“Traveling the globe without leaving home: Is it a pipe dream or the future of tourism?” An interview with Sergey Dzhashitov, founder of the online platform SeaRates.
How to go on a global cruise or arrange a trip around the world in a single click?
SeaRates.com founder Sergey Dzhashitov will discuss the future of the tourism industry, including whether it will be possible to implement the concept of "Travel in containers" without ever having to leave the comfort of his own home, as well as his thoughts on how this new form of tourism can impact society as a whole.
Long-term travel will become much more affordable in the future
When people begin traveling across the globe in their own homes, a revolution in the global tourism industry will occur.
We live in an age of technology, information, and globalization; in other words, we live in the digital age. Occasionally, you may wish to pause this progressive pace, savor the moment, and reconnect with nature, to be in the element and with the resource, while still creating the maximum level of comfort for yourself.
You may be asking how this is feasible.
The point is that we have become used to conventional brick and concrete building and that other methods of construction are seldom explored when selecting materials for home construction. However, shipping container homes have already gained considerable popularity in the United States and Europe. This is a pretty typical design for them, and it is much less expensive than capital building.
Containers formerly used for transportation may soon become the most popular mobile hotel complex for visitors, allowing them to traverse the globe in comfort.
Real estate will become transportable, which will fundamentally alter a person's attitude about everything in his environment. Not only will the container expand the globe of travel, but it will also become a way of life for millions of individuals whose jobs enable them to work remotely from home and travel extensively, experiencing new nations and vistas. Consider the amazing maritime trips that await you on many continents, islands, towns, and nations. Even under today's abnormal circumstances brought about by acute respiratory illness COVID-19 or other global cataclysms, all borders will be totally obliterated.
The customer would have the option of container homes of varying sizes and designs. Everyone will have the option of housing depending on their buying power and intended usage, both personal and commercial.
So what will change in the tourism industry with the arrival of autonomous shipping container hotels?
To begin, travel will become several times more affordable and sustainable in the long run than it is today. Container shipping has already revolutionized the shipping industry, and we can bet it will have a similar effect on the tourist industry.
Consider how effortlessly your mini-house, with a container carrying capacity of more than 20 tons, to which you have become used, can be transported and loaded aboard the ship with your personal possessions. You will no longer need to consider what you will need on the trip and what you cannot do without; instead, your thoughts and energies will be directed in a totally new way.
The container's external construction will stay unaltered, but the inside will be designed in the contemporary minimalist style via the practical usage of interior objects. This style is very popular in small-scale apartment architecture and will serve as the foundation for creating the inside of a container. Additionally, you may build a garage for your vehicle, which will make traveling as simple as possible.
Will passenger ships imitate container ships in appearance?
While passenger ships are undoubtedly adapting to the peculiarities of container operations, this adaptation will benefit both the tourist and the service provider. Today, it is widely recognized that sea cruises are a sought-after and luxurious kind of vacation. As a result, the high cost is regarded the primary drawback of this vacation. Another drawback is the regime's harshness. Typically, liners spend the day at the city's port and resume their journey at night. Naturally, during the day, you may visit major sites, go on excursions with a guide accompanying visitors on a sea trip, or just rest on an exclusive beach. However, staying longer in this or that city, wandering the streets, or attending any activities not included in the cruise vacation itinerary is not feasible, since ships operate on a tight timetable, and passengers must maintain strict discipline.
When containers are used in place of a cabin, no mode is required. Your container will be unloaded off the ship in any location, at any time, and for as long as you want.
Sea travel will become tenfold as accessible and popular as it now is. Container transportation has already revolutionized the freight delivery industry, and you can be certain that container passenger transportation will follow suit in tourism.
To begin, the sea passenger service will be modified to make it more convenient than the air passenger service.
Your mini home, to which you have become attached, will simply be put aboard the ship, along with all the furniture. There is no longer any need to consider what to bring on an independent trip and what may be left behind, given the container's carrying capacity.
Ship designers will prioritize the development of a wide variety of entertainment options. Artificial beaches, swimming pools, gaming rooms, health centers, courts, sports fields, and interesting attractions - in a summary, everything that contributes to a pleasant atmosphere and the conditions for a bright and memorable vacation.
Any passenger is welcome to take a stroll on the deck and enjoy the views, or retire to their container home. By the way, few passengers want to return to their "home" during an ocean trip. Indeed, there is a novelty effect in the sea cabin, but in the home container, everything will be the same and familiar. Passengers will spend the most of their time on decks with swimming pools, attractions, and other high-priced activities.
Overland travel
Anyone who has taken a car journey overseas knows how thrilling it can be for the whole family or a group of friends. However, in order to commit it, you must take extra care. To begin, prepare your car by changing the oil and filter, inspecting the brake fluid level and the condition of the brake pads, and diagnosing the chassis. Additionally, it is essential to verify that the vehicle is equipped with an emergency stop sign, a tow rope, and an inflated spare tire. Even wheels may be an issue, particularly if they are studded. Such tires are prohibited in a number of the European Union's southern member states. Additionally, you cannot cross the border with a vehicle with cracked glass, body damage, or tinted windows. If you are still determined to go, police, penalties, and the danger of an accident may quickly spoil your mood on your vacation. By traveling in a container, you absolve yourself of any obligation for delivery from point A to point B. If the machine fails, your cargo may simply be reloaded onto another container ship, or you may be compensated for unscheduled downtime. Rather of learning the local traffic laws and restrictions in each nation, your new mobile home will allow you to just gaze out the window and enjoy your trip. Additionally, you are not need to carry printouts of confirmations from the hotels where you purchased rooms, as well as an international driver's license. When people are carried through a variety of modes of transport and there are passenger container ports, tourist transportation in containers will become multimodal.
Container camping
Passenger container terminals are identical to the open-air camping. They will be situated in beautiful natural areas near major transportation corridors or in peaceful urban neighborhoods, where visitors from many countries will arrive directly in passenger containers to spend time in nature or to live there for a period of time. When building campgrounds, it is intended to utilize a storage technology that has been effectively implemented; DP WORLD successfully implemented a ready-made technology in the BoxBay project (High Bay Storage) for international freight transportation. Containers may be stacked up to eleven floors high using the BoxBay racking system, giving the capacity of a typical terminal in one-third the space. Scalable to any site and completely automated with direct access to each container, BOXBAY substantially reduces camping area, increases processing speed, energy efficiency, and security, and greatly reduces operational expenses.
Conclusion
If this initiative is successful, tariffs will be accessible on the SeaRates.com platform not just for container-based freight shipping, but also for passenger travel. The customer will be provided with a variety of options from which to pick the best and most affordable components of the trip individually, allowing them to choose the best and most affordable service from a large number of providers. In contrast to traditional tourist trips, the cost of travel will be calculated in the same way as the cost of delivery of goods, namely "door to door." In other words, your container will be transported to a designated place alongside you and your personal items.
Choosing the most appropriate mode of transport for a container will be as simple as buying an airline ticket or a travel carry on backpack, regardless of the length of the trip. Indeed, a container home is that little world in which an individual lives according to his or her own rules, where he or she typically feels reliability and comfort, warmth and friendliness. The size of the home will become irrelevant in comparison to its geographical position on the map, surpassing all time zone and geographical constraints. This will be referred to as the current home for all those who live there, with each visit reinforcing the desire to remain longer or to continue their journey.
Sergey Dzhashitov founded SeaRates in 2005 as an online platform for international freight transportation. In 2020, DP World, one of the world's three largest port operators, acquired the platform.
