The urge to take off.
That’s what a lot of people are feeling these days after months of being at home during the pandemic.
Businesses in the hospitality industry are eager for tourists to return. “Welcome. Enjoy the neighborhood. Come in. Have a nice meatball,” joked Nick Varano, owner of Strega in Boston’s North End.
As the vaccines for COVID-19 roll out, Varano is feeling optimistic about 2021. “I think now that we have a little bit of sight into what the future holds with this vaccine that 2021 is going to be an amazing year.”
Brian Hoyt of TripAdvisor in Needham added, “The good thing is we know that there’s a considerable amount of pent up demand in the marketplace.”
A TripAdvisor survey found that 65% of travelers said they’re already planning a trip as soon as they believe it’s safe to leave home.
The distribution of vaccines is having a positive psychological effect on consumers. Hoyt says travel-related internet searches are on the rise. “We expect that’s probably going to start a domestic recovery first, and that will evolve into international travel as we get towards the back end of the year.”
Hoyt expects to see lots of promotional offers to entice travelers. He said 40% of their survey respondents said they expect to be worse off financially entering 2021. “What that means for the tourism industry is that they’re going to need to lure back customers with great offers and deals.”
Safety will remain the top priority for travelers.
Some airlines, like Delta, are experimenting with “travel corridors,” where a traveler is tested five days before a flight, and then again three days before boarding. A final test is administered upon landing. Successfully completing each of these steps allows a traveler to skip a quarantine.
“It’s really the idea of stacking tests, or sequential testing, to either capture any of those individuals that either falsely test negative initially and or may have converted in that three day period when they had their initial test performed,” explained Dr. Stefen Ammon, an emergency room physician.
Delta currently operates this system between Atlanta and Amsterdam and is looking to add other routes.
Another idea is to require the use of a vaccine passport, an app that provides proof a person got a shot.
“People will start to feel more comfortable being in crowds and around other people again and that’s when the industry will once again start to thrive,” said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
That can’t happen soon enough for Sheridan. “The city of Boston has been hit harder than most because of the nature of the product that we have, and urban destination. Very dense.”
Tourism is one of the biggest sectors of the state’s economy.
Sheridan says it will be great when tourists return for Boston’s theaters and museums, but that will just be part of the solution for this beleaguered industry.
“Business travel is hugely important,” explained Sheridan. “It allows hotels to be able to predict what their season is going to be like, and they call that layering, they layer in the leisure travel on top of that, so one can’t exist without the other.”
Back on Hanover Street, Nick Varano is confident tourists will soon be filling his tables at Strega, enjoying his Italian specialties. “People have been thru a lot in 2020. I think they’re looking forward to 2021, and looking forward to traveling, to experiencing things that they’ve always wanted to do, and been able to do forever.”
One of the challenges for the entire hospitality industry will be getting back up and running to meet the increased demand.
Many restaurants are going into hibernation. Airlines and hotels have laid off or furloughed hundreds of thousands of employees.
Consider Disney: 32,000 workers at their theme parks in Orlando and Anaheim have been let go during the pandemic.
The year ahead
A hot housing market and a looming eviction crisis for renters
Service-related jobs slow to return, while flexible work policies will be the norm
Small businesses, restaurants key to local economic recovery