We might see a return to a more quality form of travel
Maria Theofanopoulou
CEO
Greek Travel Pages
Τhe last few years we have been bystanders to how tourism was rapidly growing. Each year had been a record one with the country running on ‘autopilot mode’ regarding tourism arrivals. We did not have the proper time to set all the rules and develop our sustainable model while, at the same time, much of our strategy was focused around a trouble- free future. We were following the momentum.
The coronavirus pandemic came to rock the boat and set new rules. It exposed the tourism industry’s fragility and the interdependence of our societies. In just a few months, the pandemic overturned our everyday life and set the whole world to a ‘pause mode’. Tourism is among the industries that have been hit harder due to quarantines, travel bans, and social isolation measures. In like manner, in Greece we count greater losses as tourism has been our top economic driver.
It is almost impossible to predict what will happen during the next weeks and it is very difficult to say which changes are here to stay and how much they will affect our lives in the future. Is it a crisis that will reshape how we travel and live? Will it turn out to be more of a ‘pause’ before we return to ‘business as usual’? I believe that we need first to understand the scale of economic distraction the pandemic will leave behind. We can only forecast possibilities, albeit one thing is certain: we will witness a ‘new normal’.
We are going to see a massive disruption, working in both good and bad directions. Every economic crisis brings unprecedented problems and challenges but also unprecedented opportunities that we need to acknowledge and use in order to bring the industry forward. So far we have seen that government reflexes are mainly looking inwards with ultimate objective to protect their own people. EU institutions and leaders have been criticized for not taking sufficient and coordinated measures to deal with this crisis. Significantly, this crisis leads to a new economic division between the North, which seems to be getting stronger out of the crisis, and the South, which has taken a harder hit.
EU’s biggest asset, the single market, is at stake. Each nation is adopting solutions that appears best suited for them, without much consideration of its neighbours or trading partners. With most airplanes of airlines being grounded, depending on national policies, some airlines will fare better, while others will struggle. The whole airline system is reconstituted. We expect that soon weaker airlines will exit the market, stronger ones will grow their share and low-cost carriers will be ‘swallowed’ by large carriers. Notably, regional airlines, which often provide essential connectivity to remote regions and support regional airports, will also face extreme risk. Before the crisis, airlines were trying to maximize capacity on airplanes. The new norm will require airlines to do exactly the opposite. In like manner, it is expected that airlines will reduce the number of flights and routes to increase revenue, resulting in reduced travel options, more miscellaneous charges and more expensive flights. At the same time, we should expect to see consolidations in the aviation industry.
A decrease in air connectivity, in the long run, will hurt tourism
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In this respect, it is important for governments to coordinate, and states to safeguard measures in order to address unfair competition and market twist. After all, the aviation industry is much more than airlines; it’s also about communications and trade. A decrease in air connectivity, in the long run, will hurt tourism and will partly block the economic growth potential of regions.
It is expected that the slow recovery of air travel will lead people to travel by using more extensively other means, such as trains, ferries and cars. This opens a window of opportunity for rail and ferry companies to respond to this opportunity by improving their product and services and ‘creating’ loyal customers that will be ‘here to stay’.
Destinations are also fronted with new challenges.
Notably, now is a unique opportunity to take a step backwards and press the ‘reset button’.
It is the best opportunity we have to start envisioning the destinations and the companies operating within as we have always wanted. To reinvent and build more sustainable strategies. To start shifting our perspective about ‘who we are’ to what community value we bring. We need to bring value that others do not have.
In this respect, all stakeholders: the destinations (DMOs), the locals, the enterprises operating in the destination and the bodies need to agree on who their customers are, which are their channel managers, their air partners and what their experience providers are offering? This crisis is an opportunity to bring together all involved and to agree upon a vision which should then deploy a wholistic strategy to follow. It is important to be looking not only on the demand side of the equations but also on the supply.
In the throes of the pandemic, technology is transforming faster than we expected for many industries. The hospitality industry is not immune. What we have experienced in the last few months is a welcoming response by companies and its employees and a willingness to go through the learning curve of this technological transformation.
Following the crash test that companies had to take in order to organize their employees to work remotely, it is likely that more flexibility around working hours and workplaces will be established and thus more people will continue to work virtually. There will be no distance restriction due to work. If you can work from anywhere, then why not work and travel simultaneously?
On the opposite side of the equation, as telecommuting has become a new normal amid the pandemic, business travel as we know it might become an unnecessary cost for most businesses.
Behaviors are also changing. It is possible that people will reconsider the purpose of their travel, their options and the duration. We might start seeing people taking fewer, but longer, trips. We might see a return to a more quality form of travel.
All things considered, we must not rely on past success. We cannot know all the parameters leading to the next day, but we should be able to adapt to every path they will make. Now is the time to make big changes.
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