Transiting through 2010

Talk of travel, and it's hard to see beyond the atrocious visibility of Delhi's fogs and its culpable domino effect across global aviation hubs. There's talk of GPS navigation being the perfect remedy, but will our airports and aircraft with fitted with it by 2010? I'd like to believe yes, but I know better than to be foolhardy in setting expectations.

(Note from the Ed: This is the season of good cheer and heady optimism so fogs be damned, let's spread some sunshine around.)

The year that just went by witnessed some interesting developments that are possible pointers to what the rest of the decade will look like for travellers.

For one, there's a lot of excitement (and little action) around creating world-class airports in India. Foreign investment consortia are hustling for a stake, private airline fleet acquisitions are on overdrive, the government has clearly identified the aviation industry as a key driver for economic growth, and there's a 16 per cent increase in number of Indian airline passengers every year. Everything's pointing toward contracts being awarded soon. How soon? Your guess is as good as mine.

We'd heard of airlines gift-wrap their business and first classes to offer a hotel like environment, but 2005 saw a brand new concept called Yotel. Conceptualised by the founder of the iconic London-based Yo Sushi bar, it aims to create hotel rooms with an airline business class atmosphere, complete with Lilliputian rooms and capsule beds. Yotels, to be developed around the world, are being hailed by some as set to change the hospitality industry. May not go down well with Indian travellers who prefer to see their money's worth of luxury.

The great news for the compulsive netizen is that booking a holiday today is never more than a mouse click away. No frill airlines and their tempting online fares have compelled even the technophobes to resign to pay online, and now I hear Western Railway has introduced an ERS (Electronic Reservation Slip) ticketing system, printable straight off their site, for four of its routes. Move over tea in kulhads, this is way more inspiring.

The New York Times just reported that a tourist trail of the worst hit areas left behind by Hurricane Katrina is scheduled to begin in January. The general manager of the tour company was quoted saying he hoped the tours would resuscitate the tourism business in New Orleans and give tourists what they want. Is disaster tourism a sign of things to come? As ungodly as it sounds, disasters, localised or globalised, are unavoidable, and if you're a pragmatic thinker (and just a little morbid), you may believe this is the next big thing.

News has it that there will soon be airport style security for passengers travelling on London's trains. But frisk-weary travellers can at least look forward to security systems getting more sophisticated, and less time consuming, what with face recognition software and biometric iris scanners within reach.

What we will need is a volunteer to write 'the Indians' handbook to navigating the airports of 2010'. Between self-service check-in kiosks and wireless hand baggage scanning and stamping systems, we will finally have an excuse for being caught looking confused and standing in all the wrong queues!

I refuse to be stupid enough or clairvoyant enough to promise you time travel in 2010, but the next big thing in efficient flying after the Concorde "" the A380 will be here, and Kingfisher just became the first Indian carrier to get in queue. There will be no shopping malls or bowling alleys in the double-deckered super jumbo, but you will get all the space you could use, for the same price. By 2010, an estimated 60 airports around the world will be ready to receive it.

And while time travel might be nothing more than a 'Wells'ian fool's paradise, space tourism looks more plausible every year. Worldwide, more than millions of dollars are spent on space civilian operations, but till a launch pad on moon is built, and the cost per kilogram of launching a payload into orbit gets more down-to-earth (pun intended), it's unlikely you will be on the moon in a hurry (despite the citizens-in-space advocacy groups!)

If there is one holiday format I would love to see take root among Indian travellers, it is the concept of charity travel "" combining a holiday with voluntary work. For parents, it's a great way to encourage benevolence in kids, and it can be far more rewarding that the average stay at a Phuket beach resort (although I can't rubbish that). Close to home is the Elephant orphanage in Pinnawela, Sri Lanka that offers a month's boarding and lodging combined with work experience at the elephant shelter. They are booked months in advance, but enquiries from Indians are rare.

Meanwhile, foreign-giddy Indian tourists are ditching the Swiss Alps (single-handedly universalised by Bollywood) for the backwaters of Kerala. I do hope by 2010, that some bureaucrat in some state tourism board gains the gumption to try and out-market Kerala and Goa.

As for me, I must be off to book my annual break to, where else... Goa.
It's still 2005...
PS: Have you heard, some of the standard Indian travel operator package deals are now inclusive of tour guide, optional Jain meals, noisy coach tours, and listen up... a beer and alcohol daily kitty. Now that's what I call progress!