FEATURE
Digital trends shaping the future of travel
Your holidays are about to look a lot different ...
Next time you check into the Marriott Hotel in Ghent , Belgium , keep an eye out for Mario . Not that you can miss him , he ’ s concierge . He ’ s also the figure marching atop the front desk handing out key cards and recommending local attractions . Good man Mario . Except he ’ s not . A man that is . He ’ s a robot .
56cm high and weighing in at 6kg , Mario is a chatty pintsized android built by tech giant , IBM . He can walk , talk , blink and sing . Give him half a chance and he ’ ll dance too . On hand to detail every hotel feature and amenity , Mario can speak an impressive 19 languages , never gets stressed , fails to get tired , and if needs must , he ’ ll jump into the dining room and help out with breakfast . He is quite literally the all singing , all dancing face of the future .
And the Marriott in Ghent isn ’ t the only residence to feature a humanoid workforce . Royal Caribbean have installed robot bartenders called B1-O and N1-C , which together spell BIONIC . Fittingly , they both work at the ‘ Bionic Bar ’ on-board Royal Caribbean ' s Harmony of the
Seas . Albeit not as cute as Mario ( they resemble something more akin to a Nespresso machine ) the duo will fetch you a drink . Punch in your order using smart tablets , or let them run free . N1-C possesses quite the talent for creating cocktails .
Then there ’ s the somewhat gimmicky Henn-na Hotel located in a theme park in Japan ’ s Nagasaki Prefecture . Here there are female androids wearing buttoned tunics , and rather bizarrely , a talking dinosaur who likes to don a bow tie . Robot porters cart your luggage to guestrooms , keyless doors use facial recognition and the lights are controlled by something pink sitting by your bedside . Need assistance ? Type your request into a tablet . Want an extra blanket ? There are vending machines full of conveniences . The only thing the world ' s first robot hotel doesn ’ t have , is human staff .
These are just some examples of what the future of travel looks like . Potentially it ’ s a robotic one . ( But let ’ s not jump to conclusions , in the 1980s we predicted the hover board and we ' re still waiting ). Nevertheless , as technology continues to accelerate , the manner in which we travel is adapting .
The future ’ s bright . And easy With digital masters such as Google building driverless cars , future airport transfers won ’ t require language skills , apt negotiation or a lengthy discussion about the meter being set . And if Australia ’ s Foreign Affairs Minister , Julie Bishop has anything to do with it , passports will be obsolete by the turn of the decade . Using cloud stored data to save personal information such as biometric data , digital photos and other identification , we could completely eliminate the need to carry a passport . Imagine that . No more cold sweats as you arrive at the terminal frantically patting your pockets and emptying your holdall .
Technology today Even today , in the elementary stages of 2017 , the majority of us are using smart phones as a lightweight guidebook , over 60 % of us track holiday sunshine using weather apps , and most of us rely heavily on Google Maps to get just about anywhere . Even the most lacklustre technophobes hop online to post an epic selfie with a heavenly backdrop . And yet , in an age of such rapid development , even the phone selfie is on the cusp of extinction .
4 INSPIRE ISSUE 01 . 2017 | HOUSE OF TRAVEL