What will travel look like when all of this craziness is over?

We have seen the worst impact in the travel industry from travelers stranded far away from home, to no refunds, endless hours waiting on hold to speak with suppliers, and people canceling or rescheduling their bookings. A lot has happened in the 6 weeks. We saw panic, change, and disruption in this industry.  Policies can change daily and even hourly.  But a new question for all travelers is what will the new norm be once travel bans are lifted?

Many experts in the aviation, hospitality, cruising, finance and even epidemiology have predicted a lot more uncertainty in the future

Let’s talk about it.

Travel planning will include destination, the severity of the outbreak at the destination as well as departure origin, length of trip, and trip protection. Yes, you heard it right; there will be an increase in the sales of trip protection, mostly cancel for any reason coverage. This pandemic will be a great lesson about the importance of protecting your travel. 

Travelers will have to focus on their health as well as others while traveling. It will begin with where are you travelling from and where are you travelling to; hygiene and sanitation will be a new normal.  Many countries including USA, Iceland, France, Australia, china currently have a mandatory requirement for visitors to self-isolate for 14 days. This has to be well factored in a travel plan. This means your original 3 days vacation would be 17 days long.

Travelers might need to provide a health certificate proving good health as a part of immigration requirements. Above all, we will need to be compassionate, responsible, and realize that we may inadvertently bring the virus with us. 

Air travel will start slowly but obviously with social distancing. There might not be anyone sitting next to you. So this is good news for people who don’t like sitting in the middle seat. Also, the amount of premium seats could be limited. Also travelers may prefer direct flights instead of multiple layovers. And again a certificate showing good health could be required before boarding the flight. Some airlines such as Etihad  , heart rate, and respiratory rate of the passenger. Finding these types of kiosks at multiple locations such as check-in kiosks, baggage drops, immigration, and security checkpoints won’t be a surprise.  This will be a new normal.  

So we are looking for crowd-free travel in the coming future.

Looking at all of these factors, mostly domestic travel such as national parks will be the priority. That means great road trips will soar, because you can control your environment in a car and bring food to eat.   

That being said, family travel will be a new norm at least in the immediate future. 

What will industries do to attract and entice travelers? Great deals on airfare and miles, and more flexibility or waiving of change and cancellation fees until closer to the departure date are all likely to occur. This pandemic has hit people’s wallets hard as well. However, once the travel demand comes back fully, travel will likely become more expensive.

Now let’s talk about the hotel industry.

We should see hotel room rates less expensive than average to stimulate travel but still, there will be fewer hotels in operation. It is estimated that over 50% of the travel industry will not survive this pandemic (this includes airlines, cruise lines, transportation companies, travel agencies, hotels, theme parks, etc.).  A consistent and high cleaning standard will be the utmost priority for all aspects of the industry.  Hotel chains such as Marriott and Hilton have already committed to this.  It will be difficult for privately owned vacation rental properties (such as Airbnb and Vrbo) to enforce similar standards. 

Every one of us always dreamt of having a cruise vacation. Cruises have earned a bad rep during this pandemic. The media has targeted them and not focused on other sectors of travel like hotels.  They are going to work hard to get their reputation back and the mega huge cruise ships will not be popular anymore.  Some cruise lines are requiring guests over 70 years old to show proof that they don’t have any critical health conditions to embark the ship. The travel industry has faced health, economic, and social disasters in the past but always rebounds and this will not be an exception. It is estimated that COVID-19 will be 9 times worse than 9/11 was.  That being said, there will likely be a slower comeback this time. Most of the canceled bookings this year are rescheduling for next year, so next year has limited availability in certain sectors. Many cruise lines and tour operators offered more than 100% for a future voucher instead of a 100% refund for flights or cruise sailings that were canceled by the companies and not the travelers. Cruise lines will likely increase the capability and extend their medical facility on board.

Third-party travel bookings on online agencies such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Hotels.com will shrink. Bookit.com went out of business, left many people stranded, and gave no refunds.  Costco Travel infuriated clients because after waiting on hold for hours the phone would hang up.  The OTAs (online travel agencies) handled things very poorly and showed that it is transactional not a relationship like you get when working with a Travel Professional.  You truly get what you pay for.  Many of them disconnected their phones and e-mail not allowing clients to get a hold of them.  This left people extremely frustrated.  Some OTAs require the client to pay and wait 6 months with no guarantee that they can get a refund.  When you work with a trusted Travel Advisor we make ourselves available around the clock for an emergency and not only save you time during the planning of your trip, but if anything comes up during your trip or after your trip, we are there for you saving you time when we call the suppliers and wait on hold for hours and helping provide advocacy and support to solve your problems.  

And most importantly, Travel Advisors will make a comeback. People hire lawyers for legal issues, see doctors for medical issues, see a financial advisor for financial guidance, right? Working with a Travel Advisor will be more common because people had great experiences when they needed us most. We are there for our clients before, during, and after their trip.  We monitor all the policies and cancellations to keep our clients informed and empower them with the facts so they can make the best decisions.  During this pandemic, even people who booked on their own, turned to travel agents for help. I hope it helped you to understand new upcoming norms in travel sector if you are planning to travel.