Will virtual be the norm?

It was not so long ago that online dating was frowned upon, yet it has become the norm in many countries. With the COVID-19 crisis, it has surged all over the world.

The virtual world is dominating our dating life. We got used to it.

Are we ready to get used to virtual everything, from yoga retreats to cooking classes, from business meetings to travel?

We better be because vitality is overtaking physical proximity very quickly.

There is an interesting passage at Wunderman Thompson’s report on the future, it states that travel will be virtual, and it will not only be exclusive to real places we know of our world.

In February 2020, British travel guide publisher Rough Guides partnered with Xbox to release a virtual travel guide through the diverse landscapes and captivating universes of various games. The guide highlights beautiful not-to-be-missed digital destinations and otherworldly vistas in the worlds of Halo 5: Guardians, Metro Exodus and Forza Horizon 4, among others. “Game graphics are so immersive and all-consuming, you don’t just experience the gameplay—you experience the very world in which the gameplay unfolds,” according to Rough Guides. “That thrilling feeling of being somewhere new is no longer the exclusive domain of real-world travel.”

Of course, the companies that are hit the hardest are taking their own measures. Airbnb launched Online Experiences on April 9, allowing virtual tourists to “travel” via Zoom to meditate with Buddhist monks in Japan, visit with the dogs of Chernobyl and cook with a Moroccan family in Marrakech.

You could travel to an imaginary land as easily as you could travel to Japan without leaving your house.

Would it satisfy you as much as really being there? The answer to that changes from person to person.

Some of us will stick to old fashioned ways of transportation and sightseeing, some of us will jump right into the virtual worlds.

Which would you prefer?

To take a cooking lesson from a Japanese chef after you have experienced being at the surface of the moon, or the real sensation of being at a new location and walking around?