Tourism has always been an extraordinary basin of innovation and contributes significant percentages to the world‘s GDP every year. According to data collected by the World Travel & Tourism Council, in 2019 the contribution of tourism to the world economy was 9,170 billion dollars, equal to 10.4% of world GDP.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating economic impacts on the entire sector, but a significant recovery is to be expected also thanks to the use of new ways to experience holiday destinations and the entire process that has to do with it. with tourist use. These new methods of use will in the future be enabled by the technologies we will have available and thanks to them we will be faced with completely new ways of living. the tourist experiencefrom the moment we choose a destination, to when we book a stay, to when we will concretely live the experience, until we return home with something more in our experiential and cultural baggage.
In the future we will discover new tourist destinations of our interest also thanks to the fact that we will be immersed, much more than today, within digital ecosystems to which we will provide data with our behaviors, which will identify our preferences and who will be able to propose us destinations of our likingin periods compatible with the holidays planned for our family, with school calendars and with the events that will be considered most interesting for our profile as tourists.
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An important role in choosing a tourist destination will be played by the possibility of previewing it thanks to the use of Extended Reality. Today we usually browse paper catalogs or digital content for destinations that we consider interesting for our holidays, we often search for photos and videos on the web, we access live webcams to check in real time the situation or we look at the satellite maps to get a more precise idea of how the places that we think can host us for a holiday are made. We are interested in the location of an apartment, its distance from transport, services and the city center, or the structure of a tourist village, the position of our bungalow with respect to the swimming pool, services or play area for children.
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What we are looking for is a kind of preliminary experience, being able to take a look directly to realize in person some characteristics of the places, structures, equipment and everything that can make the difference between a nice holiday and one that is less. satisfying. This need to have a preview of potential vacation spots will in the future be satisfied by the possibility of visiting them virtually through the paradigm of extended reality. The most important tourist destinations will provide, as today they provide photos and videos of the locations and their infrastructures, complete virtual worlds that can be used to virtually visit the places, discover their characteristics and appreciate their specificities. Once we have identified a list of possible destinations or accommodation facilities, all we have to do is use our smart glasses to be projected into the virtual world that someone will have prepared for us.
We will be able to virtually walk on the beach, go around the bungalows or among the houses of a village, pay a visit to the supermarket or a tour in the nearby town. We will also be able to make some virtual excursions in the surroundings using the virtual world made available by the structure or directly by those who really organize that type of experience, in order to understand if it is worth it or if our expectations were higher and so it is better to orient yourself elsewhere. What is certain is that the virtual preview will quickly become an essential feature of a large part of the tourist experiences, to the point that the structures that will not offer it, or that will offer it partial or of low quality, will be considered not to be height and not in step with the times, with inevitable repercussions on marketing and on the ability to attract tourists, exactly as today happens for those structures that do not have a website, or that have a decadent and not cared for or that do not allow reservations online.
Once we arrive at our destination we will find information and contents dedicated to the place where we are, to the holiday we have booked, to the services available. While today the accommodation offers us excursion brochures, event flyers and discount coupons from some restaurants and specialized shops, in the future all this will be transformed into a collection of digital content you can draw from. We will be able to get advice from artificial intelligence algorithms on the most suitable order in which to tackle the excursions, on the days in which we can expect a lower turnout of the public or a better weather We will be able to enjoy a virtual preview of the experience to understand if we are interested and whether it suits our holiday style. The discount vouchers will be applied automatically during the booking or payment phase because the integration between systems will ensure that the information of our right to the discount is automatically propagated between one system and another, we will not have to worry about where we have put the coupons , of how many they are, of those in the family who have the right. We will simply have to go to the structure and take our excursion or enjoy our show, without thinking about anything other than enjoying our experience in the total relaxation of the holiday.
In the daily life of the holiday we will be surrounded by iAdditional information on what we are looking at, on new event proposals or on historical or culinary paths that may interest us. This will be done in full respect of privacy through the use of augmented reality that we will always have available thanks to our smart glasses. Walking on a mountain path we will always have available in our field of view the information on the peaks that will surround us, the direction to follow in order not to get lost in the paths, the automatic and immediate recognition of flora and fauna, with the possibility of taking pictures of what we will be looking at simply through a gesture or a voice command, in order to enrich our library of personal images and with the immediate possibility to share them with friends and relatives or to publish them on social networks. By attending an amusement park we will always have in front of our eyes the map of the park, the suggestions on the closest and less crowded attractions, the location of services, bars and restaurants.
By going to one of these bars or shops we will always be able to have information on the products on sale available, it will be sufficient to look at them through the smart glasses and immediately the image will be enriched with additional information such as the price or the ingredients, in addition to our allergies to any component will be immediately reported. The same payment for a product in a shop or in a bar will take place simply by looking at the product and using the appropriate gesture to authorize the transaction.
These same technologies will also allow us to enjoy virtual tourism experiences beyond our capabilities or possibilities. Think for example of the opportunity to make virtual dives in marine areas that, because of them delicate environmental balance, are not open to the public. However, we will be able to enjoy the spectacle of nature without negatively affecting the environment and its delicate balance. In the same way we will be able to virtually go to places that are not within our budget because they are very distant or very expensive. Using virtual reality we will be able to approach the real experience for free or in any case by spending a small fraction of what we would be forced to spend to physically go there. The same technology will allow us to experience virtual visits to places inaccessible to the vast majority of people, think for example of a dive in the Mariana Trench, a few walks on the highest peaks on Earth, attending the hottest deserts. or the coldest polar landscapes. Up to reach very inaccessible places, such as a space mission that takes us to the International Space Station or a walk on the Moon or Mars.
Some of the professions of the future will therefore be linked to the design and production of virtual worlds, more or less realistic, to be accessed through extended reality technologies.
Likewise the production of virtual worlds it will trigger new business models linked to their use. It will be possible to physically go to a museum site or an art gallery, buy the ticket and use the exhibited works, or alternatively it will be possible to buy a ticket that will entitle you to virtual use of the same works through a virtual world adequately designed and created. It is clear that the more realistic and designed the virtual world will be to guarantee the maximum experience for the user, the more the cost of the ticket can be close to the cost of a real visit. In some cases the cost for the virtual visit could be even higher if the virtual world were able to guarantee an even more interesting and complete experience, such as access to collections of the past, unique pieces, works that are not physically available in the museum.
In any case, even the real visit to the museum will be improved thanks to the use of the smart glasses that we will always have with us. This will allow us to follow customized tour itineraries according to our needs and to have all the information on a work simply by looking at it through glasses, with all the information that is typically provided through an audio-guide, but further enriched by multimedia content. and by artificial intelligence algorithms capable of providing us with content appropriate to our age, our interest and our knowledge of the subject.
All these new ways of accessing culture, travel and different holiday experiences will also make it possible to identify new tourist ways that will be as eco-sustainable as possible. Many people, in fact, are already trying to transform their lives so that they are as neutral as possible with respect to carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere, consequently many choices, including tourism, which previously favored travel to remote destinations. they are moving towards more eco-sustainable solutions and in this sense virtual visits or access to virtualized worlds, in order to enjoy experiences similar to those you might have in person, are alternatives that will have a market in the future. It is up to us to try to make digital platforms available to this new market that will be able to provide the requested services, all the contents necessary to offer an excellent tourist experience and suitable business models.