Is It Worth Travelling Right Now?
“Are you going away this summer?” — many, many people.
Have you also been having this conversation?
Yesterday I sent out a few mail merges, at least half replied with OOO emails. I’d say amongst my friends at least half are travelling this week or were last week. For being in the middle of a pandemic, there sure is a lot of travelling going on.
However, when you look at the news, such as this phocuswire article stating booking.com revenues have plunged 90% you can’t help thinking people aren’t travelling. Some rumours I’ve heard as well said that global hotel chains have been facing occupancy rates on average of 15% during peak crisis months.
Has all that changed?
Looking at the stock market in the UK, it seems investors are conflicted as well. IAG, Carnival, IHG and others have been seeing modest gains and then reversals week over week.
So what’s going on?
As I suggested in my LinkedIn article, “Covid Crystalball gazing”, domestic tourism is the first place people have turned to — especially now that the UK government has turned away Spain, Bahamas, Belgium and Andorra.
The last thing you would want right now, in my opinion, is to have your overseas holiday being put at risk and adding a whole heap of stress onto a situation in which you’re meant to be relaxing and unwinding.
Let alone the risks of reigniting another pandemic, let’s keep the focus on the individual, rather than the common good.
Obviously, if you have underlying conditions, you’re not travelling. But if you don’t and you’re fed up of being cooped up inside or your local neighbourhood you might seriously consider going on holiday.
I also suspect that if you had COVID, without life-threatening symptoms, you might be feeling a little invincible these days, so your risk profile is much higher than those that haven’t had it yet.
The biggest non-health existential threat you can face right now, in my opinion, is to be subject to the 14-day quarantine upon return (which let’s face it, is not the end of the world — especially if you’re still working from home).
So — should you travel? There are many reasons not to.
So, you’re going on holiday in the UK — perfect. Whether seems to be doing OK, so “might as well get while the getting’s good”, right?
Vacation Rental or Hotel?
Although hotels are “COVID secure” and have put in place lots of measures to minimize your risk of contagion, that doesn’t mean that your risk is zero.
Thinking logically I would assume that a vacation rental, where you are minimizing shared or common spaces, is probably the lowest amount of risk you could have — assuming it’s been cleaned properly and the staff are using good COVID practices.
However, unless you booked back in April when the crisis was in its peak here in the UK, it’s slim pickings. I did a search of Sykes Cottages for 2 people, 4 nights (+/- 1) anywhere in England and it returned 24 results.
Clearly, consumers will want access to private spaces and self-contained units versus common/shared spaces. This is a major challenge for the hotel industry and a massive boon for Airbnb (and the likes).
24 results for a whole country!
When I looked on Expedia, only hotels were available.
So, let’s assume one of the 24 options just happens to be the right accommodation and location for you. What will your experience be like for things to do? There is no point going on holiday just to sit inside the rental all day!
Don’t forget all of your supplies such as masks, hand-sanitiser, and whatever else you might need. Let’s head out for the day.
Tourism was designed to be consumed en masse — it’s one of the worst aspects of Tourism (easily outweighed by it’s best aspects). Planes, trains and other shared utilities are all for mass tourism, not really for the solo traveller. Of course, you’ve taken the car (assuming you have one, or recently bought one).
Depending on your destination, things might not be open still! Even if they are, the experience is going to be totally different from what you’re used to.
It’s worth getting used to though, as I don’t think it will change in the near future. So all in all, if you can travel and want to travel — travel domestically.
