Travel typically comes and goes every year. However, many predict 2021 to be one of the industry’s most significant years to date as the world slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and borders worldwide begin to open gradually. However, it seems like the travel and tourism industry will look a bit different than it did before the pandemic.
Although change can be intimidating, like vitamin b-12 intramuscular injections changing the practice of consuming vitamins altogether, there’s an exciting opportunity for the industry to adapt and innovate to do better things. Plus, more travelers will now be willing to pay more to reduce their exposure to the virus.
Here are some of what you can expect for the future of travel and tourism in 2021 and beyond.
Socially Distanced Traveling
Because of the pandemic, future travelers will be more cognizant of the need to travel to places that make it easy to follow and maintain physical or social distancing practices. That’s why operators need to get creative with their itineraries and avoid using public transportation and usually crowded areas. More travelers will consider this approach to travel design to be more appealing.
Less Traveling as a Group
Traveling in groups will likely deplete in the following years as going on trips with strangers widens everyone’s ‘bubble’ and increases their reliance on others to practice safe behaviors and habits, which isn’t always the case for many. That’s why it’s likely that the demand for FIT or Foreign Independent Tour or Fully Independent Traveler packages will increase drastically.
A Change in Transportation Expectations
In the future, expect a massive impact on people’s preferences to travel to and within a destination—leaving the choice of cheaper trips no longer the sole source of most people’s decisions. Instead, most would likely place hygiene standards as their first concern, such as if masks are compulsory or not, the seating arrangement, and the use of alcohol hand antibacterial hand sanitizers. Within a country, travelers may be more interested in private transport options or upgrading to business classes to stay safe and avoid crowds.
Reunion Traveling: An Emerging Niche
Although it’s still uncertain when the world will be able to travel the world once more, one thing’s for sure, and that’s there will be many individuals worldwide keen on planning trips to reunite with friends and family as soon as possible. This scenario will require less detailed in-country activities and will focus more on safe transportations and accommodations.
Changes in Market Popularity
In the future, a destination’s popularity may be dictated by how well that nation or region controlled the coronavirus, including the precautions in place and how they handled the initial outbreak. These factors reassure travelers that they’ll be safe in their journey. However, this may also result in the ‘hot spots’ that were popular before the pandemic to lose most tourists.
The pandemic’s impact has left a couple of facets of everyone’s lives, and the world drastically changed—and the travel and tourism industry will be forever re-shaped by it, with the events mentioned serving as the beginning of the change of a more ‘conscious’ world.
