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The 2020 pandemic and previous years’ overtourism issues showed us both the benefits, the relevance, and the limits of the tourism, hospitality and leisure industries for society. We cannot foresee the future, but we can listen to challenges and start developing solutions.
So far we have received more than 900 responses in which these questions have been discussed::
In the name of the global tourism family, many thanks to every single one of you for the inspiring feedback. Your replies are summarized in the sections below.
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Three travel startups response to COVID19
The article highlighted on how these three big travel agencies Get Your Guide,Omio and Travel perk are responding to the Covid19 pandemic.All the three agencies reported a major drop in bookings combined with customer cancellation and reschedule of the travel plans. The three founders of this agencies described there is sudden revenue crunch with high levels of uncertainty due to the pandemic.Get you Guide agency copied to the situation by re-routing resources to service more on near-term customer needs through improved flexibility of cancellation of bookings and refunding systems .Omio and Travel Perk, the two agencies decided to reflect on duty of care. This is focused on supporting its customers,employees with safety measures and are taking the time to research on which investments they can engage or pull out at the current moment.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/13/three-travel-startups-tell-us-how-theyre-responding-to-the-coronavirus-crisis/ (April, 2020)
The thing about travel that leaves the biggest impression on me is definitely just the general vibe/feel you get from a place, not necessarily the main tourist attractions, museums, etc...I think that most of the feeling you get from a city is contributed by the locals; their lifestyle and shared values. That’s why meeting new people and getting to know more about their culture and outlook on life is the thing I’m most excited for when traveling. (April, 2020)
In my opinion the biggest challenge will be how to alleviate the deep grounded fear that is right now in people and how to persuade them that the world is still safe place for travelling and that other people are not threat anymore. The political measures and role of media are going to be the two mayor factors that will either encourage people to be positive or negative, pesimistic. They will either encourage people to go back to before established travelling routines and continue their lives or block them with reporting just negative news, as the media is doing right now globally. (April, 2020)
Many enterprises are loosing big amounts of money due to the fact they are not producing but they are still paying probably some fixed costs their enterprises may have. So, after this they will probably not think about how the planet has improved in terms of sustainability but how much money they lost and how can they gain it back the easiest and fastest way as possible instead of doing it in the most sustainable way as possible for helping the planet. (April, 2020)
Some ideas I have during this time are using media platforms to engage like groups who are in the same situation. Such as making a blog or page for graduating seniors, college students, unemployed of different age ranges, employers in hospitality etc... This way, we can get a group mind to best figure how to navigate the challenges each unique group is experiencing, while also acting as a social outlet providing much needed human interaction. This would help better everyone as whole, and is similar to what Tourism From Zero is doing right now, except all submissions/discussions would be open to the public. (April, 2020)
Usually local operators have partnerships with other local operators - we stick together and support each other. This is true in the Northwest Territories, Canada. (April, 2020)
Multi sector collaboration to collect data. (April, 2020)
A very cool best practice I found is placed in Alta Badia. In this summer every hut and restaurant in the mountains is offering the possibility to take away the lunch in a picnic basket. With this service, you don't have to sit down on a table but you can join your meal on a meadow. (June, 2020)
The media partly exploit the situation of the pandemic to get attention and generate sales. However, the media is not aware, or perhaps unfortunately they are - even sadder that this hype in the media - can make the population sick. (October, 2020)
As tourism has stopped, I believe there is plenty of stakeholders that would agree to take Zoom meetings with students. We could then talk about their challenges, and try to innovate their processes for the future. (April, 2020)