In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday Boston Consulting Group Managing Director & Senior Partner/Travel & Tourism Global Jason Guggenheim made these predictions about the future of travel in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Because tourism is driven by consumer confidence, travel won't rebound to the 2019 level until 2023 or 2024.
- Recovery across travel sectors will vary greatly: motels will likely relatively quickly, cruises much less so.
- Road trips will remain popular, as they were in 2020.
- Domestic travel and short-haul destinations will recover faster than long-haul destinations.
- Remote destinations now carry new risks related to the availability of medical treatment, especially for seniors who have driven multigenerational travel.
- Airbnb and house-swapping clubs will recover faster than hotels because they offer control of the environment and isolation from strangers.
- Hotels may not fully recover for several years.
- Both cities and tourist towns will suffer from absence of customers.
- A COVID-19 vaccine is essential to truly restart travel.
Read the full interview at Bloomberg.