Travelling in the Age of Coronavirus- Will Tourism Look Different After Life in Lockdown?

Lockdowns are starting to ease in some parts of the world, but travel and tourism may be disrupted for longer. 

A message from a Founder & MD of Dream World Travel (Omer Alvi)

“In a short span of time since the outbreak of this global pandemic COVID-19, the life we knew to be normal has been redefined. Being in the travel and tourism sector, it has massively impacted our industry and livelihoods, along with making us rethink our policies.

These are challenging times, but the way everyone has reacted in support of others has given me a tremendous amount of hope. The strength and will power that I have observed not just among the Dream World Travel team, but within the universal population, has left me humbled and gratifying. With every crisis, there is an opportunity if we hold onto the notion of hope. As a responsible citizen of the world, I urge the masses to exercise caution and decrease the contact satisfactorily between people in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 soon everything will go back to normal.”

The travel industry is having a tough time these days all over the globe. Tourism and travel are two of the sectors that have fallen really far and fast as due to the ongoing global pandemic.

According to a Pew study, by April, more than 90% of the world’s population was living in countries that were facing COVID-19-related travel restrictions on people coming from abroad. As the virus was spreading really fast, and country after country was announcing Coronavirus infections among their populations, so were lockdown and social distancing orders. All these countries then imposed entry bans or restrictions for citizens of or recent travellers to the most affected areas across the globe to stop the virus from spreading.

But orders imposed by governments wasn’t the only hit the travel industry took. The sector is also facing a decreased willingness to travel as people fear to contract the virus. In the US, for instance, according to a survey from Mower, only 16% of Americans report that they would travel abroad a commercial airliner on the first day after lockdown restrictions and health warnings are removed. Plus, only 56% of them claim that they would feel comfortable flying even after 60 days the authorities give the “all clear” signal.

Moreover, in the UK, another study found that 42% of people reported that they don’t have any trips booked for June-December period this year, while only 24% of them claimed that they have a scheduled trip for two people. The same study found out that 45% of people are considering replacing international travel with domestic travel this year, 48% are not considering this, while 7% of them reported that they would not travel at all this year.

Now, travellers fearing the virus and governments focusing on staving off a second wave of infections. But, the literally million-dollar question is: how will the travel and tourism industry look like in the future?

Increased demand for domestic travel 

It is becoming more evident to everybody in the industry that, for this year at least, there will be an increased demand for domestic travel.

Very few countries that have started to have fewer and fewer daily announced coronavirus-related infections have announced that they are reopening their borders, including Greece, Austria, and Croatia. The rest of the European countries that are still struggling to keep the virus from spreading are all hoping to be able to open their borders and restart their tourism as soon as possible. Yet, even if borders are being reopened, this doesn’t necessarily mean that travellers are willing to take the risk to travel outside their counties.

In fact, a recent study from Longwoods International has found out that 11%, of the 82% of people that have changed their travel plans due to the Coronavirus pandemic, have changed their travel plans to domestic from international.

Tourists will rather first venture out closer to home, visit their local attractions, have a local weekend getaway or travel domestically. So, we will first see a robust demand for domestic travel before international travel becomes cool again. So, what a travel agency in London should do right now is to focus on providing tourists with more domestic travel options.

A shift from flying to driving

Travelling by plane may ensure an iconic view from up in the sky, it may be more cost-effective, and may be more convenient as you can literally travel from one part of the world to another in just a few hours. Yet, travelling by plane is by far the less social distancing-friendly transportation option these days. On the flip note, travelling by car may take more time, money, and may be more tiring, but it sure keeps you safer from the virus than planes do.

The same study from Longwoods International found out that 22% of the respondents changed their travel plans in terms of planning to drive instead of flying to avoid large social gatherings in the airports and sitting next to strangers who may have the virus in the planes.

In fact, shifting from flying to driving is also linked to the fact that people are still not feeling that comfortable to go farther and farther away from home. So, since they’re not travelling long distances, driving seems a good and safe option.

More travel documents needed

Remember the time when you only needed your passport or/and your ID card to travel almost everywhere in the world? Well, unfortunately, these days are gone as Coronavirus pandemic is set to change everything about how we will travel in the future, including making airport officers ask us for more documents than ever.

It’s doubtful for countries to take the chance to let tourists cross their border without testing them for Coronavirus first. Moreover, some countries won’t even consider this risk and ask travellers to have a certificate of immunity to prove that you have recovered from the infection or that you have been vaccinated, once there is a vaccine for SARS-Cov2.

Also, the purpose of your travel may become more relevant when crossing the border as some countries may only choose to allow business travel that can be validated as economic activity on their territory.

Either way, visas and more documentation might be needed when travelling in the age of Coronavirus.

It’s difficult to say when it’s all going to be over and when tourism and travel will go back to normal. In fact, according to the International Air Transportation Association’s most pessimistic scenario, the travel industry may face a demand in 2021 that will be 41% short of what it was last year and that it will take from five to seven years to return to how it was in 2019.

Yet, just like most industries and their customers, the travel and tourism industry will also adapt to the challenges and changes brought by these uncertain times.