experiences. Still, they may improve safety, reduce time, pique curiosity, and even carry tourists beyond Earth’s atmosphere, which is something, Pfalz believes we should all look forward to.

Source: Travel Pulse