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4 | www.travelweekly-asia.com Space travel…I've always been fascinated by it and now it is becom- ing a reality. Having been a hard core science fiction fan, I have been devouring the genre since my teens and I only thought that it would be possible to travel deep into space in movies. To InfInITy and Beyond Well, you still can't travel deep into space yet but you can go into suborbit and be literally in space. The Virgin Galactic space ships fly to a height of 110 km, going beyond the defined boundary of space (100 km). Long have I envied astronauts looking sturdy and adventurous in natalie Chen lives and breathes travel and journalism. She's been a travel journalist since she graduated from the National University of Singapore. In be- tween stints, she nurtured young talent in journalism as a lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic. As editor of Travel Weekly Asia, she plans to infuse travel journalism with new thinking gained from her time spent with young minds. OPINION VOICES their space suits and boy, I wished I could have attended space camp. Richard Branson is the genius behind making space travel commercial with Virgin Galactic (even the name sounds awesome). Okay so a ticket costs US$250,000 a piece but that's nothing compared to the experience of seeing the earth from that ANGLE. The earth that you see as so vast would appear so tiny and everything else that appeared huge to you, including your problems, would fade in comparison, I imagine. To date, 640 customers have signed up for a flight. Tickets are available from more than 140 "space agents" worldwide. Passengers who have already submitted their de- posit include Stephen Hawking, Tom Hanks, Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie. Virgin Galactic, the privately- funded space company owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi's aabar Investments PJS, have also invested in Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces and World Class Gour- met, Virgin Galactic's first official hotel and catering partners. The planned space flight will take place at the end of the year. Watch this space, as they say. Whatever happened to the notion of taking holidays and using the time to really unwind, free from our mobile devices? Well, it seems we in Asia have a hard time doing that – discon- necting. I know I struggle with it personally. How many times have I left home and forgot my smartphone and have the taxi drive me home just so I can get it? According to a survey by Hotels. com, which looked at digital habits across 29 countries, Asian travellers are the biggest mobile "addicts". Thais were the least prepared to give up their devices during holidays with 85% saying they would be un- willing to do so. Korea was second with 78%, fol- lowed by Japan (69%), China (67%) and Singapore (60%). In contrast, only 20% of respon- dents in India said they would be unable to abandon their mobile de- vices. Folks from Latin America and North America were similarly relaxed about disconnecting. Taylor L. Cole, travel expert at Hotels.com, said going away on vacation should be a time to unwind. "While smartphones are useful for checking the weather or viewing maps, travellers would benefit from switching off their emails to discon- nect and restore a little more of the all-important work-life balance." Easier said than done. Our mobile devices have become so much a part of our everyday lives that even on holidays – perhaps especially on holi- days – we can't help but tell our friends what we are doing and posting pictures on social networks and apps. It's happening everywhere. Comscore's "US Mobile App Report" shows that people now spend most of their digital time on mobile apps. In the past year, total time spent on digital media has increased 24% and mobile app use has increased 52%. US users now spend an av- erage of seven out of eight of their mobile minutes on an app. Social networking, games and music account for nearly half of the total time spent on mobile apps – indicating that mobile has become more of an entertainment platform than desktop computing. With the way we in Asia are buy- ing smartphones – look at the hype which surrounded the release of the iPhone 6 – it is clear mobile is here in a big way and will change travel forever. So here's a shout-out to start- ups and entrepreneurs looking to tap into the mobile space – Asia is the place to be. addICTed To MoBILe TECH TALKING Corinne Wan hails from Ipoh and calls Kuala Lumpur her home although from the amount of time she spends on the web, well, the world is her oyster really. Other than her passion for food, Corinne's very enthusiastic about technology and the new toys that are constantly coming out, as well as all the tech developments that are trans- forming travel. When a former mayor of the Florida city of St Petersburg bid US$400 to take a 23-minute flight on a wooden biplane across Tampa Bay he became – on January 1, 1914 - the world's first commercial air passenger. One hundred years ago, US$400 was the equivalent today of about US$10,000, the cost of a first class lie-flat bed on a Singapore Airlines A380 return flight from Changi to Heathrow. When I last checked, US$400 to- day would buy a return Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong and leave enough in your pocket for a couple of night's stay in a reason- able hotel in Kowloon. Some 100,000 flights take to the sky each day carrying about 8M people across the world. In 2013 more than three billion people flew in hundreds of domestic and inter- national airlines. By 2017, that figure will reach 3.9 Bn. Sure, the airlines are putting the squeeze on passengers. At the back of the plane, legroom is shrinking, meals are disappearing and ex- cess baggage charges are almost unavoidable. On the flip side, airports are becoming destinations in their own right, allowing a much more enjoy- able experience as you wait for that delayed flight. And aircraft manu- facturers like Airbus and Boeing are turning out more efficient, better designed planes. The travel trade is also chang- ing. Online travel agents, hybrid business models, mobile apps, big data, dynamic pricing and new regulations are just some of the challenges facing the industry. Traditional publishing also has to adapt. Travel Weekly Asia looks forward to the challenge. We will be more international in outlook, recognising that globalisation has changed the way we all operate. We'll also be more diverse in the topics we cover and the insights we offer to our readers. It was Thomas Jefferson who said: "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past." Welcome onboard for the next stage of the journey. CHaRTInG a neW CoURSe BY THE WAY 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 news- wires. 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.