Posted by: Howard Dvorkin, CPA
Date of post: May 11, 2015

In 2030, relaxing will be a lot different than it is today.

Here’s a question that never occurred to me: How will vacations be different in 15 years?

Among the answers, according to a new report called Future Traveller Tribes 2030 by a travel-tech company called Amadeus…

By the end of the next decade, some people will purchase and consume travel experiences almost entirely on the basis of how shareable they are, or how much ‘capital’ they generate, via social networks.

That’s right. For some travelers, enjoying their vacation will be less important than showing others how much you’re enjoying yourself!

To me, this is tech gone wrong. As a financial educator, I obviously care about vacation spending. (It’s why we wrote Taking a debt-free vacation in 3 easy steps.) However, I also look at vacations as business transactions.

Your job earns you the money to pay off your debts and raise a family. You need time away from the job so you don’t burn out, under-perform, and get fired.

So a vacation is for you, not for your Facebook friends. If you choose a vacation that doesn’t allow you to relax, I’m concerned as your financial expert.

Thankfully, there’s good news on the tech-travel front…

“Another group of travelers will demand total simplicity and freedom from having to arrange their own travel by 2030, wanting as much as possible to be done remotely, by third parties.”

It seems in the future, our children will look back on our use of travel websites as arcane and slow. One site for researching a destination? Another for booking a flight? Another for a hotel room? Yet another for buying tickets to local attractions?

Millennials on Vacation

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Tomorrow’s travelers expect a one-stop, artificially intelligent source for that. Some may say that makes them lazy. I say it makes good financial sense: You get the best deal in very little time, and time is money.

Of course, technology can’t help you enjoy a vacation if you can’t afford one. Thankfully, there’s good news about how millennials plan to pay for theirs, and I’m happy the answer isn’t, “Charge it.”

“Millennials (ages 18-29) are significantly more willing to make sacrifices for travel, with 68 percent opting to put in an extra year of work,” says new research by Country Financial.

I hope when they save for that trip, they enjoy it for themselves, and not their friends.

Howard Dvorkin is a CPA and chairman of Debt.com, an educational resource for those who want to conquer all forms of debt in their lives.

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