The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world of travel. From hand sanitisers in hotel lobbies, to cabin crew and passengers wearing masks; localised lockdowns, to contact tracing apps – the past two years have seen a number of health and safety enhancements implemented throughout the journey.
As we continue to face the virus in 2022, governments and brands within the travel ecosystem continue to regularly adapt policies to suit the ever-changing COVID landscape. In India, for example, travel bubbles with countries including the United States, Germany and France were set up.
Since then, India has formed further travel bubble agreements with 10 other nations, including the United Kingdom, Canada, the Maldives, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Japan to mitigate a host of restrictions including quarantine on arrival. With the emergence of the Omicron variant, India, like the rest of the world has been changing travel requirements to accommodate the fluid situation. To ensure a safe return to travel and global recovery, cooperation between global governments and travel industry bodies will remain key.
With this ongoing flux, what does the travel recovery look like in the future? According to a recent industry report by Collinson, created in partnership CAPA – Centre for Aviation (CAPA) and featuring views from over 400 C-Suite and senior travel industry experts, 37% of respondents now expect a ‘full recovery’ to 2019 pre-pandemic levels in 2023 – compared to 35% in the April 2021 survey. The research also revealed the extent to which different elements – from COVID-19 testing to the roll out of vaccinations – will impact the recovery of the travel industry.
TESTING TO REMAIN IN 2022
Testing is also a core component for introducing reduced quarantine or even quarantine-free travel. Despite changing rules, COVID-19 testing protocols have been a constant factor in the past two years. The Collinson x CAPA research also revealed that over half of industry experts (54%) expect robust Covid-19 testing to remain key to re-opening borders until the end of 2022, with a further 26% expecting this until the end of 2023.
In 2021, vaccine roll-outs helped improve the COVID-19 situation in many countries across the globe. However, public resistance to the vaccine in certain markets, coupled with the inequality of vaccines, remains a major hurdle.
Global herd immunity is a key driver of the recovery of global travel. Vaccination rates have risen around the world, developed countries are ahead in the race while much of the world is yet to get vaccinated. About 59% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine — but only 8.8% of those in low-income countries received at least one dose, according to data collated by Our World in Data.
” Despite changing rules, COVID-19 testing protocols have been a constant factor in the past two years.”
– Priyanka Lakhani, Senior Vice President, Commercial EMEA, Collinson.
CLOSE COLLABORATION
Robust protocols around vaccination programme roll outs, testing, health and safety measures, and minimal contact while travelling are set to remain in 2022 and are crucial to rebuilding traveller confidence. The desire for travel is still there, with domestic travel in markets such as India picking up at speed between lockdowns.
But for travel recovery to be achieved and maintained, especially for long-haul travel which has been badly hit by the pandemic, continued collaboration between governments and the wider travel ecosystem remains critical. As per Collinson’s APAC Travel Recovery Report Vol.2, 72% respondent shared the view that traveller vaccine documentation is of vital importance for travel revival.
It’s clear we are still a long way from the same freedom and level of travel we enjoyed pre-pandemic. But we start 2022 feeling positive that huge progress has been made – and even closer collaboration between governments and the wider travel ecosystem will be critical to drive further travel recovery. 2022, as the previous two years have shown, will more than likely see the travel industry and governments having to flex and adapt, but with vaccines, testing and strong partnerships within the industry, we can all hope that better times lie ahead.
