The Maldives is trending upwards, too. The island nation registered more travel-related search queries on Google than any other country from November 2020 to January 2021, and some of its top resorts, like Soneva Fushi, saw revenues rise by as much as 50% in the last months of 2020 when compared to the same period in 2019.
Seeing What Sticks
Peter Bates, president and founder of travel industry consultancy Strategic Vision, holds a cautious outlook on travel’s recovery. He says the latest research his company released was outdated upon its publication in January, having been based on a survey sent out in late November. At that point, travel advisors said Italy, France, Greece and Japan were among their top planned destinations for 2021. By the time their responses were printed, a new wave of lockdowns made those plans seem unlikely at best.
“Everything we looked at in the fourth quarter has changed again,” Bates says. And it’s possible that will repeat itself, imperiling the early success stories mentioned here. “The new word is ‘stickiness,’” he says. “Is it going to stick? Or are we going to have to move this booking?”
An issue for Africa, he says, will be fending off the fears of the potent South Africa variant. “People will take the idea that this is prevalent in South Africa, and expand that across the entire continent—they will generalize—and that has the potential to create problems there,” he says, adding: “Going on safari is a once in a lifetime holiday for a lot of people, so if you’re not completely comfortable, it’s not a good idea.”
That narrative could unfold anywhere. Another uncertainty is the long-term efficacy of vaccines, and what new policies may be in store from health authorities around the world.
“It’s worrying that they’re thinking about even a booster shot, that everyone would have to go through a third injection,” says Bates. Questions about how long protection might last may jeopardize the reliability of immunity passports, he adds.
“There are so many questions that any traveler has these days,” Bates says. But in a weird way, he says, that might not be bad for the travel providers that are among his clients. “A travel advisor has to be a real advisor now—they will be more important than ever,” he says. “In fact they’re the ones who will do quite well as soon as people are actually able to travel again.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.