History. I always hear how things were better in the past. When things were slower, and less advanced. Where things took a lot longer to accomplish and where people took time to visit with others because televisions and computers were not invented yet. But as time has shown, not all things are better in the past. Travel in the old days took whole days just to travel a few miles, and now you can be halfway around the world in just a few hours.
Technology is not a bad thing. Advancements in vehicles and computer systems have opened the travel arena to heights never imagined in the past. And as technology continues to advance, the travel industry will also advance with it.
Government travel began as a small portion of the government budget but has grown to play a vital role in agencies achieving their mission. It is only to be expected that as technology changes, that rules and regulations need to change as well. Rules that were established in the mid 20th century do not meet the needs of today’s technology. Moving from a manual reservation system to the computerized Global Distribution Systems (GDS) has saved billions of dollars throughout history.
It will be an exciting adventure to see how far technology can continue to advance the world of travel. To what limits and boundaries will we go? Will we need computers as we have today or will artificial intelligence play a part? Will people be in flying cars and not planes? Only history will tell.
By: Linda Ruppel
The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.