One of them was Ian Yeoman a futurologist with a tourism focus, who, as he put it, gets paid to "make stuff up" - although it does appear that there is quite a lot of interesting thinking behind the er ... stuff! It struck me that "futuring" is something that really benefits from integrating the information and knowledge from a very wide range of stakeholders.
I guess as someone who spends quite a lot of time thinking of the future in terms of environmental sustainability and who has a head full of books/ information like Jared Diamond's "Collapse," Rob Hopkins' "Transition Handbook" and of course Chris Martenson's Crash course, (amongst others) I would say Dr Yeoman is perhaps more positive about the future of tourism than I am ... (although to be fair he talks in terms of scenarios but I do note that people travelling a lot less did not seem to be one of them!).
I would hope, for example, that we don't have space tourism because something like that would indicate to me (and this is just an opinion here!) the likelihood of a an unstable society in which the gap between rich and poor is just massive (when in my opinion it is already too big).
Personally I'd much prefer to live in a stable and happy society in which people know and appreciate each other and there is a more even spread of opportunity across the population of the world. Such a society could work together constructively to cope with the changes that face them - whether they be positive or negative. And , I suppose, to those ends I remain interested in the question of how we create the positive futures we want.Looking at this I guess I could seem like a bit of a grump who doesn't want to to create fantastic tourism futures. I suppose I would prefer to work toward seeing a more even spread of opportunity across the population rather than preparing for amazing opportunities for a priviledged few. In the end, like any decision or use of intuitive processes, it's all a matter of what and how you prioritise information and principles.
;-) CH
