Predicting the future is fraught with difficulties, Covid has taught us to expect the unexpected and here in Thailand to be patient in all things. Generally, we escaped the worst for that we are grateful. At home in the UK they are still dealing with 40k new coronavirus cases everyday but are slowly learning to live with the virus.
My sister walks dogs for friends and family and whilst cautious normalcy returns she still advocates most strongly that masks must be worn and social distancing practiced when dealing with people. A former senior teacher who taught teachers to teach is based in the beautiful village of Cookham in Berkshire.
She is out walking her 2 dogs most days along with other dogs that owners ask to be looked after while they are away. She is happy but puts masks on near people. She has twice battled Covid and is very cautious. Here in Thailand daily figures are a quarter of those back home. Life here is also slowly returning. People are very keen to have normalcy and our government is very keen to keep figures low.
At the time of going to press Thailand will have administered 93m doses of Covid-19 vaccine, 70% of the population will have received at least 2 doses and a third booster shot will also be widely available too. There is no doubting the world has changed. With conventional travel brought to a standstill in 2020 and 2021, most of us have and will continue to explore locally. Staycations and domestic trips are sure to increase.
If getting on a plane is considered risky, people will avoid it staying instead closer to home. The variety and scope of staycations will expand and will again be popular throughout 2022.
Many of us are eager to travel internationally but will patiently wait until next year and look instead to discover and explore hidden gems nearer to home, they are easy to access, and may not involve air travel, with the added bonus that local domestic trips are on the whole better for the environment.
More specialised and certainly more diverse, whether targeted demographically by age, gender or by our special interests and hobbies, all will be catered for. Future Trends in Travel – I’ve identified 6 major trends that we are likely to see in the future:
1. Travel agents and travel professionals will become essential
2. Sustainable tourism will soar
3. Small and local communities will benefit
4. Quality over quantity will be paramount
5. Staying closer to home will become the norm 6. Travelling and planning trips are good for you and aid your mental health. We all want to book holidays that have cancellation options without penalties.
We don’t need the stress and worry and will look for increased flexibility. Thankfully most travel agents, OTAs, airlines, hotels and car hire companies understand this and offer sensible booking conditions and are beginning to offer improved terms and policies.
With 2020 and 2021 travel being decimated by the pandemic – an incredibly tough two years for the global population, I join my travel industry colleagues in their mostly positive assessments and I’m hopeful that the forced rethinking and re-engineering of the whole travel industry will lead to better travel practices in 2022 and beyond. We all want to book holidays that have cancellation options without penalties.
We don’t need the stress and worry and will look for increased flexibility. Thankfully, most travel agents, OTAs, airlines, hotels, and car rental companies understand this and offer sensible booking conditions and are beginning to offer improved terms and policies.
With 2020 and 2021 travel being decimated by the pandemic-an incredibly tough two years for the global population, I join my travel industry colleagues in their mostly positive assessments, and I’m hopeful that the forced rethinking and re-engineering of the whole travel industry will lead to better travel practices in 2022 and beyond.
