Future shocks

UK-based readers of a certain age will fondly remember BBC’s Tomorrow’s World, the long-running TV programme which predicted technological and scientific breakthroughs that would dominate our lives in the future.

Most of them never happened, such as the folding car which would fit into a suitcase. But some did, such as the ATM and Ceefax.

Ian Yeoman claims to be the only futurologist working exclusively on travel and tourism. His latest book, Tomorrows Tourists, looks at ‘where world tourism will be in 2030 and what the tourist will be doing in 2030.’

The headline predictions range from China being the world’s largest destination [likely - Ed] and holidays in Outer Space being the ultimate luxury experience [unlikely].

Topics covered range from shopping in Dubai and health tourism in India to the feminisation of business and travel in China and what would happen if governments banned tourism.

The link to the Tomorrows Tourist home-page includes a few sample chapters and a couple of podcasts, including a look at the ‘sex tourism’ industry now and in 2030, using Las Vegas as a starting point.

Yeoman’s work has been ‘supported’ by FutureFoundation, a London-based consumer think, so there is a proper methodology behind the predictions.

Back in the mists of time , well, 2004 to be exact, a well-known tour operator issued its own 'predictions' for what we would be doing in 2024. Maybe that well-known tour operator should have been getting its web strategy in place rather than telling us that trips to New York would cost £50 or that the ‘the hotel of the future will be a fully transportable super pod containing rooms of varying sizes that can be dismantled and moved anywhere in the world’.

Martin Cowen
chief writer
Travolution