Traveling in the new world will involve more processes to ensure safety for all. For the past year, traveling has been reduced, but now 2021 offers new promise.
We spoke with a travel industry expert who specializes in helping meeting and event planners find hotel venues around the world for the past 17 years, to get her perspective on the state of travel.
Associations, corporate meetings, sports industry and wedding planners were looking for rooms for their clients steadily until March 2020. Once the March lockdown went into effect worldwide, groups started calling to reschedule their events (2020-2021) due to the unpredictability of the pandemic. From that time on, booking cancellations continued through September. The UN World Tourism Organization reported a 56% drop in global tourism between January and May 2020.
Since September, booking cancellations stopped. One reason was that smaller groups were open to relocating and rescheduling their events, however, larger groups opted to postpone their travel plans until the vaccine is out.
Other meeting planners are in the same situation and do not currently have bookings until later in 2021. Currently, hotel partners have some business but are not having a number of bookings they’ve seen previously.
The good news is that efforts are being made to revive global travel. Recent developments include implementation of a digital health passport and a vaccine. The health passport will store medical information in an app and confirm travelers meet a country or region’s travel restrictions.
For traveling in this brave new world of travel, our travel expert recommends travelers “know what you’re getting into.”
This means knowing what your target region or country’s restrictions for entry are and what your contract with the hotel or event space means. Look for cancellation or missing clause verbiage or it could be in the hotel or venue’s favor and could cost you more than you expected.
Traveling will return for people seeking adventure, attending a destination event or other travel reason in 2021. Be sure to plan ahead and know the details of what you’re getting into to ensure an enjoyable trip and minimize unexpected travel “surprises.”
If you’re planning an elopement or intimate corporate event, sign up to our waiting list and we will send your invitation when bookings become available or drop us a line and tell us more about your special event.
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