The critical question hovering in every travel enthusiast’s mind is, ‘How will we travel when we travel again?’ The coronavirus pandemic has brought economies and various sectors to a standstill. The most badly struck, however, are the hospitality, tourism, and travel sector. Most parts of the world have been locked up since March 2020. With the COVID-19 paranoia on the rise, people choose to stay confined indoors rather than risking stepping out. Everyone has put their travel bug at rest.
However, traveling will make a comeback only once the vaccine for the fatal virus is available, and it is not going to be the same for a long, long time from thereon. Here is a compilation of six ways in which travel is bound to change post the pandemic ends or after an antidote is available.
1. Road Trips Will Make A Comeback
With the spending capacity of people having gone for a toss, it is predicted that most people will start making road trips, instead of traveling to exceptionally far off places via train or plane. Preference will be to drive in your private vehicles. The reasons for this are apparent. People will not be able to easily trust the sanitization level of any means of commute they pick. Therefore, the most feasible option for them would be to travel in their car to ensure maximum safety.
While on a road trip, you will get a chance to go at your own sweet pace, but you can do whatever you like during your journey- play music, slow down, pet a few animals on the way, and enjoy the weather, and enjoy the drive. Other than that, there might also be travel restrictions in terms of crossing borders inter-state. Therefore, staycations will emerge as a winner post coronavirus. This is precise because booking an entire suite for just a span of a maximum of one or two days will give you a chance to spend the much-needed quality time. All you need to do is clean and sanitize the equipped roof rack and plan your road-trip in these COVID-19 times.
2. Sanitization Will Be A Priority
One thing that will achieve paramount importance in the travel ways to come is sanitization. Sanitization is going to become as important as having your travel tickets with you. And the hygiene checks will begin right from the station or the airport. Travelers will be carefully screened and prepared to spend more time than before for those security checks and long queues. Blood tests might also become mandatory for many passengers.
Similarly, while booking the hotel, you might want to make sure that you either know the hotel owners have issued some statements regarding the sanitization processes they are executing. You would want to book the hotel where the staff is taking all the necessary precautions and following all the required guidelines. Total transparency will become the norm post-COVID-19, where you would expect the owner to not hide anything from you. Other than that, any restaurant that you enter is likely to have half the number of chairs and tables in a bid to ensure social distancing, which means there will be longer waiting lists than before.
3. Travel Closer To Nature
Since everyone has been locked up inside their houses for a long time during the global lockdown, people would want to travel to more natural locations. Places with less tall buildings and more lush green fields will be in demand because buildings and commercialization are precisely what people have witnessed during the lockdown. Therefore, more stays would be booked to treehouses, beach-side villas, and more.
Everyone is more grateful for plants, nature, clear sky, and dense forests. People have been dreaming of snow-capped mountains and going on desert safaris. It is precisely why the demand for nature-friendly hotels and tourism spots will increase drastically post Coronavirus. After all, are you not craving to witness nature in its most pristine form? Undoubtedly, the demand for secluded tourism locations is going to plummet manifold.
4. Affordable Luxury
Another thing which will become a reality once coronavirus goes away from our lives is the slowing down of the economy. As a result, millions of jobs have gotten lost, and everyone thinks twice before spending their money. It is for the same reason that the travel industry, too, will think about providing the best to tourists at minimal prices.
You might have the chance to book hotel rooms for lower prices or better deals for visiting a luxury hotel. Besides this, you might also get better deals, lucrative offers. Therefore, it would be better for you to take the deal and travel for a change. Luxury, for a lesser price, is what the travel industry will have to offer post-COVID-19.
5. Plummeting Flight Prices
The aviation sector has been the worst hit due to the virus. So many pilots and employees working for airlines have lost their jobs. Various public and private airline companies also had to refund all the money to the customers once they canceled their tickets. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the aviation sector and tourism sector is having a tough time. Therefore, once normalcy returns, everyone will have to shell out extra bucks to travel via planes.
The primary reason for this is that social distancing will be followed on the plane. As a result, there will be a gap between the passengers. For the same reason, the airlines will have to charge higher prices for a single ticket to compensate for the total cost of fuel and travel that they incur. Therefore, if you plan to travel by air post the pandemic, you will undoubtedly have to pay higher prices.
On average, if airlines have to allow more space between passengers, their seat inventory is expected to go down by huge percentages. A hike in the ticket rates is a means for the aviation sector to break-even. Other than this, the airlines will also have to train their already existing employees. You can also expect the airplanes to be filled with surgical gloves, sanitizing wipes, contactless infrared thermometers, and more.
6. Packing Will Be Different
Your entire packing experience will also take a complete U-turn. While in the pre-pandemic era, you used to start with packing the yesteryear’s essentials like undergarments, medicines, straightening machines, etc. Post pandemic, the list of your essentials will witness a drastic change with the focus being on sanitizing wipes, sanitizing hand creams, sanitizing sprays, foot creams, masks, and more.
You will now wipe each seat before you sit on it and spray the sanitizer on any object you pick. Therefore, do not be shocked when you see travel-friendly sanitizers and small packs to fit into your handbag. Besides this, your travel will be a lot more about purchasing masks everywhere you go than on luxurious items. Masks will replace the magnetic souvenirs.
Conclusion
The coronavirus pandemic is something you could have never predicted or imagined. The virus not only brought tourism to a standstill but also changed everyone’s lifestyle in umpteen number of ways. Therefore, just like our work experience, relationships, and fitness have changed, so will the experience to travel. Normal may mean prominence on rentals over hotels, driving over flying, and more. If you travel by keeping your security in mind, you will again start reliving what you were kept devoid of for the most of 2020.
