Daniel P. Dozier - Reflections on Travel & Technology

On our third to last night together, after enjoying the most incredible and beautiful sunset cruise in the Pacific Ocean, we sat down for an early dinner together to begin preparing for our client presentation.  Not surprisingly, after suffering weak WiFi we all brought our computers to dinner and then overwhelmed the network in this restaurant as well.  While multiple wifi networks exist none of them was fast enough to handle the necessary bandwidth for our group.  So we broke up after dinner to finish our evaluation forms, social media reviews and customer journey charts in word or excel – as opposed to the ubiquitous google docs that we are all so accustomed to using to share our work in real-time. 

Traveling with students even fifteen year younger than I am reminds me that I am still very much part of this generation – the Millennials.  Mobile technology has dramatically impacted the expectations of students today and those of us who share the creature comforts of the world are not enjoyed as fully without connectivity so we can SHARE these experiences on social media.  I have been amused constantly every day by fellow students who take photos along our trip only to modify them and post on their Snap Chat profile.   Without highspeed WiFi, it is very difficult to share photos and therefore the overall experience is also impacted. 

In addition to roads and other traditional infrastructure improvements, I would most recommend that the Costa Rican government invest in fiber optic cables to ensure the country’s wifi network is the strongest and fastest it can be – not only for millennial tourists (who will demand this service) but for the benefit of Costa Rican youth and students who will benefit most from the universal and high quality speed of information that the internet provides.