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Ryan Hartman opened X. Festival with an unconventional talk about travel and tourism; an earth-focused space travel initiated from World View's interest in stewarding the planet and caring for the land with a particular focus on accessibility and attainability for space tourism.

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During his talk, Ryan referred to a number of the emerging and revolutionary trends in travel and tourism. Eco-friendly travels and sustainability are at the centre of many discussions and are pushing the edges of the industry. Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly seeking new experiences. There is a need to understand their needs, interests and expectations. Thus, the industry needs to design and use technology purposefully for regenerative tourism and travel experiences.

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He introduced the futuristic stratospheric flight experiences to the edge of space that World View will launch in the near future. Ryan named place, time, attainability & accessibility as core forces of World View in launching earth-focused space travel. Their flight experiences leverage the concept of place by providing an opportunity to view the beauty and fragility of the planet and see the world without borders from above. The overview of the planet effects, as Ryan explained, changes the human perspective for the planet. Once they see its fragility from above, they become earth advocates on return to earth.  The flights launch from 7 locations across the globe, 'the 7 wonders of the world' ranging from the Amazonia in Brazil to the Giza pyramids in Egypt and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. At World View, they value time by creating lasting memories. World View has a vision to make space tourism accessible for all physical abilities and diverse age groups and welcomes all onboard their flights.

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Ryan also referred to a number of challenges of space tourism, including high costs of flights currently ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. Concerning attainability, World View also has a vision for making space tourism affordable for all. They are taking action towards affordability by offering the first flight to citizen astronauts for free. The first human test flights will launch in mid-2023, and commercial flights will be departing in 2024. He discussed the advantages of the cutting edge technology used for flights that allow safe and gentle travel with zero pressure balloons to space and is most sustainable.

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As Ryan discussed, space tourism has particular challenges: costly flights, carbon footprint, and sand rocket fuel. Although, space travel holds futuristic elements for travellers to explore the unknown, look back on earth, and re-explore its beauty in a distinctive experience. Ryan valued partnerships with tourism councils to ensure consistent representation of flight locations as well as with local tourism sectors, including hotels and dining services, to provide unique tourism experiences and add value with also extends to post-flight experiences.

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With an earth-focused vision, Ryan also reflected on the values of sustainability for DMOs and potential partnerships to link tourism and travel on the ground with space travel experiences. He also saw optimism in an increasing number of eco-friendly merchants in tourism and travel.