How will the travel sector emerge from the pandemic that crippled it

The questions that arise are what companies are able to turn this into opportunities and how.

Some facts and news:

• Travel was brought to a standstill through restrictions while we were put into lockdowns.
• Cruise lines have become the face of the pandemic, the Diamond Princess
• U.S. air travelers have fallen back to 1954 levels. 
• IATA estimates that global air transport industry revenues could fall $252 billion, 44 percent below 2019’s numbers.
• Coronavirus' Impact on Travel Is 9 Times Greater than September 11

The past decade was under the star of globalisation. With the rapid expansion of low-cost carriers all over the global air travel market and social media being its visual promoter, we kind of took it too far at our planet’s own loss. 

2020s top travel and tourism industry trends were already all about sustainable approaches with a focus on ‘microcations’ and carbon offsetting. 

The unforeseen power of the pandemics made us unwillingly realize that travel, after all, is a leisure activity which although is a favourite becomes disposable. 

Business travel was initially saved and slowly replaced by technology and the further developments of it will make it mostly obsolete for the future.

 

We will never travel as we did and this impacts the rest of the economy. 

 

We wanted to address this further to the right person, so we interviewed the CEO of lastminute.com, Fabio Cannevale. 

At this point, his company is lucky to have had a healthy cash flow, so their main focus is to save the jobs while freezing the company's activity, keep all the employees and have ready all the resources needed for when they will be able to rerun the business. Lastminute is an international company, having offices and employees in many countries and Switzerland proved to be the best one when it comes to getting help from the government and the banks. As a CEO he appreciates the fast response of the Swiss government and the easy process of getting the cash needed from banks. The government's role will also be important in the process of how things will go back to normal.

I see lots of opportunities in a crisis. I remember we grew the company in the crisis, the one from 2008 and since then we saw growth of 20- 30 and even 40% per year. 

Crisis means disruption and a lot of things will change. 

 

In his position as an investor, Fabio Cannevale says that it will continue to help support the start-ups he is involved in and offer consultation so that no matter the stages they’re in to be able to survive, manage the crisis and restart activities as soon as possible.  

He doesn’t see a problem in future investments, as long as the business ideas can work and really help society. The strongest and the smartest companies or start-ups in Fabios opinion are the ones that are the most flexible, that get the new customer needs and are quick to adapt to these. 

 

“In order to survive this crisis, start-ups have to be smart, quick and have cash. Cash is king. Get cash from banks and cut costs as much as possible.”

 

There is hope for travel and it comes under the name of glocalisation

 

Glocalization, the combination of the words "globalization" and "localization", is about adapting globally developed and distributed products or services to a local market.

“Radical localism will come back” - Rafat Ali

 

When it comes to travel it means that domestic travel will be the one helping to nurse most of the impacted parties like hotels, airbnbs or sightseeings. 

It is sustained by another trend witnessing an early adoption in China, nationalism and nativism, the rise in patriotic consumption. 

China’s domestic tourism market is gigantic and supports some five billion trips a year. These domestic flights are the first ones to be permitted after slowly coming out of the lockdown as a nation, and it’s what we’re seeing becoming a practice in Singapore and South Korea as well. 

 

People will be scared to travel if not necessary, but after experiencing the lockdown, they might forget fast the fear because their need to travel is also felt differently. 

In helping to deal with this anxiety tech will play a big role. 

 

How can tech mixed with a start-up mindset save travel?

 

Besides waiting for the vaccine to be developed, we will need to rely more and more on technology to help detect fast the infected people and monitor them. 

The first good news comes from an airline. With the collaboration of Dubai Health Authority, Emirates recently introduced on-site quick blood-tests that can detect COVID-19 in 10 minutes.

Apps, softwares and different types of tools all powered by revolutionary technology are in the making and will be the heroes of the travel industry. 

 

When it comes to business, as Fabio Cannevale says in the interview, they need to react and adapt to the new needs of society. Reinvention and diversification of services are key. 

 

Demand for taxis and ride-hailing was also affected by the fact that we don’t go out of our houses anymore. 

 

Taxi’s started delivering food from the restaurant or groceries to people.

 

Uber released a new feature that helps U.S. drivers find work both in its other divisions and at companies not at all affiliated with Uber.

• the Work Hub will connect workers to about 15 companies nationwide that are hiring in volume, including Domino's, Amazon, and Walgreens. 

• It'll also link drivers to internal opportunities with Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and Uber Works, the temporary staffing program it launched in 2019.

This diversification of services syncs with the company's long-term goal of aggregating a fleet of temp workers who can move from industry to industry.