Coronavirus Pandemic: How it will change the travel world?

We are already in the middle of the pandemic, and certainly, there is no way we could choose to opt-out what has hit upon us. The mundane work routine and enticing travel plans seem to have been losing the equilibrium. We all are in the same boat and don’t seem to get off either in a next few month. The travel analysts, at Travelhouseuk, are optimistic about returning to the normal soon. Meanwhile, humankind has embraced the quarantine life well all across the world. Coronavirus is sweeping away the backtracks, and we have revolutionized our lives brilliantly in just three months.

Changes are inevitable after the whole situation we are going through right now. It is essential to understand how do we embrace the changes is crucial to its outcomes. Some changes might be temporary, so we can let it go like working-from-home, social distancing, and wearing a safety kit while stepping out of the homes. On the other hand, specific unwelcomed changes drive behaviours, market innovations, and external collaborations to cope with it. If optimal, we can continue our lives with these for many years to come.

As soon as the COVID-19 outbreak started hitting the travel industry, all the stakeholders introduced policies to address the forthcoming challenges. Putting customers first, the airlines responded to the dynamic situation with their flexible booking policies. Just imagine, if one-time free date change can be a permanent part of flight bookings. Or social distancing on the plane becomes integral to our flights. Too good to be true? (We can at least hope for the good, right?)

Similarly, we anticipate specific changes in the travel industry. I am here today, to share the reflections of my thoughts, as to how travel is going to change once the pandemic is over.

First things first, check-off bucket-list destinations:  

We are in a lockdown. Travel being the major missing, our aspirations to explore the world, meet new friends are also high. Coronacrisis has made us travel-hungry, and we expect a storm of travellers heading out to explore the world once the travel bans are lifted. Meanwhile, it is a good time to line up your travel bucket-list goals to push-pin the map of the world thereafter.

Pro Tip: Grab the cheapest flights from us for your first vacation after the pandemic, and we would be serving you to the best of our abilities. With our 25 GBP refundable deposit, we have made it easier for budget travellers to secure the cheap tickets now. Details here.

Travel insurance will become mandatory with every travel.

Travel insurance protects against unforeseen events on your travels. Many travellers have suffered during the pandemic because they were stranded abroad. On top of it, borders were closed for an indefinite time unless the government started rescuing the passengers to bring them back at home. Some travellers were at high-risk countries, and they getting exposed to coronavirus was another sorry thing indeed. This highlights the importance of travel insurance which covers your trip in case of any unexpected event to batten down the hatches.

We can also get a clue from a travel talk on twitter that travellers will start relying on travel insurance even more than before. Follow hashtag #TTOT every Tuesday for more insights into the travel world.

Family-travel-a new trend:

Quarantine and lock down is a favourable situation for the old generation at home because it’s keeping them surrounded by their children. It can be equally blissful for parental-deprived children who got more time to spend with their working parents—because yes, everyone’s home. Luckily, the pandemic has brought the families together who barely got a chance to dine-in at home, or hang out for movie-night in the TV-lounge.

Believe me! Nobody ever knew the strong family bonds could be so therapeutic and healthy for us. We got an excellent chance to instill a sense of security in our kids and give them the much-needed confidence for life. 

Once the coronavirus is contained, travellers will be inclined to make more plans with their families like a recreational or fun trip to their preferred destinations. Take your time, and see the list of  famous family-friendly travel destinations and compile it for you next travels.

Reassurance in travel agencies:

Coronavirus outbreak created a lot of panic when the government-mandated travel restrictions and border closures began to affect the flights. Ultimately, airlines had to cancel flights, revise the schedules and roll out contingency plans as well. Serving as a voice of reassurance, travel agencies our reaching out to their customers for cancellations, rebookings and rerouting as needed. Travel agents are giving their clients the options should they need to make changes in the travelling plans, but what about the ones who booked with virtual agents through third-party sites. They were left feeding-the-fears of losing their money without getting help for understanding of potential possibilities. The customer support is an essential component of any business, and third-party fare comparison sites indeed failed at it. Conversely, travel agencies provided exceptional customer support by handling each of their customers responsibly. 

Concerning this, travellers will prefer booking their flights with confidence by renowned travel agencies. Besides allocating more resources on our call-centres to speak to the customers and process their requests well-timed, Travelhouseuk’s social-media platforms testify how they remain connected to keep their customers informed of quickly developing situation. While we may incur short-term losses in the unprecedented scenarios, we believe that the hard work and dedication that we are offering our clients today will increase our long-term value.

Boost on Frequent Flyers Programs: 

Frequent Flyers Program, the loyalty programs where you earn flight miles against every trip, gained importance in the current scenarios. It gives you a sense of belonging to the airline. We witnessed the passengers holding gold/diamond cards were dealt on a priority basis. Whereas other passengers waited up so long to speak to the representative on their main lines due to the sheer volume of calls.  

Not only this, but loyal customers/card-holders can also rack up mile points and win seat upgrades, better in-flight amenities and free flights as well. So, I am anticipating travellers will prefer registering themselves as a frequent flyer now.

New Seating Arrangements on Airplanes: 

The surge in coronavirus cases has hit the travel industry quite bad. Raising the vision farther to the future, we believe airlines will come up with better seating plan with protective barriers when travel returns after the pandemic. However, physical distancing on the plane could also hike up the airfares due to increase costs of maintenance.

Those mentioned above are the thoughts of mine with no reality-check at the moment. Let’s see which COVID-lessons will lead to a permanent shift in the travel industry. All I can hope is that the situation settles down soon and travel becomes viable once again.