How we will relax this summer: post-viral tourism trends

The coronavirus situation has affected all areas of life, but it will change the travel industry especially strongly. Artem Kromochkin talks about what will happen to domestic tourism and how we will spend our holidays this summer

Possible consequences of the pandemic include a reassessment of domestic tourism, which may become the most popular type of leisure for some time, an increase in the popularity of independent travel, more active use of road and rail transport, as well as a surge in interest in new types of travel, such as medical tourism and long-term tourism. independent travel combined with work.

Most likely, the external borders will be closed at least until autumn. At the end of May this year, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin urged our country not to rush to plan foreign trips in order to minimize the risks of infection. The Pobeda low-cost airline promised that it would return to work in June and temporarily reduce ticket prices by three times. For many dates, it will be possible to fly from Moscow to major cities for less than 1 rubles. Therefore, first of all, people will travel within the country.

As the authorities promise, quarantine restrictions in our country will be lifted gradually. Therefore, at first, people who are tired of self-isolation will begin to make short trips within their region or to neighboring regions, mainly by car. For a long time, residents of Russian megacities preferred to travel to Europe even for the weekend, while their own country remained unexplored for many. It’s time to fix this and, finally, visit Suzdal, Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok and Tomsk. Due to the fact that millennials will return to domestic tourism, we should expect an increase in the popularity of non-beach destinations: tours to the Far North for the northern lights, trips to the mountains and to various natural attractions, camping and, possibly, extreme tourism.

A survey conducted by Avito Real Estate in May this year showed that 45% of our countries have already changed their attitude towards domestic tourism: almost two-thirds of the survey participants (63%) plan to travel around our country as soon as quarantine ends.

The practice of looking for places and opportunities for recreation without leaving far from home appeared long before the start of the epidemic. The English-language press is now actively using the term staycation (from the English stay – stay, vacation – vacation) – a way to spend a vacation or a short vacation, changing your usual lifestyle and daily routine without a mandatory flight by plane – for example, a city tour, a short trip to the forest . Often, residents of megacities are surprised to find that even in their hometown or region there are a huge number of places where they have never been. In general, you can expect that country holidays, camping, nature trips and city walks will be more often evaluated by people as a full-fledged trip, and not just a respite for the May holidays. There will also be more off-season trips. Postponing travel altogether and waiting for summer in the post-virus era is risky.

As restrictions are lifted in various regions of the country, people will begin to gradually return to longer trips. Naturally, tourists will try to protect themselves as much as possible and will continue to socially distance themselves even during their holidays. Namely: if possible, travel by private car, if this mode of transport is not available – by train, not by plane, stay in apartments and apart-hotels instead of hotels, cook for yourself, and not dine in restaurants.

The fact that such holiday options are gaining popularity is evident from the statistics on the occupancy of apart-hotels and daily rent of apartments. During the lockdown, they feel even better than hotels. According to Cushman&Wakefield, the occupancy of apart hotels is 30% (at a profitability level of 25%), while hotels have 5-7%.

The fact that interest in short-term rental of apartments and apartments is growing can be seen from Avito’s data. Until mid-March, we noted a stable demand from users of daily rent. Then the growth relative to the previous year stopped, the year-on-year change was 0%. With the introduction of quarantine, user activity dropped sharply, as it was completely unclear how long the lockdown would last and how to plan future trips. At the peak (in the first days of April), there was a halving compared to the previous year, throughout April, the indicators were about 40% below the levels of 2019.

From April 25, people’s interest in travel began to slowly recover, but it was more of a pent-up demand, people were mainly looking at options for the future. On the second May holidays, demand reached the level of last year, but the first working week after the holidays still passed with a lag of 20% compared to 2019. Demand finally recovered by May 23, after which it continued to grow. This gives hope that the tourist season will still take place this year, albeit to a lesser extent than last year.

Due to the emergence of affordable travel planning services such as ticket and hotel discount aggregators, a significant number of our countries have “tasted” short self-guided trips and are ready to consider more complex options. Long solo trips, often combined with work, will gain popularity. In this case, people tend to rent apartments and apartments so that their lifestyle is as close as possible to the lifestyle of the local population – someone calls such trips mini-emigration. Just like locals, a person goes to supermarkets, cooks food, visits non-tourist restaurants, etc. The popularity of this travel format is also facilitated by the fact that many companies, both in our country and around the world, have announced plans to leave their employees on a “remote” basis at least until autumn. Facebook, for example, generally announced that some employees can continue to work from a remote office indefinitely.

Under the new conditions, more people will plan their trips on their own, essentially creating customized tours to fit their needs, as high-end agencies used to do. This will also lead to an increase in demand for rental apartments and apartments, since this type of accommodation allows for much more flexibility when planning a trip – you can rent an apartment exactly where you need it, and not in a tourist area, or a large house for several families etc.

Gradually, people will return to planning large foreign trips, but due to fear of repeated outbreaks of the virus and the introduction of new restrictive measures, many travelers will begin to choose countries from where it is easier to fly to Russia – primarily in the CIS. Already, many agencies offer additional insurance options, for example, a refund of the cost of tours in the event of any force majeure situations. In the future, new insurance products are likely to appear, focused on greater protection for travelers.

Before the spread of the virus, many of our countries did not plan vacations and buy tickets for six months or more, the current situation is canceling these habits and the travel planning horizon is changing dramatically. Most trips this year will be organized spontaneously. Half of the year has almost passed, there are few warm days left in many regions, so our country will travel as soon as possible.

Traveler safety standards will change around the world, from empty train seats to restaurants where visitors can be served by robots. For example, the American Hotel and Hospitality Association (AHLA) has published its guidelines for the safe stay of guests, which it developed together with the InterContinental, Accor, Marriot and Walt Disney chains. They, in particular, prescribe the installation of sanitizers in all hotel premises, ensure remote check-in, and exclude some of the staff, including bellhops, parking attendants and reception.

For most people, the very approach to choosing vacation options will change. It is unlikely that anyone in the near future will think of planning a trip for major holidays and tourist events, for example, to the Venice Carnival, or for the cherry blossom season in Tokyo, but other types of travel, such as medical tourism, may become more popular. Our country has previously been treated in other cities, for example, due to the difference in prices in the regions for medical services, including dentistry. However, such a thing as health tourism was perceived by most young people as a kind of atavism of the “Soviet” past. At the same time, “civilized” modern health tourism is well developed in a number of countries: in Israel, and also partly in China and Turkey. players can look forward to a renaissance in the industry if they manage to provide customers with the level of service they need.

I am sure that in any case, most people will not travel less, but the industry itself will change a lot, and not only because of new sanitary and epidemiological requirements. Unfortunately, a decline in household income due to the pandemic is inevitable – this will lead both to an increase in demand for cheap tours and destinations, and to an increase in requirements for the quality of service, as people accustomed to premium service will begin to get to economy-class resorts.

Our country is a country with huge tourism potential. In terms of the number of natural centers of attraction, architecture and historical sites, it does not lag behind the leaders of the global tourism industry, and the consequences of the pandemic provide an opportunity to realize this potential. But for this it is necessary to ensure a very big progress in the development of infrastructure and quality of service.

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