THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 The Review ➔ Dreaming of the future
The future of sleep, the Dull Men's Club, weird hotels and unfortunate airport codes – welcome to The Alternative News page!
AFTER an unusual absence from these pages in the previous issue of TBTM, the PR team at Travelodge will no doubt be breathing a sigh of relief at seeing the budget hotel chain make a return to The Alternative News, this time with a look at the hotel room of the future. Interactive dreaming, virtual sex
and health monitoring are among the, erm, ‘services’ that new tech- nology will be able to perform by the year 2030. These are among a host of predictions laid out by futurologist Ian Pearson, who will presumably have also foretold a modest amount of mockery upon publication of his Travelodge Future of Sleep study. The report claims that by 2030 we
will be able to manage the content of our dreams – just like in the recent Leonardo DiCaprio film Inception – through the use of video, audio, scent and tactile emissions from a new breed of
THE ALTERNATIVE NEWS BAGGAGE ISSUES
technologically advanced beds. Moving into the realms of pure –
and literal – fantasy it also claims that couples “will be able to benefit from the ability to link peripheral nervous systems via active skin electronics together for enhanced love making.” Furthermore, “By wearing active lenses to change the image delivered to their retinas,
ROOMS WITH A TWIST
MAKING its debut on these revered pages is HRS. The hotel booking agent has compiled a list of weird and wonderful hotels around the world all of which, of course, are bookable through its website. Among our favourites are the
Hotel Lindenwert, in Germany, where guests get to sleep in a
wine barrel; Jumbo Stay in Stockholm, where a converted jumbo jet offers double rooms and the cockpit room comes with panoramic views; and the Alcatraz Hotel in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where the former prison has cell-style guestrooms with original prison beds, and a bar is enclosed by railings.
individuals will be able to adjust how their partner looks.” At this point, we began to wonder if this was a late arrival for the April Fool’s mail folder, or if Ian Pearson is a secret anagram (the most likely we found was ‘Insaner OAP’) and this is one almighty wind-up. Only 19 years until we find out.
WE ARE indebted to Keith Haynes of Chapman Freeborn – and should probably apologise to him for attaching his name to this – for raising our attention to the Dull Men’s Club, “a place in cyberspace where dull men – and women who appreciate dull men – can share thoughts and experiences about simple, ordinary things.” Among other useful/useless [delete as appropriate] lists is one about baggage carousels, with details of the direction in which they revolve at over 450 airports worldwide, from Irana Rinas Mother Teresa (TIA) in Albania (anti-clockwise), to Harare (HRE) in Zimbabwe (clockwise).
BATMAN FLIES DOWN TO CAPE TOWN
EMPLOYEES at flight comparison website Skyscanner have been busying themselves by coming up with the world’s rudest, silliest and most bizarre flight routes based on destination and IATA airport codes. From the world of fiction come Batman (Turkey) to Cape Town (South Africa), and Homer (USA) to Fort Simpson (Canada); there’s the painful sounding Burnie (Australia) to Tan Tan (Morocco); the tasty Rost (Norway) to Beef Island (British Virgin Islands); and the naughty Ogle (Guyana) to Brest (France). IATA code favourites include GOA-WAY (Cristoforo Colombo, Italy to Greene County, USA), HOT-DOG (Hot Springs, USA to Dongoloa, Sudan), ZIG-ZAG (Ziguinchor, Senegal, to Zagreb, Croatia), and POO-BUM (Pocos De Caldas, Brazil to Butler, USA). There were some further X-rated
IATA combinations that Skyscanner declined to list in their press release and instead provided a link to online. Unfortunately our editorial board has also
excercised the same discretion, but let’s just say that the IATA codes of Fukuoka, Japan and Oshawa, Canada; Sembach, Germany and Toyama, Japan; and Val de Caes, Brazil and Vance Air Force Base, USA, might provoke a few giggles.
46 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
46 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM
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