Friday, January 20, 2012

Does Paperless Travel Sound too Futuristic for our Imagination?

A few years ago when the travel industry got introduced to e-tickets and online check-ins, it all seemed unimaginable.

Now imagine a world where you fingerprint boarding passes and eye-scanning passport control systems, i know, it all seems a bit too futuristic doesn’t it?  A report recently done named From Chaos to Collaboration report released by technology expert Amadeus suggests it is only eight years away.

By 2020, all airports will be paperless and bags will be electronically tagged, according to the predictions, technological innovation will take the stress out of travel so that passengers will have nothing to remember and can track the exact location of their bag at any given time.

Automated identification systems will use fingerprints to check in, avoiding the lengthy queues and delays in manual check-in and deleting the now online check-ins. Travellers will cruise through customs and immigration with just a scan of their eye retina! The experience does not end there! Passengers will be able to use virtual tour guides - through the same principles as gaming on smart phones and computers - enabling them to visit sites of interest.

Andrew Curry, director and co-author The Futures Company, said: "We wanted to avoid making techno-centric assumptions about the future of travel - and painting a picture of flying cars and intelligent robots in a world that is otherwise unchanged from today.

"We hope that this study will challenge, provoke and stimulate thinking around how we will all be travelling in the future."
Now tell me this is not something we are all looking forward to!

4 comments:

  1. I haven´t though about the new system of checking in with fingerprints. Last month I had to rent a buenos aires apartment and the check in was done through the internet, so I realize technology is winning over all other ways to do things!
    Amy

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    1. Thanks Amy for your comments. It is true..technology is taking over! :)

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