THE FUTURE IN FOCUS

How technology is likely to revolutionise travel in the decades to come

MOBILE HOTELS

The first consideration for every property you book is its location, but what if the hotel could move to where you really wanted it? Cooper Carry Architects won 2019’s Radical Innovation Design Award for Hospitality for its “Connectic” concept (pictured above and left). The octahedral structure can be installed anywhere – for example, for temporary use in a park or green space, attached to an existing building or filling a space between buildings.

CLEAR VISION

Hotel operations software company Guestline predicts the widespread integration of glass walls that can double as voice-controlled TVs or become digital wallpaper. Bathrooms will also be clad in glass, although a simple voice command will make them opaque when you’re looking for privacy.

AI BEDS AND SMART MIRRORS

Smart mirrors will be installed in hotels of the future, according to Yotel. It surveyed 2,000 UK travellers and 72 per cent said they expected hotels to have hyper-integrated walls with interactive mirrors by 2050. Respondents also said they expected AI-assisted beds that morph to fit the sleeper’s body shape and sense sleep cycles, and retract when not in use.

GOING UP IN THE WORLD

Students Ruslan Mannapov and Airat Zaidullin won the student category of 2019’s Radical Innovation Design Award for Hospitality for their “Rooftop Hotel Gardens” design – metallic and glass modules allowing additional rooms with great skyline views.

BIOMETRICS AND VOICE ACTIVATION

You’ll pay for your hotel using fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition, as well as unlock room doors, according to Oracle Hospitality’s report Hotel 2025. Sound scary? Well, Yotel asked travellers what they envisioned in hotels in 2050 and 88 per cent favoured facial recognition for room access. Voice commands are expected to regulate lighting, air con and heating in hotel rooms, according to Guestline, and smart showers will detect the optimal temperature by registering the heat levels from a guest’s touch.

AERODYNAMICS

The “Flying V” (above) is a prototype being funded by KLM and developed by a Dutch university. Its aerodynamic shape reduces fuel burn by 20 per cent compared with an A350 and the passenger cabins, cargo hold and fuel tanks are located in its wings, which fit within existing gate infrastructure. KLM says the design would “improve passenger experience, from the seating layout in the wings, to the design of the seats and bathrooms”.

Airbus recently trialled wing tips that flap in the wind (right). They are designed to move like an albatross’s wings to minimise the effects of turbulence.

EVTOLS

Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft are all-electric and companies such as Volocopter (pictured), Lilium, Uber and Airbus are developing models. They could revolutionise urban mobility, although regulatory approval will depend on safety considerations and how people react to them flying low overhead.

SEAT DESIGN

The growth of premium economy may see new types of seat emerge. The design pictured on the right, by UK firm Universal Movement, folds to create two firm “wings” on both sides that add privacy and allow you to rest your head.

Can business class get any better? Mike Crump, brand experience director at Acumen Design Associates, believes aircraft interiors could become more flexible, with options for dual dining, double beds, family areas and work spaces, breaking down class structures.

The biggest changes are likely to be in technology – for example, facial recognition syncing your IFE to your personal accounts and adjusting your comfort preferences, and immersive experiences provided via OLED screens.

GOING ELECTRIC

Electric aircraft are coming, but their capabilities depend on the development of batteries. There are more than 170 companies working on electric and hybrid aircraft projects, from Airbus and Boeing to start-ups such as Wright Electric. Rolls-Royce is working on the fastest-ever all-electric aircraft (right), set to fly this year, and has teamed up with Airbus and Siemens on the E-Fan X, a two-megawatt, hybrid-electric engine for commercial aircraft due to debut in 2021.

The biggest markets for such aircraft would likely be short-haul airlines and private aviation. Easyjet says it wants to fly routes such as London-Amsterdam with electric planes by 2027, although critics say this is overly optimistic.

Long-haul electric flights are a distant prospect. As Airbus’s chief technology officer, Grazia Vittadini, points out, batteries that are 30 times more efficient and “energy-dense” than they are today could still only fly an A320 one-fifth of its current range with half of its payload.

THE NEW SUPERSONIC

The US Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration say they are “taking steps to advance the development of civil supersonic aircraft”. Boeing has partnered with US manufacturer Aerion to develop a plane (see artist’s impression above) that would fly at Mach 1.4 (approximately 1,600km per hour). Meanwhile, Boom Supersonic is building a Mach 2.2 aircraft that it hopes to fly by mid-2020, and Lockheed Martin has a contract with NASA to build a “low boom” demonstration aircraft.

