Coronavirus: thoughts on solidarity, impacts and future travel
As the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic forces the world to retreat behind closed borders and many are faced with quarantine, self-isolation and lockdown situations, we can easily narrow our horizons. Travel adventures seem more of a distant dream when we are needing to sort out life’s essential necessities for ourselves, loved ones, friends and neighbours. Yet, it feels important to continue to look outwards in our thoughts.
I don’t simply mean by following the news on how the pandemic is spreading around the world. Rather, many of us have probably forged friendships and connections through our travels, especially in places with which we hold particular affections. We can take a few moments to think about how those people and communities are coping. Better still, can we contact and show them some solidarity? I take, for instance, a closer interest in Cape Verde after visiting those islands earlier this year, and also check out what the impact has been for Greenland, a place of a favourite past trip of mine. Showing some sense of solidarity can only be a positive, as we all hunker down and find our way through this crisis.
With having more time on our hands, our minds are likely to wander to what we might like to do once the current emergency is over, even if it’s impossible to know when that will be. It might be tempting to engage in dreaming, mental wanderlust, or sketching out potential travel plans. However, once COVID-19 is over there will be no return to the ‘old-normal’.
One can imagine a sense of social euphoria after the lock downs have been relaxed. For many, there might be a desire to get away for some kind of break after being cooped-up for weeks or months on end, or as a boost to mental well-being. Others might be less fortunate and not be in a financial position to contemplate any kind of trip. Some may get feelings of guilt if they take even more time off work.
It might mean that people will narrow or limit their possibilities. This may manifest itself in having long weekends away, short breaks, or spending time closer to home. The focus might be on staying in one’s own region or country, rather than going further afield or overseas.
Over the course of the pandemic some airlines, tour companies, hotels and other parts of the tourism infrastructure will have gone to the wall – some already have. The travel industry is being very hard hit and demands from the industry on governments are only likely to increase. Some sectors may find it more difficult than others. The coverage of quarantined passengers on marooned cruise ships in Yokohama, California, and Australia has probably made a number of people re-evaluate their attitude to booking a cruise, given their reputation (justified or not) for being incubators of bugs, flu or worse.
Yet, one can expect tour companies and the travel industry to begin promoting future travel and holidays - no doubt with enticing offers. If my own inbox is anything to go by, some tour operators and travel agents are already offering promotions and deals for booking holidays for the end of the year and into 2021. Cruise adverts remain a staple of many newspaper travel supplements. A controversial promotional campaign by some parts of the travel industry has faced a backlash for its irresponsibility and insensitivity at a time when people are being advised not to travel and UK nationals remain stranded thousands of miles from home in countries such as Peru, India and Australia.
Not all borders and visitor restrictions will open or ease at the same time, so there may be something of a patchwork pattern to the world waking up again. This is likely to correlate with the locations of the epicentres, hotspots and continuing risks. Some countries and regions will no doubt be eager to welcome visitors, especially those that have previously been heavily dependent on tourism, in an effort to resurrect their local economies and livelihoods. While this might be understandable, opening for business prematurely may incur its own risks as fears about waves of secondary outbreaks grow louder. At the time of posting, this is beginning to happen in East Asia.
With continuing anxieties and great uncertainty over how the pandemic will play out over the rest of 2020 and what the ‘new-normal’ will look like, many travellers’ dreams, aspirations and plans will necessarily be put on hold. In the meantime, whether you spend the coming weeks reading a guide book, opening up the atlas or dusting off some favourite maps, do keep looking outwards while doing the necessary social distancing and staying safe. be assured, many around the world will be finding it harder to get through this period confronting us.
