The world of travel has changed tremendously because of technology, especially with the help of a smartphone. One no longer reads travel magazines or guidebooks to collect information on a holiday destination. Travel guidebooks have been outnumbered by hundreds or thousands of travel reviews online, and booking hotels no longer means making long-distance phone calls.
Travel agents may be the last people you want to see when planning your vacation.
I am not addicted to technology, but I find it inconvenient to travel without my smartphone, like many.
Thanks to real-time intelligence and connectivity, we can access information with greater ease, and that promotes tourism in a way that we have not seen before.
If lost in a remote area, who needs an old school map? I can check the route on Google Maps and ask it to guide me. It is possible and easy to take a detour to other interesting attractions nearby, with the confidence that I can always get back on the proper route with the help of the GPS. When people say the world is smaller because of technology, the saying rings true when one travels off the beaten path.
Before, searching for hotels in foreign countries required much effort and time. Now you can make reservations almost everywhere in the world with a click. You will be surprised to find that it is easier to find special offers on hotel web pages -- or on sites such as booking.com or agoda.com -- than in the classified section of newspapers.
For local resorts that do not have automatic booking web pages or are on hotel booking portals, customers can do it through a popular chat app called Line. It's even more convenient because you can send messages about room availability, reservations and transfer the money using your smartphone and capture the page or transaction slip as proof.
There are smartphone apps for walking tours in Bangkok, guide apps for Japan, as well as special apps for train travellers in Europe. There are apps that help you look for cheap plane tickets, restaurants, transport, route planning, flight statuses, weather forecasts and money exchange rates. There is even an application for wine lovers. You take a picture of the label, and the app will tell you the history of the wine, its quality and price.
What did travellers of the 1980s or even 1990s do without all of this? How much research and trial-and-error was there when planning a holiday? The face and nature of travel has changed so much in the past five years or so.
Some museums put QR codes adjacent to the exhibitions for visitors to scan them. Then a video and informative narration is played to you on the spot. At this point, I feel like I am in the dinosaur age when I carry newspapers or books into a museum.
One of the developments in travel technology is the translator apps, which help me understand signs in local languages.
Information has also been democratised. Before, you looked for official data about places or people. Now there are various websites such as TripAdvisor which allow travellers to share first-hand information and tell stories about their experiences. These web pages help me understand the place, people and their culture.
With a smartphone, I reach my destination safe and sound. But then I look up and find tourists around me looking into their phones, busy typing away, taking selfies, updating their Facebook page or Instagramming pictures of their journey.
This begs the questions: Have smartphones and social media really helped make travel easier? If you spend too much time looking at your phone, is that still travel?
Peerawat Jariyasombat is a travel writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.