#Inspired TRAVEL
How technology has transformed and remapped the globe, blurring lines between the traveller and the explorer.
OF ALL THE PILLARS involved in building a business in the travel industry, one that has captured my imagination the most is the beginning of the inspirational process: where and how do people choose where to travel to? How is curiosity piqued, and where do moments of true motivation to get out and see the world come from?
For so many periods in history, that inspiration was drawn from the privileged class that had the luxury of moving in social circles where almost everyone was well-travelled. Their inspiration tended to be drawn from circuits that were safe and had seen lots of action. These circuits gave rise to guide books and route maps—iconic images taken in specific locations and tour guides who navigated these routes according to these well-defined maps rather than whims. People who travelled followed a well-acknowledged pattern, while people dared to explore often discovered new territory. One group consulted their guidebooks for the wellknown café; the other uncovered establishments completely unknown to foreigners.
What grips me most about the future of travel in today’s increasingly connected world is that the lines between the traveller and the explorer are so beautifully blurred. Location services free us from the fear of getting hopelessly lost in most corners of the globe. The sharing economy brings us into vehicles and dining rooms that were once the domains of locals and brave explorers alone. Payment systems ease us from the nerves of running out of paper bills and copper coins, while messaging services reassure us that a call to the comfort of home is only as far as the table upon which we rest our phones.
Of course, these services are not available everywhere. But the rapidity with which the world is connecting technologically brings a new and exciting dimension of spontaneity to our everyday travels. While in so much of everyday commentary around technology our ability to connect at any given moment gives rise to a lack of the wading into the unknown, the exact opposite is true in travel. The more globallyconnected we are and the more information and knowledge we have at our fingertips, the braver we are to venture farther afield, stray beyond the boundaries of where we’ve gone before, and push our comfort zones. This is where the complacency of our lives at home ends and the curiosity begins. It’s in moments when we just hope Google weaves our BlaBlaCar through the back alleys of a tiny village and into the welcoming
front porch of a local grandmother whose nieces listed her guest room on Airbnb, for example, that we take stock of our lives and make new connections; generate fresh perspectives and reflect on realities we’ve always held too dear to be challenged. And then we post a photo from that experience on Instagram, and our friends find inspiration in discovering their version of the unknown. The world is a great and complex place; the volume of good people are endless, and so our adventures and experiences are exponentially greater in a digitally-connected world than in an analogue one.
I welcome the impact that technology is having on the future of travel. When technology empowers the traveller to become the explorer, we unleash the magic of the tourism industry. Whether we’re sharing with the world a littleknown mountaintop or a hidden lake side view across any of our Beautiful Destinations channels, there’s one thing we can increasingly count on: thanks to the democratisation of technology, the art of exploration also opens up, revealing a world that is better when you get out and explore it.