Virtual Travel
Embrace or Expire
by
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Introduction Welcome, intrepid travelers! If you are reading this Introduction, you probably have at least a passing interest in travel, for business or leisure. And you may be wondering what I mean by the term virtual travel. Virtual travel is actually having the experience of traveling to a destination (whether near or far) without physically traveling. In other words, you would experience the destination as if you were there, but without being there. Before we start, please understand that this book is not going to show how virtual travel will be done from a technology perspective. Although it does contain enough descriptive information to give you a general understanding of the how, I will not go into a lot of detail about how these technologies will accomplish what they will do. Rather, I will focus on the capabilities of the technology, and in turn, on the potential impact on how we live and work. These implications for the physical world are the real focus of Virtual Travel, the book. That physical world, both natural and as constructed and maintained by the humans who live and work within it, will be fundamentally changed when people no longer have to physically travel to have a real travel experience, either to accomplish work or to “get away from it all” through leisure travel. So a key question to be asked and answered is, When an alternative emerges, what will happen to businesses, and people employed in or served by businesses, that are based on the physical travel model as we know it today? My assertion is that large chunks of that physical world, and the products and services that are delivered in the physical world, will be bypassed in the future. And when they are, if they do not adapt, they will wither and die. At the same time, incredible opportunities await existing businesses, industries, and individuals that adapt and grow as these radical changes occur. I am not necessarily tolling a bell of alarm because of negative “side effects” of virtual travel, but indeed, I am raising an alarm that says we must all begin to think about and prepare for these things now. As I was writing this book, I was asked more than once, Is this a business book, or a general book that can be read and (hopefully) enjoyed by everyone? My answer has been consistent. I think of this book first as one that will be useful to business people, especially those in positions that enable them to lead and change the course of strategies for their companies. But I think this is also a book for everyone, because whether or not the reader is at the executive level of their company, someone who performs other roles within the business world, or simply someone who consumes products and services from these businesses, the coming of virtual travel will have a major impact on the world and the way we live our lives in the next 20–30 years. My up-front assumption is that virtual travel will happen, and in a big way. If any of you who are reading this want to challenge that assumption, that is fine with me. Debate is healthy. But, make no mistake, this book is about raising an alarm that the status quo in all businesses, and especially travel-related service businesses, will not continue to be viable when a certain level of virtual travel is reached. I believe the fallout from that into everyone’s daily lives will be unavoidable and significant, both positive and negative, depending on how we as individuals and a society react to it. My hope for the message of this book is to stimulate thought and conversation about the anticipation of and reaction to these changes, not to sell the concept of virtual travel. I go into only enough detail about the concept and the technology behind it to give you the ability to visualize what it might mean to you personally, to the company you work for, and to the physical world around you every day.
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About the Book
Virtual Travel: Embrace or Expire provides a compelling view of a future where people will be able to travel to any location without physically going. The virtual travel experience of the future will be so realistic that it will be indistinguishable from traditional physical travel. All of the downsides to physical travel will be a thing of the past. But, when this happens, what are the effects on us all as individuals, and on the industries and businesses that are directly or indirectly involved with physical travel. Advance Praise for Virtual Travel: Embrace or Expire" "A provocative look at how technology can change how we look at travel over the long term. Virtual Travel is must reading for our industry and for travelers in general." -Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO, Marriott International, Inc. "The ability to travel virtually will have a profound and lasting impact on the travel industry, and indeed on many seemingly unrelated areas of business and our daily lives. Virtual Travel gives us all a glimpse into a radically different future and the implications for us all." -Don Tapscott, Chairman, nGenera Insight, and author of 14 widely read books, most recently with Anthony D. Williams, MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. "Whether you agree with Shuler's projections for virtual travel or not, even if only partially right, the implications for the hospitality and travel industry are profound. He opens our minds to a possible future that is equally exciting and daunting." -Doug Rice, Executive Vice President and CEO, Hotel Technology Next Generation Free your mind and let this book take you into the virtual travel world!
About the Author
For almost forty years, Barry Shuler has been a thought leader in the information technology field and a futurist focused on formulating long range technology strategies and plans for leading companies in a number of industries. Presently he is Chief Information Officer and IT Consulting Principal for Design Management Associates, Inc., a commercial building architecture and design firm his wife Sue founded in 1994. For thirteen years, prior to joining DMA in 2009, Mr. Shuler was SVP IT Strategy and Chief Technology Officer for Marriott International, Inc. In his last two years at Marriott Mr. Shuler was also SVP and Chief Information Officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC.,Marriott’s luxury hotel subsidiary. From 2004-2008 Mr. Shuler also served on the Board of Directors of Hotel Technology Next Generation (www.htng.org) a hotel industry trade association which promotes the emergence of common specifications for interoperability among commercially available and custom developed hotel systems. He also served as President of HTNG from 2007-2008. Prior to joining Marriott, Mr.Shuler worked for more than twelve years as an information technology consultant for Fortune 100 companies and government agencies. For the first thirteen years of his career, Mr. Shuler played a variety of roles in electronic and communications engineering and information technology at Western Electric Company, Bell Laboratories, and AT&T. Mr. Shuler has been honored with numerous awards for excellence in information technology including: 2005 InformationWeek Top 25 CTO’s, 2005 Hospitality Technology Visionary for leading the industry towards innovative business intelligence solutions, and 2007 Computerworld Premier IT Leader. Mr. Shuler has authored and been featured in numerous computing and communications articles, and has made contributions to many books on information technology. He is a popular speaker at conferences and seminars on enterprise architecture, business process reengineering, IT-enabled change, ITmetrics, technology convergence, and strategic planning for information technology. Virtual Travel: Embrace or Expire is the first full-length work for which Mr. Shuler is the sole author. He sincerely hopes that you will enjoy it!