Those close to me know that I love to travel. I’ve been privileged enough to travel as much as I have so far and I intend to continue that trajectory. As travel and tourism slowly opens up around the world post corona lockdown, here in Australia shows no sign of such happening…yet. Entry and exit out of the country remains limited with some states even closing borders in response to outbreaks. I know many of us are itching to ‘get out’ for some spontaneous breaks including myself but it’s a game of patience.
Personally, the entitled attitude of some within society is not helping the collective to resume back to regular life sooner. Notice I did not use the term ‘new normal’. I absolutely loathe the use of this phrase in text or speech. Life will resume and while some aspects will be different, in the end it will just be ‘life’.
There is no doubt tourism will once again boom, evidenced by the recent surge in the European travel market due to many countries being officially open again. Australia being on the EU’s safe list doesn’t mean much at this point. Travel will be different with much more stringent controls blanketed by a general sea of wariness amongst travellers and non travellers. Not that it will deter travellers, including some friends who are planning a getaway to somewhere in Holland this August. No wait, The Netherlands after the official rebranding.
So when life resumes, will the magic of travel still exist? Well, if only I had a crystal or Lucky 8 ball but I don’t. My suspicion is that it will be inevitable some aspects of travel that I love will change.
Tongue Point – Wilsons Promontory National Park
Vibes
Street life gives so much energy and sets the atmosphere. I can’t imagine visiting places after places encountering soullessness. In fact more the secondary concern for me is the future state of street vendors and street food. It would be a massive shame to see a slow extinction of vendors providing artisanal and authentic experiences. From personal observation, some places in Hong Kong have seen reduced number of vendors due to variety of reasons: competition, chain stores, lack of draw for visitors but also the gentrification and to a degree the beautification of an area, street or precinct. Certain market streets have gone and certain vendors selling particular goods are increasingly hard to find. It’s likely that street life will change in certain aspects especially ones that are governed by health and sanitary rules.
Maybe no more hole in the wall dodgy looking experiences? Surely I’ll get to experience another bosna?
Carefree attitude
I fear that the spontaneity of travel will diminish. What has attracted me to travel is the unknown in the location, language, culture sense but also the my habit of travel. I know I’m not alone in relishing the opportunity to go with the flow and see where your trip takes you. Slowly I’ve shifted into that mode of travel in the last few years where I only knew where and when I was arriving and exiting my trip. Plus the first one or two nights of accommodation. I didn’t know exactly where I was supposed to be but I was okay with that. Meet some other travellers who were heading to the coast? No problem. Love the kitschy town? Sure I can extend my stay. A wine festival nearby? Let me leave earlier. Never has it been easier to ‘be unprepared’.
I don’t know whether travel in the future will facilitate this and it makes me a bit sad. I envision most things will require a booking or reservation to ensure patron numbers won’t exceed and personal details for contact tracing so it won’t be easy to just up-and-go. Things will be scrutinised more closely.
Interactions
Travelling involves meeting strangers; multitudes of them. You joke, you laugh, you smile, you cry. I sense there will be wary of unfamiliar faces and result in a stand-offish behaviour. Perhaps we won’t embrace, hug, handshake so easily. No impromptu picnics in a Munich nudist park (entirely by accident I swear). I mean, it surely must be killing the French to not practice la bise. To think that travellers will keep more to themselves and not intermingle is a sad thought.
Until I can see it for myself, I’ll be content with experiencing more regional points of interests and be spontaneous that way.
Do you think travel will change post Covid? If you do, in what ways do you feel it will happen?
Anonymous Rat
I think the reason for traveling will change, and the main reason will be to see friends and family that you haven’t been able to see due to the pandemic (instead of going somewhere for vacation). For travels to bump back to be spontaneous again, we might be looking at a minimum of two or three years into the future before we see the “traditional” traveling scene returning. But what do I know, this is just my thoughts as of today. Great blog!
Chris C
Hi Rat! It’s so hard to tell whether people will remain as cautious when travel is allowed again. Personally I think it’ll be much longer than a couple of years before so called “traditional” travel will begin to return. It’s anyone’s guessing game at the moment! Will travel be more expensive due to more costs for cleaning, checks etc, or will they be lower to stimulate demand for travel? Thanks for your thoughts!