I love to travel. 

I’ve been to four continents and have visited 20 countries (just trying to brag a little bit here 😉 ). 

I also honestly believe that travelling is one of the best ways to immerse yourself into other cultures, ways of living and it can help to get a better understanding of how humans and nature interact. 

My next dream destination includes Japan and specifically Tokyo and Kyoto.

After all, there is always something we all love to grab from travelling, for me it’s nature and culture.

And with large chunks of the world spending their time at home I want to take an outlook into how travelling and tourism will look like in 30 years.

But travelling has its downsides. 

There is the pollution, overtourism of places and cities to a degree that the inhabitants don’t want to be in their own city anymore, and there is a lot of almost slavery like working conditions associated with tourism in some countries. 

I lived in Prague for three months and the local people were forced outside of the city center so much, outside of the tourist bubble they started hating just about anybody who was not czech and from there for higher rent, higher cost of living and not being able to live in their own home.

And while both lists of benefits and drawbacks are not exhaustive, I asked myself the question of how travelling would look like in the future and why it will be a totally different experience of what we see today in 2050. 

Let’s check it out.

Reason No. 1: Most people won’t sleep in hotels anymore. 

It sounds obvious and will come for various reasons. 

First of all, with the rise of 3D-printing buildings the economy class will shift and be more accessible to a larger number of people. 

Tourist places will have off site and non-harmony disturbing tourism containers with individual access to public transport to bring them to the points of interest. 

And you’ll have masses of tourists dropping in and out from these places. 

Also the recent trend for a travelling class that in the future will probably be around Economy Plus has already taken its hold on lodging. 

AirBnB and other private lodging providers are the lodging of choice for young people and alternative travellers already nowadays. 

This trend will only continue.

Reason No. 2: Weather will be more important

This one doesn’t seem logical right away. 

But think about it like this. You are french, living in let’s say Toulouse, and you have to decide whether you spend your two weeks of vacation in Paris and visit the Louvre or spend them in Nizza in good weather and at the beach. 

Now for some of you the answer is immediate, but let’s assume that the person we are talking about right now has an equal interest in spending their vacation at the beach or in a famous city. 

But now add the factor of 2050, where with Virtual Reality you are able to visit any museum, any building and any gallery virtually any time you want.

I recently visited Bucharest, a very vibrant and interesting city, and I went in front of the palace of Giorgescu, however I didn’t have the time to go inside. 

In 2050 this will not really be a problem anymore. I could just visit the inside virtually. 

This will have an effect on our dear frenchman similarly. 

His decision will have a slightly stronger tendency to the experience at the beach, where good weather is more likely and he can get a unique atmosphere that he can’t recreate at home. 

This on a nationwide scale will have a strong pull towards the good weather destinations of the world, likely resulting in even more overpopulation of these spots. 

Reason No. 3: Transportation will be revolutionized

In 2050 public transportation and other means of transportation will completely change the way we travel around the world. 

Nowadays many islands in the Maldives are only remotely visitable with boats taking you there, which takes time and makes some tourist sites less attainable. 

But add flying taxis that can take you to a 300 km distant island in around one hour, or that could drop you off right next to that big mountain that you want to hike on instead of taking a 6 hour drive to get there and you get a formula for a much more convenient, quicker travel experience. 

This will enable us to visit a lot more in the same amount of time – it will also of course again contribute further to overcrowding of tourist attractions, but this will be a reality in every scenario of 2050. 

Reason No. 4: You can be travelling 12 months every year

The Coronavirus pandemic right now is turning our world upside down. 

In the future people working in the service sector of the economy will have much more flexible working arrangements which will essentially allow them to work from anywhere in the world.

In case you didn’t know, next to writing this blog and a few other projects I am doing right now I also have a job as an IT-Services Salesman for one of the biggest companies in this sector. And the entire company just switched to working from home in an instance since Corona started. 

And now some colleagues are working from their friends’ homes, or are attending conferences while shopping. 

It won’t be long (well at least as long as it takes to travel again) until the first people will start going on holidays and then be working a few days from their holiday locations. 

Not to mention there are already hordes of freelancers, designers and content writers that are already working independently of their home location. 

If you spin this some 30 years ahead you get what I am explaining here. 

Working places will be transformed in that you can work from anywhere. Companies will reduce their offices to smaller, more representative locations (well, we need space for the tourists that are visiting the cities), and will use the offices for meeting customers for very formal occurrences, together with maybe having a monthly or bi-weekly team-meeting there.

Think about this – you do your interview somewhere at a sandy beach in the carribean, you sign the contract at your parents home in Wyoming and then you have your first working day at the actual office in New York City and after one year you have your yearly review from close to some Inca city in Peru.

This might very well be the reality in 2050.

Reason No. 5: You Don’t Need To Travel Anymore

One thing that I already hinted at before is that you actually don’t need to travel anymore without missing the recreation it brings. 

Technology within housing will improve that much that you are possibly even able to create any weather effect at home. 

No matter what you are missing – hot dry weather, an arctic breeze, maybe even a storm (if you’re into that) you might be able to recreate that. 

If you add on top the virtual reality capabilities we have covered in No. 2 you get the formula of a pretty solid and nice vacation at home. 

Imagine grilling in the afternoon, and then in the evening you enjoy a virtual sunset on your LCD windows with simulated beach climate, enjoying your margherita. And then to not get bored in the evening you talk a virtual tour through the MOMA without actually being in NYC. 

If I have made one thing really clear, it is that tourism in the future will be extremely crowded at certain hotspots around the globe.

If you have a certain level of wealth and can afford some modern technology, it might be the more relaxing and recreational experience to have a special vacation at home, visiting museums and sights around the world within days or even on the same day. 

Wrap-Up: Travelling in the Future – What do you think?

You’ve seen my top 5 reasons. 

Changes in mass transportation and construction will open up tourism for even higher numbers of crowds and we’ll be able to experience the whole world much quicker, however technology will also change where we travel, how we perceive travelling and what we’ll do in any given one week period of free time. We might actually spend vacation at home.

But now I want to know what you think. Are my reasons on your radar, do you believe they come true? What do you believe will be a major trend? 

And of course, how do you want the travelling in the future to look like?

Let me know in the comments, reply to my social media or send me an Email. 

Until Then

Philipp