Dear Editor,

Remember the hollow deck that the members of the crew of Star Trek could go into to create whatever reality they wanted? Although that was just science fiction on a television show, the way virtual reality is going these days, that concept is not so fictional anymore.

I heard a BBC presenter boasting to his colleague, on air, how he was able to enjoy the aquatic scenery of eastern Indonesia. When asked when he managed to make the trip, he replied that he hadn’t — he was swimming in the Indonesian seas while he was in his living room in London. All of this, he claimed, was due to virtual reality technology.

Now, in our region, we are heavily dependent on tourism. We attract tourists to our countries by promising them a good time – usually on the beach or within our sunny climate. Those of us who continue to see the need for our countries to be over dependent on this industry should wake up to the alternatives that rapidly advancing technologies are and will be offering to people, other than to come to our countries.

This is especially true in light of the travel warning that Canada recently issued to its citizens to think twice about visiting Jamaica on account of the worsening crime problem and the bad international publicity that we have been getting in regards to the same problem.

Virtual reality technology (VRT) has been advancing at a very rapid rate. People can be made to experience anything, even fictional environments that seem real, all on account on VRT. And it is not just the experience of seeing two-dimensional pictures. VRT now involves three-dimensional scenes, including holograms and scents of all kinds. I have even seen where some companies have been making great advances in simulating how people feel things in virtual reality.

Now, like that

BBC presenter did, some would-be tourists are already opting to use VRT to “take a vacation” instead of doing the real thing. The point I am making here is that, in crime-plagued countries like ours, it is not too far-fetched to see other would-be tourists choosing to enjoy our hospitality in virtual reality, instead of real reality, so to speak. After all, why risk being shot by coming here, they may think?

The world is changing fast, but for some reason we want to stick to our old ways. Tourism as we know it may very well be more in virtual reality much sooner than we think. Already, many are opting to go the safer route.

Michael A Dingwall

michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com