Has the Travel Industry Learned its Lessons from Previous COVID Waves?

Photo by Soumya Ranjan

Lessons the travel industry learned during the Pandemic

The industry that took the biggest hit was the travel and tourism industry. It is one of the last sectors to recover, with uncertain lockdowns and ever-changing travel restrictions. The downfall of the travel industry also impacted other sectors that supported tourism. International travel receded by almost 70% and it is not expected to fully recover before 2023. 

This situation called for the governments of each country to promote local tourism. Local tourism saw a spike of 300%. People preferred a low-risk vacation.

Hotels

Hoteliers took this opportunity to promote stay cations. They attracted more demand, by addressing the travelers’ top concerns of sanitation. They partnered with hospitals to provide seamless quarantine services and full medical access.

Government 

The government invested in improving local transport and conditions of the roads due to the high-level risk of air travel. It improved the quality of health care systems and increased vaccination centers to increase the confidence among people to travel across borders. 

IT Industry 

The IT sector built a more reliable digital platform to increase the confidence of tourists. They updated their tourism websites with current information so that the people were well-informed and felt safe. It enabled quickening certain processes such as immigration, ordering food, accommodation and others by reducing touchpoints. 

The tourism industry learned how important it was to address the acute needs of the tourists, like flexible finance and personalized journeys. It focused on improving its services from a long term view. The tourism industry is recovering from the pandemic. It is also learning from its past mistakes and improving its services.