Travel 3.0 - Hospitality 3.0

Considering that mankind managed to send 12 people to the moon between 1969 to 1972 and then not a single one  from 72 till today I had every right as a young technophile in the 80s (my first computer was an Amiga 500) to expect computer technology to fizzle out just like our manned landings to the moon did.

Yet the exponential rates of web-relevant technology has taken us from the early attempts of downloading 1kb and crashing a PC to the crazy connection speeds and video streaming of today.  Social networks manage to bring people closer than ever before. And if hospitality is a people’s industry, technology that allows people to communicate faster and further than ever before would impact greatly to our industry’s business models.

And so it is that Travel 2.0 or Hospitality 2.0 if you prefer has discovered new ways of marketing our intangible goods and services through networks allowing them to become more tangible than ever before... 

...making them    Virtually tangible if you like. 

We know that Hospitality 2.0 has captured our imagination using  2 of our 5 senses. We see images of wonderful resorts and we hear background sounds that take us as close to the hospitality experience as we can be.  But this is just not enough for the consumer of today. If we count Online tastings  then we may even argue that Hospitality 2.0 utilises (to a certain extend) 3 out of 5 senses: Sight, Hearing and taste.

So let us imagine what Web 3.0 relevant technologies have in store for the traveller of tomorrow.  A traveller that wishes to explore a destination, a hotel or a restaurant before she even sets foot to the actual place. 

What if  Hospitality 3.0 could utilise technology that takes advantage of all 5 senses, greatly immersing the consumer into a totally new experience.  One may argue that we could enter a new era of travel and hospitality where the virtual experience may even become far more consistent  than the real thing ever could. That to me is a scary thought but I cannot shy from the possibilities.

So let’s take a look of some examples of the technology that is already in existence today and could allow us the jump into Hospitality 3.0

Sight: With Cisco’s holographic communications and Sony’s glassless   3D technology, it is not hard to see that web 3.0 bring visual effects to a completely new level making Star Wars and Star Trek style fiction a reality.

Touch:    We have already seen 3d printers in the market so one wonders how long before the technology becomes cheap and flexible enough that will allow the technology to be incorporated into web applications.  But perhaps I am looking too far into the future…  what about new mouse designs that allow for a seamless experience or touch screen technologies . Oh! Ι almost forgot the virtual glove.

Smell and Taste:  We already know that there is technology that allows Virtual Odour but what about taste?  And I mean real taste, can that be a real possibility? Well we know that the majority of taste is affected by smell and there is at least one company  that attempts to take advantage of that fact.   Could we recreate taste the same way Jean Luke Picard orders his Earl Grey at the Star ship Enterprise?  I would argue that the technology is already here.
 

Hearing: What about hearing? Surely they can’t improve on that.  Well considering MP3 technology is relatively new and has revolutionised the way we listen to music, one cannot help but wonder what else is out there, take for example MXP4 could this be the avenue to absolute customisation of listening to music and sound?

The possibilities are endless and beyond our senses the portable web connectivity possibilities combined with the advancements of virtual worlds and virtual gaming have already paved the way to the new era of web experience.  Add to that the advancements of artificial intelligence and soon you could find yourself in a truly customised environment with people (both customers and staff) you truly like, even if they are not real…

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Note: Here is a Prezi created with some of the videos and extra links, clicking play would start the Prezi and you can click the links to open a new tab in your browser (tested with firefox).

Tourist 3.0 the traveller of tomorrow on Prezi