The travel industry is impatiently waiting for the moment they can return to life and growth they had prior to Covid-19. Unfortunately, a similar reality to the one the industry has before 2020 won’t be happening soon. The post-pandemic era will empower some ways of travelling that weren’t predominant before, such as staycations or domestic travel, while concepts like business travel will be less heard in a post COVID-19 travel future.
We have prepared a useful guide with some actions that a travel agency or an OTA can follow as a way to prepare themselves for an upcoming recovery on travel. This recovery, however, will bring renovated players to the table: customers with improved digital skills and bigger concerns about flexibility; but also hotels with enhanced IT services.
Scout on domestic travel for post COVID-19 travel
As this sanitary situation has been handled pretty differently in every region of the world, the recovery will also appear unevenly: while some countries may continue struggling, others will be virus-free. This uncertainty affects and will continue affecting directly on international travelling, long exhausting immigration processes and expensive requirements depending on the country.
This is why, while crossing borders continue to be an unpleasant experience, domestic travel will grow in popularity. Travel agencies and OTA’s have a chance to offer greater experiences to domestic travelers by creating partnerships with hotels and tour operators within your clients borders. Stay aware of rising touristic locations on your own territory: undiscovered destinations that are taking mainstream spots on domestic travel’s bucket lists.
Boost your digital scope
Technology has been a life-saver for everyone that stayed home: from doing grocery shopping on an app to moving a whole office to any place possible. In a future without COVID-19, the value of technology on every person, family and company will turn irreplaceable. This is why travel agencies and OTA’s have to continue consolidating their technological competences in favor of their customers and even, their own business processes.
Will your clients need an app for making their upcoming bookings on-the-go? Start working on it. Are you really using and analyzing the data your business is generating? Get the appropriate tools to start doing it. All these questions will be key for staying relevant in this industry, where informational technology has been such an important piece for everyone to continue doing their lives during a pandemic.
Handle cancellations and rebookings efficaciously
More than ever, people have given a superior value to flexibility. As there were broader chances for plans to change, having a refundable service and being able to perform a cancellation without problems was key for feeling relief. This ability to change plans as needed will be fundamental for post-pandemic travel.
Travel agencies and OTAs will have to adapt their systems for making it easier for their customers to perform cancellations and to rebook hotels, even multiple times. Even last minute bookings will be a market that will see a rise on a post COVID-19 travel future, where unchangeable vacation plans won’t bring calm to the travelers anymore.