AIRPORT DESIGN

Entries to the annual Fentress Global Challenge, an airport design competition for young architects, provide a glimpse into how different the airports of the future could look. The winning 2019 design by Daoru Wang shows a “drive-through airport”, with aircraft moving through phases in a line and the terminal facilities in a skyscraper rather than sprawling at ground level. Another design by Christopher Johnson (pictured above) sees an aircraft drivethrough process take place underneath the terminal.

CHECK-IN AND BAG-DROP

IT provider SITA predicts the end of airport check-in desks, which will be replaced entirely with online checkin and self-service points, with passengers updated on every stage of the journey – boarding, flight changes, bag movements – via their mobile phones.

SITA says that in the future remote bag drop-off and collection will be offered at multiple points in the journey, such as at a train station, car park or coffee shop. These will be connected to high-speed conveyor belts and tracked throughout the journey. More services will enable pick-up or delivery to homes and hotels.

STREAMLINED SECURITY

A new generation of sophisticated security scanners is emerging that will eliminate the necessity for liquids to be put in plastic bags or shoes to be removed. Combined with facial recognition, such devices will transform how travellers pass through security. In the near future, security measures could simply involve an escalator ride through various face and body scanners, or may even be carried out on public transport en route to the airport.

ROBOTS

Already answering queries at airports including Heathrow, robot assistants will become more sophisticated. They will park cars (as the above model from Stanley Robotics already does), drive passengers to their gate through facial recognition, and solve complex issues.

BETTER BIOMETRICS

Biometrics are well under way to revolutionising how we navigate the airport. As well as getting you through check-in, security and boarding without a passport or boarding pass, facial recognition will likely be used to let adverts target passengers based on age, gender or mood, provide lounge access, and as payment for shopping.

HYPERLOOP MOVEMENT

British Airways’ report BA 2119: Flight of the Future suggests airports, and even aircraft, may be integrated with a hyperloop-style transit system (pictured), with travellers transported in modules from craft to craft. Check-in, food, drink, IFE selection and visa checks could be carried out within the hyperloop (a proposed high-speed mode of transport moving passengers via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube).

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

Visited everywhere? Soon you’ll be able to leave the stratosphere with the launch (pun intended) of space hotels. Elon Musk’s Space X Starship (pictured) aims to fly its first private passenger around the Moon in 2023, and Virgin Galactic is still marketing its £200,000 flights aboard its Space Ship Two for take-off this year.

The Gateway Foundation’s Von Braun Rotating Space Station plans to start hotel operations in 2025, with stays costing an eight-figure sum. The station will produce varying levels of gravity by adjusting the rate of rotation – so you can experience weightlessness but also have your feet on solid ground when dining or exercising.

Orion Span will also join the era of commercial space with the modular Aurora Station. Activities here include growing food while in orbit and the opportunity to experience zero gravity. The luxury hotel will launch 12-day trips starting at US$9.5 million per person in 2022 and is now accepting deposits, so get saving.

VIRTUAL WORLDS

Virtual reality will become commonplace in hospitality and work environments. Sensory equipment means hotel rooms will be able to provide whatever view you desire – a beach or a city, depending on your mood – or you could have a staycation, escaping reality via a headset. Meetings will take place in a virtual reality workplace to reduce a company’s carbon footprint, manufacturers will use VR to allow people to test-drive an experience, and airlines will provide onboard immersive experiences.

TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGY

Once technology takes over, will we need to learn languages? Apps and devices can already translate in real time and, according to Ericsson Consumer Lab’s 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2030: The Internet of Senses, some 70 per cent of consumers expect to have earphones that automatically and flawlessly translate languages by 2030. In the far future, humans might even be microchipped, with the brain receiving instant translations, or maybe we’ll be able to mind-read, doing away with words altogether.

DRIVERLESS ROOMS

Design studio Aprilli has designed an “autonomous travel suite” (right) that blurs driverless transport with a hotel room – the car has sleep, work and bathroom facilities so you can be productive on your journey. Aprilli views it as a competitive option to air and rail travel, as it removes the need for a secondary means of transportation. The suites are designed to be able to dock on to existing infrastructure at a hotel, giving guests access to public facilities including dining areas, gyms and meeting rooms.

FLOATING CITIES

With 90 per cent of the world’s largest cities exposed to rising seas by 2050, Oceanix has designed the first sustainable floating city (above) for 10,000 residents. The flood- and stormproof habitat of six neighbourhoods is located around a protected central habitat, with communal farming. Buildings made from locally sourced materials can be moved to more suitable locations when weather demands. At the same time, we’ll also dig deeper. In Samsung’s KX50: The Future in Focus report, Professor Dale Russell predicts the arrival of earthscrapers (inverted skyscrapers) to save space in ever more crowded metropolises.