I won’t even bother with any silly remarks about how quickly things can change. Just 4 months ago I was blithely wandering the beaches and museums of Malaga, Spain and now find myself slowly emerging from a worldwide lockdown that seems too fantastic to have even considered back then. We live in a fairly unpopulated city in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with lots of open space for hiking and roaming, so things have not personally been that dramatic for us. The whole point of Santa Fe is to exist in some form of isolation, at least part of the year. But after a few months of no travel my feet get itchy and I am ready to get on the move again.
Absolutely no one is able to predict with any certainty what the world will look like by the time this all calms down, but it is clear that it will look very different from 4 months ago. Being largely focused on international travel, my own thoughts are about how tourism has been one of the major engines of the world economy for the past decades, and observing with horror how that has now come to a very bumpy halt, at least for the foreseeable future.
Every day I read articles about the immediate future of travel but for every prediction there is a corresponding theory that says just the opposite. Is everyone eager to get out of lockdown and back on the road, or will travel become so threatening to your health that only a few brave souls will be willing to risk it? Are there going to be lots of cheap, empty flights or will airline travel become even more stressful and infuriating? Is such a thing even possible?
Combining my own instincts and observations with those of people smarter and louder than me, here are a few take-aways:
Air travel: Fewer choices, longer waits, uglier temper tantrums. Although airlines may offer some short term cheaper enticements to get people back in the air, airline companies are unashamedly greedy, so expect fees, delays, obfuscations and unscrupulous practices to continue. Frontier Airlines recently backtracked on a plan to charge passengers a fee for choosing the presumably less virulent option of sitting next to an empty middle seat. Additionally, major airlines have been itching for an excuse to cut expensive in-flight service even further, so now they have one. You can pack your homemade healthier, tastier, cheaper meal in your carry-on. Assuming carry-on still exists in the New World.
Cruise lines: LOLZ! Cruises were already notoriously the best venues for a range of gastrointestinal viruses, and now the thought of lining up with four thousand strangers for a buffet breakfast has never sounded less appealing. I have never been a cruise ship kind of traveler and that looks to remain my personal status quo. Cruise companies have a lot of work to do to change their well-deserved unsanitary image. Expect fewer options for cruising for a while, with many ads showing jubilant crew members wearing smiley masks and rubber gloves. No really, we’re clean now!
Hotels: The previous two years were the best years for hotel occupancy in the past 4 decades, even with stiff competition from home stays. Look for discounted rates or specials across the entire range of hotel experiences, at least for a while. [We are currently taking advantage of a 50% discount on Marriott points required to stay at a Ritz Carlton in Arizona.] This is a good opportunity for hotels to sell themselves as a cleaner alternative to the crap shoot of home stays like Airbnb or VRBO. Industry experts predict it will take a couple of years for occupancy to return to pre-Covid numbers, so this summer might be a good time to explore that seaside resort you’ve been fantasizing about as you stand in line waiting to get into Trader Joe’s.
European travel: There is a special spot in my heart for places like Spain that have responsibly invested billions of euros in tourism infrastructure after decades of economic suffering, that now find themselves with the impossible choice between economic catastrophe and responsible policy. Fortunately, most EU countries are generally socially responsible enough that the citizenry has greater confidence in the central government to make well-informed decisions (as opposed to strictly economic ones, ahem). As Europe reopens for tourism, it will first focus on domestic travelers, with green zones between borders, before they rely on international travelers. Spain will allow international travelers by July but people everywhere will be reluctant to go far from home for a while. One of the decisions for New World travelers: where do I want to be potentially quarantined?
[added June 21, 2021- Spain, and the EU, has just now re-opened to any kind of international travel.]
USA Travel: Now is the perfect time to explore the home turf. Road trips, cheaper short haul flights and discounted hotels combined with a sense of security will mean that there will be plenty of domestic travel for the foreseeable future. In fact, countries all over the world are already encouraging domestic travel as a healthy, responsible and patriotic alternative to international travel. A recent poll conducted by the Matador Network found that almost half of those who travel will choose to remain within their borders for the near future, with 40% of those planning to travel by car. Been meaning to visit some National Parks? Disneyworld? Santa Fe? Check the air in your tires, fill the ice chest and get going.
travel eat repeat 