Expect holidays in decades to come but not as we currently know them according to a report from Premier Inn.
The Whitbread-owned budget chain has been doing a bit of future-gazing to find that while the notion of holidays will remain the actual experience is likely to be quite different.
The chain engaged the help of futurologist Rohit Talwar of Fast Future to project what holidays in the UK might look like in 2050.
Trends that we are already seeing - increased homeworking, more flexible holiday durations and the drive for experiences (hence space camps) - will become more pronounced.
Nothing to get too excited about there but how about personal carbon emissions allowances to help combat climate change, which could mean enforced holidays at home.
Or, the evolution from social seating as per KLM's Meet and Seat and Satisfly's SeatBuddy to social holidays perhaps where you handpick a group of people to take a trip with (don't we already do that)?
Or a complete try before you buy experience where the internet has evolved into a 3D multi-sensory service enabling travellers to taste the food on a menu and feel the bed linen. Not so far fetched when you consider what Senseg has been developing.
And, as well as the increasing use of augmented reality to bring places to life, how about a bit of personal augmentation such as enhanced hearing or vision with medical tourism evolving into augmentation holidays?
Hotels also get a makeover in the Holiday of the Future report as architecture becomes more flexible with travellers able to rent a personal pod hotel and put it wherever they want or the possibility of gliding over the UK at a leisurely pace in an airship hotel.
Further findings:
- Tourism could contribute £120 billion to the UK economy compared to the £35 billion it was worth last year
- Growing number of visitors from the emerging economies helped by advances in transportation
- Growth of holidays and activities focused on the single traveller as single-person households increasing to 10.9 million by 2031 (18% of the UK population).
- Even more wired, 50 billion devices connected to the internet globally by 2020, that's more than six per person.
NB: Crystal Ball image via Shutterstock