What to Expect For A Smooth Post Pandemic Travel
Post Pandemic Travel Trends To Consider When Planning A Company Retreat
Is post pandemic travel possible? The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the travel industry bad. Governments imposed various country-specific bans and restrictions. This made traveling cumbersome and stressful for a lot of people. Personal and business trips were curbed and company incentive trips were placed on hold.
But traveling has its charms that no pandemic can ever take away. Vaccines are already rolling out. More countries are now able to control their COVID1-19 spikes. And traveling in the post pandemic world is becoming a reality.
Of course, things will never be the same. Here are 3 things that would change how we travel in the post pandemic world.
1. Domestic Travel is Easier vs International Travel
The world is slowly opening it’s borders. But a lot of countries remain closed to tourists coming from certain areas of the world. Stricter measures are imposed to international travelers. It’s no longer as carefree as before where a passport and a plane ticket is often enough. These days, you’d need health certificates and other documentation especially if you’re coming from an outbreak hotspot.
According to TripAdvisor, 70% of customers book future domestic trips. A lot are eager to travel. And most of them are looking at domestic spots first versus international destinations.
This means that when planning a corporate trip, you should consider domestic locations first versus international ones. It’ll be easier to book them. You’d also get great deals since most local tourism businesses are now trying to recover from the slump caused by the pandemic.
2. Travel will be unpredictable and (might be) expensive
COVID-19 remains a present threat with new variants appearing every now and then. Once an outbreak is detected in your destination, it’s possible that they impose restrictions and limit travelers. Most destinations have contingency plans in place in case this happens. They offer flexible refund and reschedule dates.
When booking a domestic location, it’s best to check their policies for sudden changes due to COVID-19 situations.
This can be quite stressful especially when you’re planning trips for a huge group. That’s why, hiring a travel agency is essential. Travel agencies will handle any unforeseen changes. They’ll take care of any refund, reschedule or even cancellation requests.
3. Vaccine cards dubbed as “vaccine passports” will become essential
Getting vaccinated will have perks while traveling. Most countries will only accept travelers who have been vaccinated – sometimes even checking the brand of vaccine used. When planning a retreat, it’s important that those joining get vaccinated already. If you’re going to a domestic destination, it might not be much of a requirement. But if you’re considering an international retreat, then having vaccine passports is a wise precaution.
The US doesn’t require its citizens to carry around vaccine passports. But according to TripAdvisor, 69% of Americans will travel internationally when they have been vaccinated. The statistics increase to 80% of Americans confidently travelling domestically when they get vaccinated. So even though it’s considered controversial by some, we are looking at a future when vaccine passports will become the new norm.
Traveling in a post pandemic world will not be the same. COVID-19 has greatly changed the travel landscape. But the world is still out there for us to explore. And your employees are more excited than ever to be rewarded with travel incentives. After all, they’ve been cooped up inside for months. With these post pandemic travel trends in mind, you can confidently plan your next company retreat or incentive trip.
Need help ironing out the details, reach out and let’s discuss your options.
June 21, 2021
[…] Incentive trips will definitely skyrocket once the pandemic is over. Your employees have been stuck at home for more than a year and there’s nothing like an exotic all-expense paid trip to motivate them. […]