Platforms and Travel
Mountains are calling but I would wait !
In a normal year when this email reaches your inbox on Second Last Sunday Morning of May , I would have been on my trek route passing through a Himalayan hamlet in Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand. Every year almost for a decade now, this week was blocked for my Annual Summer Himalayan Trek with friends and family. My annual detox/rejuvenation sojourn before the grind of the academic year started in First Week of June. But, this is 2020 and things are way beyond normal !
Now that I have your undivided attention (Of course , you are struck at HOME), let me take you on a trip across platforms transforming travel through hygiene, convenience and care.
DTW
During the Week, we finally had the announcement about resumption of limited Air and Train Travel across India. This is both a cause of celebration and concern. One of the reason why we ended up in the pandemic is the inter-connectedness of the world mainly enforced through air travel across the different geo-climatic zones. Something which would have taken years to reach the pandemic stage in pre-air-travel days took merely weeks to affect entire humanity.
It is also true that the same virus has brought the industry down as this report from FlightRadar24 shows in the following graph.
YES, the Dark Blue Line is 2020 !
And now that the Sage of Omaha has spoken, none of us should have any doubt about where the Airlines are headings
“The world has changed for the airlines. And I don’t know how it’s changed and I hope it corrects itself in a reasonably prompt way. When we sell something, very often it’s going to be our entire stake: We don’t trim positions.”
Air Travel in India is always anxiety inducing even more so with LCC like Indigo. With Covid-19 induced paranoia they would have an additional license to be even more nasty than usual. Be prepared for even more early arrivals at terminals, more directions to be compiled with and absolutely no responsive action from the ground staff and aircraft crew. And of course, you pay more for this “pleasure of Go Indigo“. If the flight is cancelled , you get a mandatory credit shell so that you can not escape the “Indigo Experience“. But what can the customer do when all other airlines who have other half of market share also behave like the market leader. Silver lining is that you would be spared the horrendous in-flight food.
About a decade back, United Airlines had to take a bitter pill following the outrage when they damaged musical instrument of a band traveling with them. I am pretty sure we would have many stories in the post Covid-19 era.
Covid- 19 is likely to be the accelerant for dramatic changes in travel and tourism. One of the things, I would see in near future is the increase in leisure travel while business travel dwindles. Already the FAAMNG have more or less declared WFH to be “New Normal”. In an environment where employees are unlikely to go to their offices or even client’s sites, it would be difficult to imagine Human Resource Travel Desk authorising business travel. For leisure travellers, first priority would be avoiding crowded environments meaning public transport involving prolonged exposure to others is ruled out. This also means that exclusive personal experiences within driving distances would take precedence over touristy destinations. We might also see more cross-platform collaboration to encourage new and mostly virtual experiences. For example, AirBnB and Bumble have collaborated where Bumble is curating couple experiences on AirBnB including activities like Tarot Readings !
So, swipe right ! And find new ways to engage with your travel and accommodation partners !
Ironically, New Luxury in the travel and tourism industry would be “cleanliness”. Customer would need assurance that the rooms have been sanitised and they have minimal chance of infections. This is where the organised travel and accommodation sector including Star Hotels are going to make a difference. With their well-established protocols and PR machinery , they should go full throttle to assure their guests of the New Normal. Many industry players might follow health advisory related to minimum buffer period between guest using a specific asset. Sharing economy platforms in travel and tourism might suffer from lack of standardised protocols as well as non-compliance by their partners.
Flexibility in payment and cancellations is going to be hygiene factor necessary for the survival of travel and tourism. More platforms would fill in the gaps where the Airlines fail especially the refunds when the travel plans are disrupted.
AirBnB moved fast on creating an extraordinary policy whereby they uniquely committed $250 million to help support hosts who were affected by COVID-19-related guest cancellations. This was necessitated as AirBnB allowed customers to cancel their bookings which caused outrage amongst the host community. Of course, they had to postpone their IPO and also go to market to raise additional capital. Unfortunately , this may not be available for many smaller and inefficient players in the industry and we might see many more businesses closing down.
Going forward, businesses especially in travel and tourism would have to reimagine the customer journey and experience through triple lenses of Safe (Mostly Contactless), Seamless (Mostly Digital) and Sensitive (Mostly Empathetic).
OTW
Over the Weekend, I spoke with many of my friends who had trekked with me in past and we nostalgically recalled our fond memories of those journeys. Of course, many of these journeys were very uncertain , extremely arduous, and at times unpleasant. It also meant facing and solving problem after problem but let me tell you that some of these may have been the most meaningful journeys I may ever do.
I remembered a quote from an interesting movie titled “Into the Wild”. The lead character Christopher McCandless may be quotes Tolstoy and says “If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed”.
And follow his advise when he says - "When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it." And if it related to an exotic location that you can not travel during Covid-19, AirBnB and Zoom are here to help ! Just download the Windows views from AirBnB homes and use them as your Zoom Room Background.
And please remember that there is no ‘How or When do I do it’ there is only ‘if I would do it ‘ !
I Love You.
Shailendra
PS- Please do not get complacent as the threat of Covid 19 still persists. Stay Safe.
Backpacking and low cost travel seems like a dream now. Yesterday only I was talking to a friend who had planned a trek for this week. Just to pacify him and add fun to the conversation, I suggested the zoom virtual background option 😁
Finally, I am back after the turmoil. 😄
Your newsletters are informative as always.
The United breaks guitars is hilarious and I literally agree that post Covid-19, we would actually have to bear the tantrums of airlines.
I have never been on a trek. After I started running (also saw you trekking), I really longed to go on a trek. Hopefully, I will be able fulfil this desire of mine someday 😀
Travelling and trekking also reminded me of running event organisers. India has seen a lot of people driving themselves towards fitness part 3-4 years. The running events (Go Heritage run etc) or marathon events are slowly gaining popularity as well. So Coach, how do you see this business getting affected?