By now I'm sure most of you are aware at how bleak its looking for the travel industry right now as the Coronavirus continues to spread. The little glimmer of hope we had in May that things might start to slowly get better has now dissolved in the gloom of June.
As much as we want to stay optimistic and hope we can travel again this year, it's time to face the reality of the situation. The travel sector has a long road ahead as the recovery is going to look a lot more like an L-shaped recovery instead of a V-shaped recovery.
A huge number of travel business are closing for good, mostly small ones. Many livelihoods have been taken away. Events are cancelled at least for the rest of the year. Human habits have changed in a blink of an eye. The way we travel will forever be changed.
Believe me I want nothing more than this post to "not age well" and be wrong about all this, but when you look out and see how the rest of the world is doing its not so reassuring to look at.
Many of us had been hopeful that the lockdowns would flatten the curve and contain the virus so we might have a better second half of 2020. But the Virus doesn't care about your hope. Countries that have overcome Covid-19 in the first wave like Australia and New Zealand are now starting so see a flare up in cases.
Yes there will be pocket of bright spots as we end the year, but it's nothing compared to what we originally had hoped for. Let's not confuse the reopening of some establishments as recovery. Lockdowns are eased up for economic reasons and not because it's already safe. Travel is heavily reliant on consumer confidence to travel and airlines have told us they aren't.
The real recovery of the travel industry starts once a vaccine comes out and is properly distributed throughout the world. Until then, let's start planning for 2021.
댓글