Foresight, scenarios, and emerging signals shaping the next decade of travel, tourism, and the visitor economy.
A screensaver of a red 90°N sign on Arctic ice pulled Guadalupe Aguirre from Antarctica into a three-year wait for a nuclear icebreaker. What followed was Murmansk, Franz Josef Land, 114 demanding guests, and a silence at the Geographic North Pole she would return to fourteen more times.
Tourism does not have an information shortage. The real gap is movement: research that never reaches destinations, experience that leaves when people retire, and similar problems solved in isolation. The future of the sector depends on how far the knowledge we already have can travel.
Tourism is mostly fiction — and that is not the problem. The problem is pretending otherwise. Destinations work better when we stage an honest fiction: honor the familiar story travelers arrive with, then deliver surprise with care through trust — a Perception Reset at the threshold.
Foreign tourists in Gran Canaria Carnival seek togetherness and entertainment more than formal cultural learning — yet media still frames them as passive observers. Inclusive, participatory design (workshops, behind-the-scenes access, clearer local narratives) can move the experience beyond the tourist gaze.
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