Ten years isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, and travel today looks much as it did at the start of the millennium. But, at the same time, many things have changed about the way people travel, how travelers access and carry information, and what hurdles travelers must clear to get to their destination. Baggage fees are now standard, albeit unwelcome; food service on airplanes has become much less common; and getting through airport security involves increasing levels of patience and wardrobe planning.
By far the largest changes have come from the tech sector, where ten years is sufficient for several major advances. Mobile phones can pinpoint you on a map, tell you what's nearby, and keep you in contact with friends and family, in many parts of the world. Paper is beginning to seem like a quaint anachronism: printed airline tickets are a thing of the past, boarding passes are slipping away into the mists of time, and guidebooks are rapidly invading the digital realm. Seeming flights of fancy like commercial space travel and transparent airplanes à la Wonder Woman are real possibilities in the near future.
This begs the question: what will have changed about travel in the year 2020? We polled the Lonely Planet editors and the community on the Lonely Planet Facebook page and selected the 12 travel-related predictions most likely to come true over the next decade:
- Mobile devices will become increasing common, more varied, useful, faster and increasingly durable. But limitations for travelers will remain because of infrastructure problems and inconsistencies around the world. Most importantly, while mobile devices will unquestionably be useful to travelers, no device will encourage you to put it down and look at the world around you.
What are your predictions for the state of travel in 2020?