According to experts, as soon as the majority of people will be vaccinated globally, the travel and tourism industry will be reborn all of a sudden. Around the end of March or early April fasten your seatbelt as we are getting back, we will do it safely and responsibly and finally we will be able to once again do what we love to do: travel the world. Destinations and hotels around the world continue to open back up in phases after shutting down for months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Peter Greenberg is an Emmy-award winning journalist, travel editor, author and producer who has been traveling around the world during the pandemic and now shares his best travel trips with us. His main advice is: travel safely, travel responsibly and travel intelligently. He highlights what to look for before and during your holiday and helps how to plan your next vacation.
- Check entry requirements of your destination and safety protocols when you pick your hotels and restaurants to visit. Also learn about the destination’s COVID-19 regulations so you can prepare for them and double check it even some days before departure as they may change every hour.
- Stay away from hugely popular tourist destinations and crowded super-spreader events, and we must skip mass events for a while longer.
- This year safety will be the top priority in traveling. Wear a double mask in public areas and disinfect your hands often. Try not to eat anything during your flight and turn off the air nozzle above your seat as you fly.
- Take stock from everything you are wearing, to what you pack to eat, to where you eat or drink.
Concerning how he sees the future of travel, he believes that it will be more about the authentic experience of travel and less about traveling to fancy tourist destinations. Tour group sizes will be much smaller for a few upcoming years, such as will hotel capacity. Hugely popular tourist destinations will keep capacity limits for places like Venice. Airlines will require so called vaccine passport to be able to fly. Cruise companies introduce comprehensive health and safety protocol in order to respond the constantly changing situation ashore.
Cruises will visit lesser-known but no less important, amazing destinations, hidden villages. There will be a big demand for private river cruise trips since they have all the advantages luxury travelers are looking for. River cruise vacations take place on smaller ships with fewer guests in a private athmosphere, while you cruise within countries and conveniently dock in the center of lovely towns. Holiday lovers are starting to plan their next vacations and they prefer river cruise vacations in smaller groups to huge ocean liners.
The role of travel agents will remain as important as ever, they will be a vital part of the travel booking process due to the ever changing international travel regulations that are not easy to follow. Professional travel consultants have this knowledge at the tip of their fingers and they are continuously staying up to date with the changes.
They have direct contacts for airlines, resorts and destinations, so it does not take long for them to reach the person they need in case of any issue. The good news is that we will soon be able to travel, even if not the same way as used to.