How tech can play a role from armchair travel to the physical journey
I’ve now come to an age when my mother needs a wheelchair for travelling. Day to day, she lives a fairly normal active life but travelling, that’s another proposition.
Travelling is a highly physical activity – those long walks to the gates and immigration, those long queues – not easy when you are not fully mobile. So I’ve learnt to travel through her eyes – the requests for assistance pre-flight, the waits at check-in for assistance, the arrival process – with the inevitable conclusion that one day, soon, it will happen to me, and all of us.
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The experience is not totally new. For three months, almost a decade ago, I had to request for wheelchair assistance for flights and moving around when I had a leg injury. I learnt then how difficult it is for the elderly and disabled to move around in, and relate to society. It rendered me invisible, as does ageing.
Seeing life through my mother’s eyes has also made me highly cognizant of the ageing societies of Asia. In Singapore, the evidence is everywhere – local housing estates, food courts, hospitals, public transport. According to the Singapore government’s 2023 population report, citizens aged 65 and above make up almost one-fifth of Singapore’s population, up 11.7% from a decade ago.
The percentages are as stark, if not starker, in other countries.
In 2022, people aged 65 years and older in Japan accounted for approximately 29.9% of the total population. Due to a low birth rate and high longevity, people aged 65 years and older are expected to make up over 38% of the population in Japan by 2070, according to Statista.
In China, by the end of 2022, those aged 60 and over accounted for 19.8% of the national population while in South Korea, those aged 65 and above accounted for approximately 18%.
In the US, there’s a lot of talk about ageing too, given the age of President Joe Biden (81) and the fact that he is running again against Donald Trump who’s not that far behind at 77. In his New York Times column “We’re not asking the important questions about age”, author James Chappel argues this is “an opportunity for us to change the national conversation on aging”.
He argues that rather than fixate on “the capacities of two individuals presuming throughout that old age is a problem and that the natural signs of aging are deplorable weaknesses”, we should “ensure that older Americans, many of whom are vulnerable and precarious, are able to live healthier https://netep.org/, happier and more dignified lives”.
I feel that’s the same challenge we have in travel – how do we ensure a growing segment of our societies are still able to enjoy fun and fulfilling travel experiences throughout the travel journey, and not be subjected to pity and, sometimes, condescension?
As much fuss as there is about the Gen Z and Millennials and their current and future spending power – and trust me, I’ve been bombarded in my Singapore hood by the Swiftie crowd all this week – there’s a silent and strong undercurrent going on in the silver generation.
Of course, it’s the generation I am associating with but I can’t keep up with their travels and their plans.
Last week, I met a couple in their early 60s who decided to take a year off work and just travel. Yesterday, I spoke to a friend who’s turning 80 in May and she was telling me about an Amazon cruise she’s booked. She spends more time at sea than on land. Last week, at a birthday dinner for a 70-year-old, his conversations were peppered with, “When I was in Ghana …” to “Oh, I popped into Porto too.”
These are the folks with money and time on their hands, and a strong wanderlust in their soul, eager to travel while they still can. Spend time with them and all you want to do is travel like them.
By coincidence, or perhaps not, a friend sent me an article headlined, “Armchair Travel Is Springing Back to Life”. She said the article made her think of me. I will have to ask her why.
Travel writer Brad Japhe argues that the concept of “armchair travel” has existed for centuries: “A way to envision ourselves in far-flung destinations without having to really go anywhere. It was initially fueled by art, namely books, theater, paintings, and music. Today, it lies more within the purview of technology, especially now that products like Apple Vision Pro can be strapped to your face as you stand in line at the local coffee shop.”
Incidentally, a friend in Singapore who road-tested the Apple Vision Pro told me, “The experience is really quite amazing. The UI that uses eye tracking for object selection and fingers for clicking is surprisingly good and quite intuitive.”
However, he added, “After 30 minutes my eyes were feeling really sore and I had a headache for the next couple hours. It really needs to be quite a bit lighter and smaller before most people will want to use it for prolonged periods.”
So be sure to use it while sitting in an armchair for now.
Anyway, back to the article. Given the hurdles of physical travel – financial reasons, “pain in the ass to get from A to B” and others – armchair travel is a good alternative, and in fact may even be good for you.
It quotes Dr Melissa Boudin, a clinical psychologist, as saying, “Daydreaming about travel, in particular, lets you be fully creative and in control of where you are, allowing you to escape briefly from your physical point of being. This can be useful for taking a breather during a workday or whenever a mental break is needed – people who ‘travel’ during their breaks are often more likely to feel refreshed, happy, and optimistic.”
So it seems to me that we in travel have two opportunities with this ageing phenomenon dawning upon us – make the daydreaming better with human imagination and technology, and the physical travel journey better with technology and more humility, dignity and humanity.
