We at Zephyr Adventures have been working for some time to incorporate technology to improve our tours. This effort goes way beyond directions on your personal smart phone.
Up until a few months ago, our plan was to give tracking beacons to each individual on our tours. Rather than attempting to keep track of our travelers via a support van and actually hiking, biking, skating, or kayaking with you, we would then be able to stay in our hotel operations base and watch live as each of you went through the routes. With a short text message, we could then alert you when you were off course.
However, that plan still involved all of you having to actually ride, hike, kayak, or snowshoe the routes. So we have been waiting for Apple to come up with its new virtual reality helmets (not cheap at $1,000 or more per headset), which are set to be released soon. This will allow all of us to sit in a big conference room as you experience the joys of Italy, Spain, or Argentina virtually. We will still break at the end of the day to dine and share stories together!
At least until we are able to incorporate ChatGPT into the technological mix. With ChatGPT, you need not even talk to your fellow travelers, guides, or locals while on tour. In fact, you need not even travel to the tour location! You will be able to sit comfortably at home, put on your Apple virtual reality headset to enjoy the local scenery, and chat to imagined guides, fellow travelers, and locals with an artificial intelligence bot. Think about it: no more misunderstanding accents, receiving directions from a local that are incorrect, or sitting next to someone at dinner who isn’t the perfect dinner companion. No more rainy days or flight delays. If you don’t like a character in your vacation, just change it. In fact, if you don’t like the location you picked, just change that as well!
Is this the future of travel?
We don’t think so! While it is certainly true some companies would like to sell you a virtual vacation, we at Zephyr Adventure have been providing real-life experiences for the past 26 years and have no plans to change.
Haha good one Allan!!😂