COVID-19 pandemic has changed how people travel. The way travellers used to plan and execute their trips is different from how the market is behaving now.
The pandemic shook the industry and threw it inside the deepest hole from where revival is a challenging stretch.
The last block at the end of the year
After the tremendous increase in COVID-19 positive cases worldwide due to the spread of the Delta variant, industries got trampled with losses once again. Australia, that put up a commendable show in the first wave of the pandemic, battled with high transmission rates during the second wave.
After months of stringent lockdowns and border closures, the country was finally coming out of the pit of the pandemic, but the new variant, Omicron has now made an entry.
Omicron is being referred to as the deadliest of the variants of the novel coronavirus. And, with its transmission rate, the Australian government is changing the border rules. For instance, students were allowed to enter Australia from December 1 onwards, but that has been postponed by the government.
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The travel industry has been pushed into another dark hour
Australia reopened its borders for Aussies to travel internationally from November 1 onwards, later it resumed its travel bubble with New Zealand, followed by the commencement of the travel bubble with Singapore.
However, it had more plans to commence travel bubbles with Japan and South Korea; however, now that seems like a far-fetched plan. The industry has been again pushed into a fragile situation, where nobody knows when the light would shine again.
Japan and Israel have announced border closure and several other countries like the UK and Australia are tightening their travel policies.
Image source: Pixabay
Travelers on the edge
Travelers worldwide are now either delaying their travel plans, or changing destinations, and some are entirely cancelling their plans in the fear of Omicron making things worse worldwide. The international travel industry is already standing at a tough spot, and another hammer by the Omicron spread will push the industry into more challenging circumstances.
Many destinations are again imposing quarantine rules, all such changes are making the pre-travel-plans difficult for people. Additionally, building trust is significant for the travel industry. And now, since at the last moment countries are changing their tourism policies, travellers are bound to get agitated.
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In the following weeks, it would get clearer whether the industry would be able to sustain the sudden shock or would it have to wait for months to revive again. The times are challenging for the agencies and the travellers. Thus, governments worldwide should be clearer with their policies in advance so that individuals don’t suffer at the last minute.
SOURCE: KALKINE MEDIA
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