By Rhiannon Stevens
Publication Date: 2025-12-27 04:52:00
Mengni Fu checks into her hotel room from the back seat of a taxi using her cell phone. When she arrives at the hotel, she leaves her luggage with one of the porters who takes it to her room. She unlocks her room with a digital key on her cell phone. She then sits on the bed and asks the AI assistant to turn on the lights, close the curtains and recommend a nearby restaurant.
So far, Fu has not had contact with anyone in the hotel. This is not the script of a science fiction film; This is travel in China in 2025. Fu, a graduate student at Griffith University, describes a recent trip to Shanghai.
And according to consultancy McKinsey and Co, this is where the future of travel lies: technology eliminates “typical travel pain points such as queues, misunderstandings or misinformation” and the human interactions that actually take place are “authentic and meaningful”.
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