The Future of Travel

In the future, tourists will strap on a VR headset that serves up information about the storefronts and cathedrals they pass, letting them ‘see Paris’ without actually laying eyes on it. Instant-translation earbuds will mean we’ll never have to learn the words Donde esta la biblioteca? – and who needs a library or bookstore when Spanish-English dictionaries and guidebooks are obsolete? Meanwhile, thanks to AI, travellers will have an unprecedented fount of information at their disposal – but how much of it can be trusted? And is it really ‘saving time’ if AI bots are sending everyone to stand in line at already-overrun tourist spots? Award-winning food and travel writer Daniel Maurer – himself a veteran globetrotter – predicts epic tugs-of-war between the travellers and the locals and what happens when technology allows entire new classes of travellers to move – as far as they can, as much as they can.