“Television won’t last. It’s just a flash in the pan.” So predicted Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts in 1948. Clearly, some predictions don’t come true. But that fact has never put people off trying to guess the future.
In our industry, a well-talked about leisure preoccupation is what the hotel of the future will look like.
Clearly technology will play a massive part – as it has started to already. Even the adverts for the newly launched Apple Watch show an actor using the device to open a hotel door.
This is far from being gimmicky: tablets and iPads are already familiar interfaces in hotels.
Then there are those, such as Doug Stephens, a US-based analyst who calls himself the “world’s foremost retail industry futurist” (p12), predicting what the retail world as a whole will be like in the near future.
This retail prophet believes the use of technologies, including virtual and augmented reality, will become so commonplace that “consumers will literally feel they are stepping into online stores and shopping in a very natural way”.
Although television defied Somerville’s predicted demise, there are certainly fascinating times ahead for the retail and leisure sector. While not all the predictions will come true, or may take time, one thing is guaranteed: nothing will stand still.
