How our next holiday abroad will be different
“Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
— John Lennon
At this point, most of the world is still under lockdown and people are rightly advised to stay home to prevent the spread of coronavirus. There are encouraging signs that we have passed the peak in many countries, and hopefully the numbers continue going down and lockdowns can slowly be lifted over the coming weeks.
It’s likely however that borders will remain closed for much of the summer, and travel activity will probably not return to anything resembling normal levels anytime soon. Many people will want to avoid flying until a vaccine is widely available, which could be 12-18 months away, if not more.
The way people plan future holidays will be different now that coronavirus is loose in the world. Once my family feels comfortable going on holiday abroad again, whenever that is, I expect we’ll make some changes:
Staying closer to home and spending less
Instead of a far-flung, exotic destination we’ll probably choose something closer — a place that can be reached in 3–4 hours, preferably on a direct flight from our home country. That seems to be the safest option in case there is a resurgence in virus cases, and countries start to lock things down again.
A closer destination also helps save money on airfare — our holiday budget will probably be lower than before, given the economic effects of the pandemic.
A holiday home instead of a hotel room
Until now, we always tried to book hotels in central locations, close to the main things to see and do at our destination. Now instead of a room in a big hotel, we would rather choose a holiday home on the outskirts of the city.
Something with a yard, a kitchen to cook some meals ourselves and maybe a pool seems better than sharing a hotel pool with 1000 other guests and going out to busy restaurants for dinner every night. Hopefully the cost savings from being farther away would even offset the cost of booking a larger place.
I expect people renting out entire homes on Airbnb to benefit from this situation more than people offering rooms in shared apartments or hostel type arrangements.
Refundable bookings
We will gladly pay more for flexibility — if the number of cases picks up again and we need to cancel our holiday plans on short notice, it will be good to know we didn’t lose any money. Paying 10–15% extra for that peace of mind will seem worth it, at least for a while.
Avoiding large crowds
Traveling abroad for large concerts, festivals or sports events will feel too risky. Spending New Year’s Eve in Times Square with a million people — not so appealing anymore. I expect cruise ship companies to be severely affected by this as well.
Masks and hand sanitizer
This crisis has been marked by images of people stuck in airports or wearing masks when flying to try and avoid getting sick. I expect wearing masks in public will become accepted and even expected in Western countries from now on, like it already is in parts of Asia today.
People will get more used to sanitizing their hands and things they come in contact with, such as the tray table on airplanes. More things will come individually wrapped — cutlery, maybe even fruit.
Leave a response below if you can think of other ways holiday travel will change or what you are planning to do differently in the future.
