San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Travel: New tech, emerging trends and wild ideas.
The new tech, emerging trends and wild ideas shaping how you’ll explore the world.
It’s no surprise that travel is an experience that’s changing all the time. To paraphrase Heraclitus, nobody ever visits the same city twice, because it’s not the same city and it’s not the same person.
The nature of travel also means that the kinds of journeys we undertake — to where, with whom, by what means of conveyance, with which technology and at what cost to the environment — are changing too.
Looking ahead, more and more travelers will see the world in virtual reality — either to plan their realworld trips or to reach places we can’t normally go. Others will blast into space, for a few minutes in lowgravity, or for a few days around the moon. And if actually traveling through space isn’t “Star Wars” enough for you, luggage companies now offer autonomous suitcases that roll through the airport like droids.
While some tourists will increasingly rely on their smart devices, others will always prefer to rely first and foremost on themselves. Recognizing that impulse, more and more tour operators are teaching people skills to tackle ambitious trips such as backcountry camping and kayaking. The self-reliant men and women seeking these adventures span a growing age range, as more older adults plan ambitious trips in the woods or unfamiliar locales, of which the most unfamiliar will be a growing network of floating “nano-nations” testing out new forms of government.
Meanwhile, the specter of climate change looms over all modern travel, because emissions from planes, trains and automobiles contribute in varying degrees to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and every destination can be irrevocably transformed by an extreme weather event such as hurricane or wildfire. Yet even in the face of these negative outcomes, we might still enjoy side effects like more warm days at the beach.
The future of travel is buoyant. It is also bright with the screens of smart gizmos, and dark with smog — if we’re not careful. We’ve brought together some of the most interesting developments you may encounter as you make your way through the world in the coming years.
1 BIOMETRIC AIRPORT CHECK-IN
The future of travel starts before you even take off, with biometric check-in. Instead of presenting a driver’s license or passport, passengers will verify their identities through their fingerprints, a retinal scan or facial recognition.
This technology is already in use at some airports. In
December, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — the busiest in the world — opened the first all-biometric terminal in conjunction with Delta Air Lines. Lufthansa and JetBlue are also early adopters of this technology. At San Francisco International Airport, the biometric security company Clear provides a shorter, faster line through which paying members can enter the Transportation Security Administration’s checkpoint.
Biometrics can replace your ID and, in some cases, your boarding pass, but you and your carry-on will still have to go through the physical security screening you know and hate. Biometrics save passengers time, however — about 8 to 17 seconds per person, compared with a human ID check. That may not seem like a lot, but multiply those 17 seconds by the 300 people ahead of you in line at passport control, and the savings could be significant indeed. When Delta launched its biometric terminal several weeks ago, Chief Operating Officer Gil West told reporters that at the boarding gate, biometric check-in “saves nine minutes on the ground for the boarding process, which is time that our customers won’t be spending in lines waiting to board the aircraft.”
2 SMART LUGGAGE
OK, your fingerprint already got you through the biometric checkpoint. But before you put that digit away, reach down and seal your smart suitcase with a fingerprint-activated lock. Then walk away, and your self-driving bag will chase after you like a puppy.
“Smart luggage” can come with a wide range of features besides rolling around the airport on its own like R2-D2. These include TSA-approved digital locks, GPS tracking to locate a bag that’s been lost or stolen, USB charging for your phone and other devices, and a digital scale built into the handle so you can avoid fees for overweight baggage.
All of these features rely on power from a lithium ion battery, and the nascent smart luggage industry took a hit this year when airlines cracked down on said batteries, which attracted a lot of negative press after several exploded in flight. Raden, one of the big names in smart baggage, went out of
business in May in the wake of airlines’ restrictions; removing the battery before flight required passengers to dig to the bottom of their carry-ons, a deal-breaking inconvenience.
Raden’s competitors have adapted accordingly. With batteries that can be removed easily without opening the main compartment, smart luggage from startups like Away and industry mainstays like Samsonite offer the same convenience without the regulatory hiccup.
3 MORE ON-RAMPS FOR ADVENTURE
Camping, kayaking, climbing and other forms of adventure travel have been growing in popularity for years. But many of these activities require specialized knowledge and gear that serve as barriers to the uninitiated. Sensing an untapped market, tour operators have begun to offer educational excursions that teach adults how to pitch a tent, build a fire and other skills that one traditionally learns in childhood or not at all.
“If you don’t learn that stuff young, then what can you do?” Sasha Cox asked herself several years ago. “I was meeting all these people who wanted to get into the outdoors, but who didn’t necessarily feel that they knew all the things they needed to know.” So Cox founded Trail Mavens, a San Francisco tour operator that leads women-only camping trips to California landmarks such as Yosemite, Big Sur and Death Valley.
“There’s no better way for you to learn outdoor skills than in the outdoors,” Cox says. “After you go on one backpacking trip, you know how to go backpacking.”
Adventurous outdoors trips have begun to pop up all over, with varying levels of skills training. REI Adventures are the fastestgrowing source of revenue for the outdoor retailer, which led 12,000 travelers on 209 trips on all seven continents in 2017. National Geographic, the Sierra Club and Berkeley’s Backroads all offer similar opportunities.
“I think demand for experiential adventure travel will continue to grow,” says Matt Prior, founder of MP Adventure Academy, which leads tours in Indonesia. “Whatever it is people are looking to do, these trips show them it’s possible. You can only get that from reallife exposure.”
4 MORE SENIORS
Today, people older than 65 make up about 8 percent of the world’s population. By 2050, that percentage is expected to double. And unlike their younger counterparts, many seniors have already made the big purchases of their lifetimes such as a home or a child’s college tuition. Among those who have savings left after all that, travel is an increasingly popular indulgence.
