Northstar

4 | www.travelweekly-asia.com VOICES 6 20 24 For more than 350 industry people who attended Travelport Live in Sydney, the final act of the customer event was scary for anyone worried about future employment. If you were an optician among the gathering at the Hyatt Regency (okay, probably no opticians were there) you would have been worried – very worried – about the future of your business. As futurist Malcolm McQueen told the audience, there is now an app that will allow anyone to take an image of their eyes on a hand phone, which they can then send to a business that will courier back a pair of new glasses. Perfectly framed. CONTENTS 3 TALKING POINT In love with laidback Lisbon 4 VOICES A world without car parks 12 TRAVEL AGENTS Change agents of travel 16 GAMECHANGER Telling tales, for the love of travel 22 CRUISE Call of the wild 23 PRODUCT: ADVENTURE TOURISM From Bhutan to the home of the King of the Lemurs 27 HOSPITALITY The age of the mobile guest Clockwise from top: MGM COTAI exterior façade; Pizzeria on Costa Victoria; Founder of Elegance Hotels Group Do Van Dan accident, which driverless car will be to blame? And will this lead to auto road rage, with angry, driverless cars snapping off each other's wing mirrors? In the age of self-driving cars, there will be little or no need to park our vehicles – they'll simply drop us off at a desired destination and then return home until we're ready to be picked up. Alternatively, they might drop us off and join a fleet of other driverless vehicles ferrying people around and earning us money, Uber-style, while we're at work, dinner or the movies. And in a world without the need for car parks, imagine what valuable space at city centres, hospitals and airports could be freed up for much more valuable uses. So far, travel has been spared "unconventional competition", but it's coming, McQueen said. Airbnb was initially seen as a threat to hotels, but it has expanded its influence to embrace trips, and is now taking on 4- and 5-star hotels with its Select brand of home sharing rentals. McQueen offered advice about bullet-proofing a business in turbulent times, suggesting that "healthy paranoia" is essential for survival. "Don't go with the intoxication of success," he said, "because just when you think you have made it, you've lost it." Hunger and humility were the qualities needed to maintain momentum and, in closing, McQueen borrowed a page from the Facebook staff book outlining its DNA, which reads, "If we don't create the thing that kills Facebook, someone else will." Accountants in the audience – there may have been a few – might also have had some concerns about future employment. KMPG says that it won't be long before 30% of all audits will be done by robots. As McQueen went on to explain, it's not only high street opticians and city accountants that will be made redundant in the new world of AI and machine learning. The arrival of shared, ownerless, driverless cars will have a huge impact on car hire and car sales businesses. Ford says it will roll out its first car without a steering wheel in 2021. This is expected to provide headaches for motor insurance companies. In the event of an Photo Credit: iStockphoto Ian Jarrett is a widely travelled and experienced writer specialising in hospitality and aviation. His work has appeared in a variety of consumer and travel trade titles, and online newswires. Recent travels have taken him to Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Seoul, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom and Bali, although he is just as happy walking with his dog on a local beach. A world without car parks

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