As countries in different parts of the world begin to revitalize their orders in quarantine and start to resume travel to neighboring countries, some travelers have high hopes that they will not spend this entire year staying at home. After several weeks and months of staying at home and being isolated from many people, there’s now the chance to at least visit some other travel destinations other than the local grocery store.
The government will be thinking of some innovative ways to start the opening of travel industries while reducing the risks from COVID-19. Almost all leaders in every country implemented numerous risk-reducing strategies. With these strategies, travel sectors have also evolved, resulting in us having safer means to proceed to specific travel destinations. The hotel industry has also had to adapt accordingly, and many have started relying on hospitality support services to maintain cleaner, sanitized, and carefully maintained premises. Now that travel is starting to become somewhat regular again, people are starting to notice the changes.
Some examples can be found below.
- Local travel will boom – The first change that we may notice is that travel for internationals will decline since most countries will not risk freely opening their borders to those international travelers. For those countries that open their doors to travelers, strict compliance and requirements are needed at the border points. Because of this strictness in terms of travel requirements, many avid travelers will opt to travel locally and not risk their lives going to other countries with high cases of COVID-19. Of course, it would be better to choose local travel instead of risking our lives traveling internationally.
- Hotels have dramatically changed – This pandemic brought by COVID-19 has a great impact on all industries in the market. Hotel sectors were forced to drastically change and include even more hygiene measures to survive and start to succeed in this new normal trend. One of these measures includes the use of safety gloves (find them on https://unigloves.co.uk/) by the hotel staff to ensure that they do not become carriers of the disease. The majority of the hotels adopted several types of designs and strategies to cope with their losses. One of these strategies was to use some digital technologies or solutions in facilitating social distancing, elevating proper hygiene, and making sure of the safety of all guests and visitors. Lots of hospitality services also now use UV sterilisation technology from somewhere like R-Zero Systems to ensure the air that guests breathe is clean too.
- Everything has become contactless – In the post-pandemic era, hotels and restaurants have changed how they operate to keep everyone safe. They’ve adopted contactless methods, like using payment systems such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. They’ve also switched to contactless menus and ordering systems. Moreover, many restaurants now use EPOS (electronic point of sale) systems to cut down on contact between staff and customers. With the presence of an epos system for takeaway outlets as well as restaurants, customers can pay for their orders using a tablet or another digital device. This way, there’s no need for staff to handle cash directly, making things safer for everyone.
- Private vehicle travel has become the norm – We could expect that air travel and some other forms of travel will be diminished or stopped. However, as travelers, some of us will still look for ways on how we can embark on our escapades. It also means that we will start personalizing our travel experiences with our vehicles to have a memorable and enjoyable trip. Private vehicle traveling for a family will become a norm in our society just to reach our specific destinations. This kind of norm will also help us to avoid human contact since social distancing will also be observed. With our private cars or vehicles, we can still enjoy our journey with our family and friends.
- Sustainable travels will tend to be more prominent – The entire world has already seen the affirmative effects of quarantines and travel bans. And since we can start to travel once again, sustainability can lead the way towards a more economic-friendly future for some hotels and industries. Moreover, most of the countries implement sustainable regulations and measures on travel to maintain good public health.
- Alternatives on urban travel will be increased – Most importantly, it is crucial to think that most of the urban travels will still become prominent this year and beyond. However, the government and avid travelers will emphasize some alternative destinations rather than those traditional tourist destinations. For instance, we may be encouraged and may be required not to visit Rome, London, Paris, and some other metropolises yet when we travel. As an alternative, we may be encouraged to visit some smaller towns and cities to avoid crowding and over-tourism in urban areas in different places of the world.
COVID-19 pandemic gave us a mark that somehow affects our modern way of living. However, it does not mean that we may just look for some alternatives and innovative ways to experience even the local travels. Since COVID-19 is already here, leaders may craft strategies and effective plans to cope up with these new normal trends. We should also adopt some essential business models to ease our success and growth in this new normal.