Change is the only Constant in travel
As the above saying goes, Change is the only Constant in travel. Nowhere is this more applicable than the Travel Industry which has undergone tremendous changes. It saw various stress points during the 1st wave of Covid, and then changes again, as rules changed every alternate day. As well as in 2020, 21 and this year (2022). Taking these measures ensures the compliance with country-specific travel regulations and minimizes travel risks. The travel industry went to almost 0% in 2020 as Covid ravaged various countries, 2021 saw some return before the 2nd (or 3rd/4th/5th wave entered -as called by the media!)
As was expected, the first year of Covid saw the emergence of domestic travel/tourism and as cases declined – some regional travel opened up in Europe. The Far East was completely out of bounds for international travelers as well as regional travelers in 2020 and most of 2021. The beginning of 2022 saw many countries in Europe reduce most of the Covid-related requirements as the intensity and severity of Covid infections reduced. A few months ago, Covid announced that its international arrival testing would cease in late 2021. The test reports have also been made tamper-proof so that other countries can accept them. The later part of 2021 has seen US and Canada also relaxing restrictions and entry to foreign nationals allowed (Non-Family/Non-business).
These are the major tourist markets and also see large volumes of business travel that have bounced back. The UK has done away with Covid protocol altogether, including the mandatory masks, the US has recently removed testing requirements for all incoming international arrivals, Thailand & Singapore have opened up, and Indian trade bodies are pitching for the removal of mandatory passenger locator forms (Air Suvidha self-declaration), Canada plans to relax more rules etc.
Services of travels
While above measures are resulting in increased demand for international travel. However, the travelers are still anxious about going thru the entire ever-changing travel compliance process. (yet in place by many countries, including China). 2020 and 2021 saw many travel companies reinventing themselves – without any travel! And the process continues as with manpower gap and spurt in demand – the dependence and reliance upon human interactions or assisted travel have gone up, as Online Booking Tools/Self Booking Tools are of not much help when it comes to guiding passengers on Covid requirements or Quarantine rules of various countries.
Most managers and CEOs are concerned about whether or not changes made to the travel business model, or tweaking their market segment by TMCs, will continue to work or will further changes eliminate these already implemented changes.
07-10 months of 2020 gave an opportunity to many travel companies to rethink on their business, invest in technology to cater to growing segment of customers who are comfortable doing Online transactions. Investment in Digital payments made the financial transactions easier, overall technology helped change the travel transactions processing.
Contact to Prime Travels
As we see travel returning and showing signs of some normalcy. It’ll take a while for customer choices and booking patterns to stabilize. And Covid-related rules to end…until then it’s reinventing and re-adjusting by travel companies. Countries are still opening slowly, so the levels from 2019 are unlikely to return. Wait and watching will surely help.
We have presence in below countries
USA: UK India Singapore
Tel:+1.646.862.1010. +44(0)20 45422836. +91.11.4670 0000. +65 3105 1695