For all the talk about Millennials spending on experiences rather than material possessions, it is their parents and grandparents who are poised to see more value in experiences as they age.
“An aging population just doesn’t buy and/or need as much stuff as a younger population,” says Robert Dunphy, an international portfolio manager at asset management firm OppenheimerFunds. In other words: you can’t take it with you.
The travel industry is finding innovative ways to help older people hit the road. In Escondido, travel agent Pat Hager noticed that some of her clients grew reluctant to travel after their spouses or other traveling companions died. So she created an online matching service called Senior Travel
Buddy to help people connect with fellow travelers. Adults in their 60s and 70s are also commonly found on the more physically rigorous adventure tours offered by Trail Mavens and MP Adventure Academy.
5 MORE SUNBATHING, LESS SKIING
By 2100, it may no longer be possible to dive among coral reefs anywhere on Earth, thanks to ocean acidification and a possible 2degree Celsius rise in temperature.
“Tourism will be the least of our concerns when that happens,” says Mike Hower, a climate change policy expert and GreenBiz contributor. “But it will affect tourism all the same.”
Ski resorts up and down the Sierra will probably rely more and more on artificial snow, as drought and warmer winters deliver less and less natural snowpack, according to a recent Oxford University study. In some cases, the study says, “ski operators can respond to global warming by relocating to higher elevations.”
Warm-weather destinations may also pack up and move: Rising sea levels will push beaches inland, and climbing temperatures — despite their many downsides — will provide more frequent sunbathing weather in historically chilly latitudes. “San Francisco could have San Diego weather in 20 years,” Hower warns. The underlying theme of climate change’s many effects is that weather will become less stable and harder to forecast. That means more cruises and backpacking trips canceled at the last minute by extreme weather events like hurricanes and wildfires. “Who wants to go up to Tahoe and hang out in the mountains when you can’t breathe?” Hower asks, referring to the widespread smoke pollution that much of California experienced this year. In response to unstable weather patterns, Hower predicts a spike in demand for travel insurance among both tourists and travel operators.
6 VIRTUAL REALITY VISITS
If you really want to spare the climate, you can skip your next greenhouse-gasemitting flight and see the world in virtual reality. Virtual tours are already available. The company Jaunt, for instance, lets users digitally explore parts of Nepal, Machu Picchu, Syria and Jerusalem.
“But VR will never replace real-life experiences,” says Thomas Hayden, a VR filmmaker and a vocal proponent of the medium. “And that’s sort of the beauty of it!” He points out that with VR, travelers don’t have to limit themselves to conventionally accessible destinations: “Picture yourself on the tip of the wing of an airplane over the country’s largest air show during a re-creation of the Pearl Harbor attack.” Or at the bottom of the ocean. Or on Mars.
VR also gives travelers a power that Hayden calls “pre-visibility”: the ability to see a place in detail before you arrive. “Which Hawaiian zip line does your family really want to wait in North Shore traffic to experience?” he asks as an example. “Pop on your VR headset to take a few virtual zip lines to find out which is just challenging enough, but not too much for Grandma and the littles. You will be able to book your real-life experience right after trying it in VR.” This feature is also useful for mundane tasks, like sorting out where you’ll park before catching that ferry to Alcatraz.
7 FLOATING, MAN-MADE ‘NANO-NATIONS’
Currently, there are about 195 countries whose stamps and visas might appear in a globetrotter’s passport. But that figure may skyrocket with man-made floating islands, an archipelago of “nano-nations” not subject to the laws of any country on oldfashioned terra firma. That is the vision of the Seasteading Institute, a San Francisco organization seeking to create floating cities that will “allow the next generation of pioneers to peacefully test new ideas for government.”
If this sounds like a tech industry-style “disruption,” that’s because it is: “We can solve governance problems the Silicon Valley way,” says Joe Quirk, president of the Seasteading Institute and co-founder of the affiliated company Blue Frontiers. Eventually, he hopes to create “thousands of floating startup governments.” The more successful islands, he hopes, will serve as models for mainland society.
A $50 million pilot island, in partnership with French Polynesia, is expected to be completed by 2022. While the island might hold most appeal for political tinkerers and marine biologists, Quirk says that ecotourism is also vital to the project. He envisions cities floating off various coasts, accessible by ferry for student field trips and utopia-curious overnight guests.
“We’re planning underwater rooms with glass walls,” he says. “Essentially the humans will be in the zoo and the fish will be looking at them.”
8 FIELD TRIPS TO THE FINAL FRONTIER
One small step for man, one giant bill for the lucky few who can afford to go into space for the fun of it. In September, SpaceX’s Elon Musk announced that his commercial spaceflight company would be taking the first tourist on a trip around the moon in just five years. That privilege goes to Japanese retail magnate Yusaku Maezawa, who plans to invite six to eight top artists to join him for a weeklong jaunt around the moon’s orbit in 2023. “What will they see?” Maezawa asked rhetorically when his trip was announced. “What will they feel when they see Earth in full view? What will they create?”
Maezawa joins a short but growing list of space tourists, starting with American Dennis Tito’s $20 million ticket to the International Space Station in 2001. Another six tourists have followed him to the station in the years since.
For the budget-conscious traveler, Virgin Galactic plans to offer short spaceflights for “just” $250,000. These trips will climb to 50 miles above Earth’s surface — touching the edge of space, at least according to the Federal Aviation Administration. (The Karman line, an internationally recognized boundary between the atmosphere and space, is just a bit higher at 62 miles above the ground.) At this altitude, passengers will float freely in microgravity — the main point of the trip.
Space tourism will only grow as more destinations pop up, like the lunar space station that NASA announced this year. In the near term, though, space tourism might be more like the world’s most expensive roller coaster.