When Naomi Campbell went viral for her meticulous airplane sanitation, the internet responded with mockery. I met with admiration — and envy because my own plane routine was not as detailed. Hardly any industry is untouched by the Coronavirus (Covid-19). Still, travel was among the first to be affected and has been dealt with a particularly brutal blow. Lockdowns and border closures effectively sealed off entire countries.
How will the travel industry recover from COVID-19 continues to be a guessing game? However, once the borders open, we will see more significant concern for personal health and enhanced fears of getting stranded. Specific industries will become more hygienic and easier to escape from in a crisis. Disinfection procedures just might become more important than the cool climbing wall on a cruise ship or if an all alcoholic package is included.
What Do We Have To Look Forward To? Experts say technology will be critical when travel returns. Electronic passports and IDs, boarding passes, medical screening and robot cleaners deployed widely to limit physical contact between people and surfaces. Travelers will be required to prove they have a suitable face-covering to include a cloth mask, scarf, or similar item before boarding. Individual bottled water instead of the usual range of beverage offerings, suspension of all food service in Economy and Premium Economy cabins, pre-packaged meal, or snack for Business Class Seat. Additionally, bookings, cancellation policies, contracts, and refunds will definitely be scrutinized more than before.
When travel resumes, you'll pay less initially for airfares and hotels. However, the willingness of a country to let you cross the border will be a new decision to be made before travel resumes. For popular destinations such as France and Italy, allowing Americans to visit is on the table for discussion as well. Will countries begin to require health certificates or visas? We're still buried in the trenches of the pandemic, so not only when but how travel might resume, and what will travel look like after this worldwide pandemic? The travel industry has rebounded from past crises, and experts believe it will bounce back again. Overtourism, sustainable travel, and the environment were among travel's most talked-about topics before the spread of coronavirus. This break in tourism is "creating awareness for a better kind of travel."
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