Soon after the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, many industries were affected adversely. There are certain sectors of e-commerce that are trying to get back on their feet but the future is still foggy. The travel and tourism sector is particularly on its knees right now. The borders of most countries are sealed, flights are grounded, Trains are stationery, and hotels are shut. Everyone has just one question in mind; when the fury of the deadly virus will diminish; no vaccine is in sight and masks have become new friends of people.
Below are the possible changes in the travel industry post-COVID.
Borders may not open for some more time
With the outbreak of the virus, most countries have sealed the boundaries for visitors and even for their citizens. This will be continued in the coming time as well; the countries are reluctant about opening the borders and hence travel and tourism industry is bound to face huge losses in the nearby future too. This situation may take many months to ease. Now with the second wave starting in most countries, there is a high chance of borders being sealed for some more time.
Some nations may say “NO” to tourism
Everyone is aware of the fact that the coronavirus has caused the greatest number of deaths in Italy and Spain followed by Germany and the UK and of course the USA. So, there are high chances that these countries might say no to too many tourists in the time to come. Europe was a center of attraction among all tourist places but with the present situation, there are slight chances that the continent may not even see half of the tourists as it used to earlier.
Business Travel will decrease significantly
With the introduction of Zoom Meetings and Work from Home, business travel will also decrease significantly. As per the recent reports, companies are searching for ways to reduce travel whether internal or external. Currently, 65% of the businesses are considering video calls and Zoom Meetings as viable alternatives to business travel. So, things are not looking good presently and they may look even worse in the nearby future.
Mega Events will become less attractive
The flagship events of 2020 were Olympics in Tokyo and the expo in Dubai. But both of them have been pushed by a year in a hope that the next year will not be the same as this one. But as a matter of fact, 2021 is not good either. Though the vaccine has been developed and people are getting it, the mass gathering is still an issue. Thus, the mega-events may lose their popularity. There are even chances that the events might be pushed furthermore until the situation gets under control.
Religious Tourism will drop
With the ban of mass gatherings in most of the world, trips to places like Vaishno Devi and Shirdi Temple, Hajis, Baba Imambada have gone into a coma for a while. Even the local temples and mosques have been shut and people are advised to pray from their respective houses. This means that these religious places which used to be an attraction of thousands of people every year; will not see anything good either in the coming year or two.
Lesser students to travel abroad to study
According to a report over 7,53,000 students were studying in universities abroad in 2019. This number was expected to be somewhere near 800,000 in the past year but with the pandemic declared, a large number of students rushed home from wherever they were studying. Although 2021 brought a sigh of relief in itself, the current situation does not look good. In most parts of the world, students are taking online classes sitting at their homes safely. So, it won’t be wrong if we say scenarios everyone thought would happen this year have changed drastically. With no students traveling abroad to study; the travel and tourism industry is going to suffer.
Most travelers would prefer to travel within India
Tourism may look inwards; that means it will be more domestically directed. The destinations in India like Himachal, Ladakh, Uttarkhand, and Pondicherry are still the places that have not adversely affected and remain largely inert to the virus. So, it is obvious that much of the holiday and honeymoon traffic will stay within India, and again it will give a setback to the travel industry. In case you are planning to travel within India and looking for discounts on domestic flights, you can check our domestic flight coupons. Also we have wide range of discount coupons for hotel bookings, which you can check here.
A big change will be seen in Destination Weddings
Destination weddings may see a setback as most of the places where the Upper middle Indian weddings took place are all closed and not taking any bookings for such huge gatherings. For example, in 2019 around 800 weddings took place in Siam while the rich were headed to Marrakesh, Stellenbosch, and places like that. But with the present situation; most of the destination weddings either take place in India or may even get postponed or canceled. But for the ones which will take place in India, it is still good news for places like Udaipur, Goa, and Kerala.
No school trips will come about
School Trips will also dry up considering the current situation. This was also an emerging market for some years now, especially study tours and educational trips. Since the schools and colleges are re-opening, trips would just be like some sort of dream. And even if the institutional centers re-open there are chances that they will not organize any trips for a very long time. So, it looks like extravagance will be curtailed out of fear for the safety of the kids rather than affordability.
Air tickets will become more expensive
After the lockdown norms were removed all the flights were only allowed to fly with 50% of the passengers. Though this is not the current situation but the losses faced by the airlines will have an impact on the tickets. In the coming time also the government is likely to mandate that the middle seat of the economy be left empty to abide by the rules of social distancing and safe traveling. The Airlines are again bound to face a huge loss with this and thus they may increase the fares of tickets to keep up that loss. The travel insurance will also get costlier. And hence this is also one of the major changes in the travel industry post-COVID
Conclusion
COVID-19 has deeply affected human communities. And there is going to be too much change in the future. Everyone is dealing with the pandemic in their own ways. While some countries are trying to save their citizens, others are still trying to figure out ways to get the economy back on its feet. Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality are very much affected by the deadly coronavirus and are bound to suffer a huge loss in the coming time as well. But on the flip side, the recovery might be slow but once the situation comes under control the tourism industry will be the first one to see major growth. After a very long time of no travel, people would be looking for nice places to travel and forget this pandemic ever existed.