Future of Adventure: Human Touch

Our latest whitepaper, the ‘Future of Adventure and Exploration’, delves into the often contradictory key trends regarding modern travel and offers strategical recommendations to tackle the paradoxical landscape industry experts face today.
“Adventure and travel no longer are just about physically visiting a place, increasingly it’s about the experience and the transformation that it offers us. Adventure is as much about learning something new about a place as it is about learning about oneself.” Philippa Wagner, Creative Strategy Director, Ennismore.

As the fifth in a wider series assessing the Future of Adventure and Exploration, this article will comment on the vital importance of human touch and serendipitous encounters.  

Future of Adventure Series: The Human Touch

As much as we crave challenge, and all the efficiencies that tech can afford us, there is an innate comfort in the quiet, and the reassurance of simple, yet unobtrusive human contact. This is not about digital detox but allowing ourselves to revel in silence and reassert some of our uniquely human skills like instinct and empathy.

Immersive experience 2.

The voice is a group of 35 employees in Zurich airport that make public announcements. Zurich is a silent airport, which means they have drastically reduced announcements for passenger comfort - but when they come they are live and not pre-recorded for that human touch.
“People don’t want to talk to someone who knows less than them. For busy professionals the idea of a travel concierge, someone who they really trust to create a bespoke programme for them is very appealing,’ Lyn Hughes, Editor-in-chief / Founder, Wanderlust”.

Cabin is a moving hotel, (the opposite of Musk’s dream of Hyperloop travel), it slows down a 1.5 hr plane ride to an 8 hour overnight road trip from San Francisco to LA. Guests have their own pods, and attest to waking up fully refreshed and with a sense of no time wasted.

Serendipitous encounters: disorientating and getting lost in unexplored locations

Hoteliers have been racing to weave tech into their offerings, to ensure seamless service for its impatient guests. Select Hilton’s now have the Connected Room - a high tech bedroom that enables guests to personalise every aspect of their stay through their smartphone. BD4travel.com works with travel agencies to profile theirs users – to understand their interest and intent in real-time and instantly recommend the most relevant product, service or content for them from your portfolio. But what if we took the opposite approach, and allowed space for chance, serendipitous encounters and new discoveries?

...Black Tomato’s Get Lost Service Is The Ultimate Experience For Helping People To Disconnect, Engage In The Moment And Push Themselves To Achieve A Truly Wonderful Sense Of Satisfaction.”

Get Lost offers intrepid adventurers the ability to put their fate in someone else’s hands. Black Tomato’s expedition experts will plan a journey for you that ends at a once in a lifetime destination. All you have to do is choose your terrain from polar, jungle, desert, mountain or coastal and you will be transported to your starting point, and left to find your way to the finish line.

Get Lost utilises navigation technology from what3words, a simplified way to determine location. Available online or as a free app it has divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. It means anyone can accurately find a location and share it more quickly, easily and with less ambiguity than any other system.

Within the series, we will look to explore further travel themes such as Voyages of Self Discovery, Transformative Travel, Human Touch and New Luxury. If you would like to read more, you can download the full ‘Future of Adventure’ report. If you wish to discuss any of the content or hear our thoughts on how to put some of our insights into action, please get in touch via hello@matterofform.com and we would be delighted to have a chat.