The global pandemic has canceled or delayed most travel plans for 2020. Now that we're in the waning weeks of the current calendar year, all eyes are looking to 2021. Specifically, many are wondering how a Biden presidency will impact their travel plans and the travel industry.
Guided excursions have long been at the heart of travel, but like everything else, the pandemic disrupted such experiences, and many went virtual. But as travel begins to tick up, existing tour companies are adapting to social distancing in other ways.
COVID has turned online travel from a game of inches to one of millimetres, said Timothy Hughes, vice president corporate development of Agoda, paraphrasing an oft-quoted phrase of former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Beachfront cabanas, a heated pool, an empty fitness center, room service — escaping to a hotel sounds pretty good on even the most mundane of days. But what about living in one for a month?
Would you volunteer to go on a cruise ship right now, even if it was free?Major cruise line Royal Caribbean is currently looking into arranging trial cruise voyages to convince regulators it can run successful Covid-era trips.
A sharp shift towards domestic tourism, shorter booking lead times, and rising demand for contactless booking tools are some of the emerging trends in the post-pandemic travel landscape in China and South Korea.
When Covid-19 shut down economies around the world last spring, it also stopped all those trips business executives make to customers, suppliers, conventions, trade shows, and their company offices. Almost overnight, millions of people globally began working from home and using video-conferencing technology to transport themselves to meetings and negotiate deals.
The European Union has announced a "traffic light" system in the hope of restarting international travel.
A new president is headed to the White House in January, and travelers should expect to see changes under a Joe Biden administration, from who's allowed into the country to infrastructure improvements to help for laid-off and furloughed travel industry workers.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, travel executives have been pinning their hopes on a Covid-19 vaccine saving their industry, which has suffered from the fallout of the health crisis.
