Travel can be a lonely experience, and that’s as true today as it was in decades gone by. Entertainment has provided plenty of solace to globe-trotters, though the types of experiences available and tourists’ preferences have changed significantly, especially in the past 15 years or so.
The dominance of portable devices has caused a marked shift away from face-to-face social interaction, especially when on the move. So, what’s changed exactly, and does this matter, or is it just part of progress that we shouldn’t try to roll back?
Cheers to the Hotel Bar
Many hotels still have bars, but they’re used very differently in the time of the smartphone. Throughout the 20th century, the hotel bar was the place where guests gathered to socialize during their stay. If you wanted a quiet drink and some casual conversation with a fellow traveler, you could have it. If you wanted to relax and read the newspaper or bury your nose in a good book, the bar could also cater to this low-key entertainment preference.
It was also typical for hotel bars in Canada and elsewhere to employ professional musicians who played live and added to the atmosphere as the evening wore on. These were spaces where friendships formed, relationships blossomed, and fun was had.
Things are not quite the same now that handheld screens have monopolized our attention. People still flock to hotel bars to grab a drink and a snack, but socializing plays second fiddle to doomscrolling and snapping photos of fancy cocktails to post online. Live music can still be part of the experience, although pumping out EDM at a volume that makes conversation tricky seems far more common.
There are upsides, of course. Now, anyone can use their phone to play live casino games while sipping a huge range of non-alcoholic beverages in a hotel bar, rather than being forced to make awkward chitchat with the tipsy travelers when all you want is some peace and quiet. And for introverts, phones and tablets are a great way to be part of the hotel bar atmosphere without having to suffer pangs of social anxiety.
A Salute to In-Room Entertainment
The hotel bar might no longer be the having-fun hub of accommodation as it once was, but travelers now have a much better time of things in terms of in-room entertainment. We’ve had TVs in hotels for many years, but these were previously either limited to live broadcasts or hooked up to some expensive pay-to-play on-demand system that would leave your final bill much higher than expected.
With the dawn of free, fast Wi-Fi and the ability to use streaming subscription services on mobiles and laptops when you’re traveling, in-room entertainment is just as good as what you’d get at home, and at no extra cost. Some hotel chains even throw in their own digital entertainment services, so you don’t have to rely on your own accounts and devices.
So, as with many things, there’s something to be said for both the past and the present, and Canada’s visitors can still choose to go screen-free if they want authentic in-person entertainment and socializing during their trips. Equally, if you’d rather stick to your smartphone, no one will judge.