It’s March 2020, and we’ve heard about some cold or flu that’s travelling around the world – we think our friends who want to buy masks, hand sanitisers, and the like as overly paranoid but little do we know, that in a few weeks, everything would change and we wouldn’t see the world as it was in the same way. Almost 7 million deaths later and an economy affected by inflation, travel has been one of the most badly hit industries.
3 years on: how does it look now?
Is it the end of cheap travel?
Flights, hotels, and accommodation have got much more expensive, in an attempt to make up for the losses of the pandemic, fight the battle with inflation, and contend with rising oil and gas bills.
Or having been stuck at home, do we have more desire to travel more? Scrolling through social media, we have been able to catch a wonderful glimpse of the nature, views, and culture the world can provide. Why not chase our dream now… while we can?
Tourism has returned to its pre-pandemic level: just over 10 % of global GDP. How have travel habits changed? Do we travel closer to home? Do we think more responsibly having learnt to be more globally aware during the pandemic?
While people are feeling more comfortable visiting cities again, they are choosing to travel in smaller groups using more intimate forms of transportation, such as rental cars. Some cities have even seen a rise in tourism since 2019, e.g. Warsaw has witnessed a 14 percent rise, is this because people decide to make smaller trips closer to home?
Domestic travel is also on the rise. In Europe, I can imagine this has been looking where one can affordably travel, within one’s country or not far from the border. Living in Berlin with easy and cheap transport routes to Poland, it is understandable to see why cities like Warsaw have seen a rise in tourism. Germany’s new 49 Euro ticket has provided a great new incentive to discover more of Germany.
Really interesting