Are heartbeat passports and 3D-printed breakfast buffets the future of travel?

The travel industry can change so quickly and without any warning. Long gone are the days of Pan Am flights where everyone dressed to the nines. Now we all fly in sweatpants, slides, and messy buns. Who is to say what travel will look like in the next 50 years?

Well, the folks over at easyJet are asking just that. They gathered a panel of experts, including academics, futurologists, and business advisors, to forecast what travel will look like in 2070. Here are the main predictions from the company’s easyJet 2070: Future Travel Report. 

The future of flying

• Heartbeat and biometric passports will replace traditional passports. In a way, we are already on our way with this with fingerprint and biometric scanning technology today. 
• Ergonomic airplane seats as well as air taxis will become the norm. 
• Inflight entertainment will be beamed directly in front of our eyes instead of on seatbacks.
• “Time-traveling” will be more common with holiday experiences. This doesn’t mean literal time travel, rather that travelers could for instance visit historical sites and wear haptic suits that allow them to immerse themselves in live historical surroundings and experience what it was like in that time period. 
• “Try before you buy” models will allow travelers to get a taste of their destination before booking their holiday. 

The future of hotels

• Hotels will be equipped with smart rooms and beds pre-made to achieve desired firmness, ambient temperatures, and favorite music. (This one I am all for!)
• Subterranean hotels will be built into the fabric of the earth and be more energy efficient. Human-powered hotels which harvest energy from guests’ footsteps are also a possibility. 
• 3D-printed hotel buffet food will make it possible for travelers to 3D print whatever they want and reduce food waste. 3D-printed and recyclable clothing that can be made available upon arrival will eliminate the need for suitcases and fast fashion while being perfectly tailored. (I’m having a hard time even imagining this one, personally.)

Though I’m a healthy skeptic on some of these, I’d love for travel to become more seamless and less stressful, so I’ll patiently wait until 2070 (when I’ll be 75) and see if any of these hold up. See the rest of the predictions here.