A leading Australian travel industry expert is encouraging operators to pivot and adapt to survive, and even thrive, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marten Labo Pudun, managing director of Blue Ocean Travel, believes that to survive, travel operators must commit to following new hygiene and safety protocols including temperature checking and physical social distancing measures, as well as a focus on promoting domestic travel to Australia’s most iconic destinations
“The tourism industry is one of resilience, having faced, and recovered, from many unexpected curve balls in the past, including terrorism, tsunamis, and extreme climate change,” said Mr Labo Pudun.
He outlined a number of procedures that all travel industry operators would need to follow in order to restore consumer confidence and safeguard the public from further COVID-19 breakouts.
“Most flights will remove all magazines and newspapers by introducing new ancillary products to emerging customer demand, such as one-off lounge passes and extra fees to keep adjacent seats free,” said Mr Labo Pudun.
“Hotels will modify their service procedures by closing buffets, gyms, indoor swimming pools and increasing distance between tables in restaurants.
“Most tourist attractions such as theme parks are committed to reducing crowding up to 30 to 50 per cent of previous levels by introducing pre-registration schemes,” he said.
“This will lead to visitors providing health QR codes issued by the government based on previous travel histories and potential exposure to the virus.”
Mr Labo Pudun strongly believes that all major Australian travel agencies will need to focus more on promoting domestic travel to our most iconic destinations, including the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Forest, Gold Coast, Twelve Apostles, Uluru, Kangaroo Island and Tasmania, as the international travel industry will take longer to recover.
“As Australia is enriched with a plethora of breathtakingly beautiful travel destinations, the domestic travel industry will recover more quickly than other countries lacking large domestic travel hotspots,” he said.
What changes do you think will need to take place to make travel safe again?
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