Post Covid Travel Analysis

No doubt Covid-19 has put a pause on almost every aspect of our daily life, even more so on travelling. We might had previously taken travel for granted as we go about in our daily life. Travelling for various reasons including busines meetings, visiting friends/relatives, recreational visit.

If one thing Covid-19 pandemic has taught us, that would be the importance of travel. This forms a crucial part of our life without us realizing it and the tourism industry had taken a big hit out from this. Covid-19 will also change our lifestyle, for instance business might do with less travel with the ease of communicating over online platforms even right down to now tours are being conducted online. One need not necessarily leave the comfort of their home.

In fact, I would like to view it as of how this pandemic has and will change the tourism industry in a positive way moving forward. Like I had always felt, the tourism industry lag in comparison to other industries in how technology is incorporate into the work process prior to Covid-19 pandemic. While the adoption of contactless service has been typically slow in the hospitality industry, the pandemic and resulting consumer desire for services that are delivered in a safe and hygienic manner have resulted in swift changes.

A great example would be hotels introducing seamless online check-in prior to guests’ arrival at the hotel. Instead of manually filling in details at the reception counter, guests can now check-in online and collect their keys upon arrival. With technology playing a major part in the near future on tourism industry, the news of Star Alliance plan to plant second office in Singapore later this year 2021 is well received. The newly setup office will focus on progressing its strategy in digital customer experience.

All aspects of tourism ranging from national tourism bodies to aviation to hospitality and right down to travel agents, event planners even to local transportation networks (Taxis, Tour buses) are within the tourism funnel are greatly affected.

Being optimistic, there are encouraging news and signs of travel will return to normal. Countries are now planning, or some had even already kick start in opening their international borders. The Nordic countries want to restart travel and possibly more, such as allowing people to attend events, with digital vaccine passports – as they are often known – seen as a way of enabling this safely. Sweden and Denmark announce plans to develop digital certificates that prove people have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Here are some travel updates in summary.

–         Taiwan will start its first travel bubble in April with Palau in the Pacific.

–         Taiwan, which has kept coronavirus case counts low, is also in talks with Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam to open up travel again.

–         Singapore and Australia now discussing quarantine-free travel before July.

–         Sri Lanka has meanwhile opened “bio bubbles” allowing visitors to enter without quarantine but stick to specific destinations and itineraries.

–         Indonesia is consider setting up a travel corridor scheme for Bali from as early as June, to welcome holidaymakers from countries that have sufficiently vaccinated their populations

–         Also in Indonesia, the Riau islands clusters consists of Bintan & Batam are keen on forming a travel bubble with Singapore by April 2021 , looking to beat their domestic competitor (Bali) to it.

–         Singapore and Malaysia recognising each other’s COVID-19 vaccine certificates, with a view towards facilitating cross-border travel in the future

However, from my point of view, forming travel bubble might not be as straight forward issue between governments. For instance, a country must consider overall economic benefits and the level of political friendship too. I presumed that while Singapore is certainly keen in opening all channels to more countries, it must weight her options. Australia believes that Singapore could become something of a “quarantine gateway, holiday destination and potential vaccination hub for returning Australians, international students and business travellers. Australia would seem more of a better option to open up in terms of economic impact it would generate. Yet if Singapore were to open her door to travel into Riau Islands cluster, Australia might withdraw this option. Hence, do not be surprised if a country has to reject a country offer to open up in the hope of forming a travel bubble relationship with another that will have a larger spin off for her own economy.

In fact, a recent poll on people comfort level if they would go overseas under a travel bubble arrangement yields positive results. 50% of the respondents are likely to go ahead once their government had arranged travel bubble with another country. This would feed the travel hungry consumers who have been in lockdown for more than a year, finally be able to travel overseas. This is especially true for small nations like Singapore, who does not have a big land area to begin with, as domestic tourism is close to zero.

Aviation is another crucial aspect of tourism industry. In fact, I believed this Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable the aviation/airline industry is to the external world. It can be said to be one of the first and worst hit among all sectors. I feel it will take a long time to recover, as long as 8 years later. Prior to the Covid-19, airlines are witnessing a strong growth in passenger number although if you were to dive deeper, the Revenue per Available Seat Kilometre (RASK) was on a downwards trend with the intense competition from both full fledge & budget carriers.

New digital initiatives being trialled by Scoot is offering customers Covid-19 pre-departure tests (PDTs) and a more seamless process when verifying their test results. A complimentary online portal which launched on 17 March 2021, allows Scoot customers departing on flights from Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong SAR to book PDT appointments with recognised and accredited partner clinics, make payment for the tests, and receive results in digital form within 36 hours. The portal may be accessed via the Scoot website or mobile app during and after passengers book their flights. Check-in agents are able to quickly and reliably determine the authenticity of digital or printed Covid-19 test results bearing a verifiable QR code, issued by selected clinics.

Its parent company, Singapore Airlines had its first successful trial of the IATA Travel Pass completed. This has paved the way of using technology to securely, conveniently, efficiently help travellers and governments to manage travel health credentials. Passengers on Singapore Airlines flights from Singapore to London during the trial could use the IATA Travel Pass to:

–         Create a secure digital version of their passport on their mobile device

–         Input their flight details to learn of travel restrictions and requirements

–         Receive verified test results and a confirmation that they meet all travel requirements

A recent IATA (International Air Travel Association) poll of travellers found that 89% agree with the need for global standards, and 80% are keen to use a mobile app to manage their travel credentials. In summary, I feel that the airline industry cannot wait to get it started with all proper procedures and standardization across the industry nicely in place. These are encouraging signs altogether although they do require strong co-operation from all government to push for travel corridors to be open.

A hot topic that is on people mind which I usually get this question a lot as well is, will travel be more expensive in post covid era? From my point of view, I would say YES, travel will be more expensive than before. As you see, accommodations & flights take up a large chunk of your travel expenses. One thing I feel for sure is that flights will be more expensive. Reason is simple, as there are only limited seats with some airline cutting seat capacity during covid-19 period and some are restarting the routes, there will be a demand and supply game. Airlines do need to spend more money in terms of ensuring safety, making sure they have enough measures, tests administration process that are all in place. This will further add cost to the airline which naturally will translate into higher fare for travellers. If you are looking at the airline yield department, the post covid era travel will be a good time to recoup the losses as people will yearn to travel. Price may not be a big issue as compared to safety. Passengers would not mind paying a higher fare to get out of their country and most importantly, knowing that safety precautions are all well taken care of.

Next up, hotels would also likely to increase their room rates for the exact same reasons. Perhaps, hotels have to limit the number of rooms it can sell, leaving the next room unoccupied. Hence, these will naturally push up room rates too.

Beside it, group tours would likely be a thing of the past now. Travel agents will be more focus in organizing smaller private group. People may feel uncomfortable to travel with strangers hence the way of how travel players such as airlines & hotels that cater to bulk travel will change. There will be more FITs travellers than groups. This will in turn affect how tours be conducted, leading to big tour buses being redundant and guides will be taking in smaller or even individuals.

In summary, Covid-19 has changed on how tourism industry takes on the world challenges ahead. The ways of conducting travel tourism business will be a thing of the past as people travel patterns has been altered and technology has power this change. There will be light after darkness to fellow travel industry players. After all, we are all social beings and travel has always been in our blood. Now is the time to move into digitalisation. Seize the opportunity and work out innovative ways to capture the new market!

Categories: Inspiration

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