The my travel and tourism business is on its knees today, an industry that has seen most layoffs and shattering businesses in last 1 year. Borders were sealed and masses were bound to get locked down in homes or, in some situations, wherever they were. Grounded flights, unmoving trains, cruises silent in harbours, and quite cities changed the meaning of normal. There were new normals getting imposed when the world was witnessing the loss of beings every day. More than 2 million people have lost their lives in last 1 year.
The world has witnessed some unique experiences in the last 12 months. None of these experiences was every thought of. Only a couple of individuals in the world that have seen and survived the 1918 Spanish Flu are able to share experiences on how this pandemic looked familiar to the one that happened almost 100 years ago.
Well, the devastating times are almost over now. And the world is looking forward to going BACK to its regular days. Many countries have opened their borders for travels, but the face of travel & tourism has changed.
Here are the top hard-hit European countries from COVID-19 outspread with negligent footfall from tourists in the last entire year.
Let us now find out how is the world of travel evolving and what lies in the future of it.
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The World will see restricted movements-
With the virus still in surroundings and the very scare of it in minds, economies are taking time to open. Even with travels allowed, there are a lot of restrictions and laws implemented depending upon the COVID-19 situation in every country. For example- Dubai has mandatory COVID-19 test as soon as you touch down, London has 15 days mandatory quarantine post landing, and still, no to-and-fro travels from many countries. Many European countries have again gone under lockdown with the new strain of COVID-19 spreading across.
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Lower Business Travels will greatly impact travel and tourism businesses-
With suddenly imposed lockdowns across the globe, many business travels came to a halt. Businesses found out alternatives that later proved very cost-effective and provided subsequent benefits. Zoom calls, Google Meet, Skype sessions taught the world that communications and collaborations can take place even remotely. Now with limited cash flow, businesses are also trying to save as much money as they can and cancelling all the unnecessary travels and shifting them to virtual meetings. Global business travels collaborate to 60% travels and tourism businesses across the globe. Shutting this is leading to greater business changes.
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Long road ahead for Mega Events-
The unlock is happening and lives have started to come back to normal. People have started moving out and attending some leisure get-togethers. Event organizers have also started breathing some air of relief with events happening again. In Australia, the recent cricket match between India and Australia gathered a lot of attention and attendees. But, across the world, it still has a long road to go. International travellers are still avoiding leisure travels across countries, but soon that window might open too. Till then travel businesses can surely manage intra-country travellers for leisure and offer some amazing recreational trips to them.
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Worries bound leisure travellers-
Leisure travellers and explorers were topping the charts in the travel industry, recently. With generic love of people to gather more experiences lately was giving never witnessed before opportunities to tourism businesses across the globe. But, the sudden outspread of coronavirus impacted this particular business type the most. Both, travel and hospitality industries were hit the hardest with it. Several lost their jobs and multiple business houses went bankrupt. But, now the travellers are still gaining conscious to travel again. Even if it is not the European countries, the Middle East is still able to get tourists. Agencies should eye on these parts of the world and try to rebuild their lost empire.
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A drastic increase in indoor tourism will be witnessed-
With restricted entries in many countries and fear of travelling to an alien situation, domestic travelling in every country will experience significant growth. This will be one of the best situations for businesses to revive themselves with their domestic clients and interest more people to travel across the nation. Try offering more relaxing experiences to leisure travellers with less witnessed countryside tales to get more business.
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Luxury Hospitality Businesses will have to revamp their strategies-
There is a significant downfall in the number of travellers and businesses have lost almost all of their money in this pandemic. One of the only ways to attract and retain business is by dropping the prices to attract more and more customers in the property. A little extra discount or an offer can lead you to better clientele and power to sail through the difficult times.
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Fewer flights but more road travel will be the new normal-
With travellers scaring the long halt travels, flights might take second position travellers mind and Cars with fewer people and short halt destinations will become first. So why not you grab this opportunity and create offers for such travellers? A change in travel mode can let you explore more business opportunities.
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Group travels will see a drastic fall-
College/school tours or destination weddings, each event has either been cancelled or rescheduled in inner boundaries impacting travel and tourism businesses with the loss of big chunks of money. Such group travels gave a lot of business to travel agencies and soon were becoming a big attraction for businesses. Now when this is decreasing, agencies will have to look out for other revenue-generating alternatives.
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F&B industry will witness the heat of this fire too-
With fewer tourists travelling and fewer hotel rooms getting occupied, the consumption of food and beverages in the industry will also get a major hit. Restaurants have witnessed diminished demands and the unlock will still take time (in the minds of people). There is still a long way to go to see the old traffic back in business
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More burdened employees and staff-
A lot of employees, especially the administrative staff, got laid off as the first slot when the lockdown was implemented across the globe. But, these people managed business and its cash flow. Now the latest problem that arose for businesses is how to manage administration activities with the same number of employees? Should the staff be rehired? But, do you have money for that? One of the most progressive decisions that you can take here is by investing in artificial intelligence. Automated business management software can streamline your workflow, collaborations, invoicing, and cash flow management. A custom invoice software like Invoicera can act as your aid to a lot of activities like invoicing, project management, payments management, automatic payment reminders to clients, maintaining client database, communications, collaborations, and more with a highly professional approach (even if you’re not sure how to do it).
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Wrapping Up-
Businesses have started getting back into the business, but the path is still very long. Though the vaccine has arrived and worked, the normalcy in lives will still take time to get back. With minimum resources and funds, the best you can give your business is some power with AI and automation. By now you must have been swearing by the wonderful benefits of technology and how it acted a saviour in the tough times. Now, is the time to implement it and fully exploit it in your business. Do not sit back on this thought. Implement and automate your every possible activity with the latest technology.
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