Pandemic's New Normal: How the Vision of Travel Industry Leaders Can Be Applied in Opening Other Economic Sectors

This past January 7th was a day I will likely never forget as an ominous headline in The New York Times caught my attention. It proclaimed that “China Grapples with Mystery Pneumonia-Like Illness.”

Now, more than six months later, that mystery disease – COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that has impacted the world unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes – has claimed the lives of more than 600,000 globally, including 140,000 here in the United States. More than 14.5 million have now been infected worldwide with more than a quarter of those right here in our country – and there is no let up in the current rate of new infections.

As business leaders, perhaps the greatest mystery we face is just how long the pandemic will last and how we should navigate these perilously fraught waters. Nonetheless, it is absolutely critical for us to begin charting a course – if we have not done so already – for the “new normal,” whatever that will ultimately be.

Over the course of the past half year, few economic sectors were hit as early or arguably as devastatingly as the travel industry. Just three months ago at the height of lockdowns across the United States, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) logged a mere 87,534 individuals passing through airport security. Compare that with the 2,208,688 who were screened a year earlier on April 14, 2019, and you can only begin to comprehend the ripple impact that COVID-19 fears and precautions among the traveling public have had on the industry.

Multiply those dire statistics from air travel across other segments, and suddenly those ripples became more like tsunami waves crashing against the rest of the industry. Significantly fewer guests were entering hotels – if the properties were even open at all. Restaurants relying on business and leisure travelers were forced to shutter. Fewer road warriors were renting cars. Normally bustling convention and conference centers were closed. Empty cruise ships have been indefinitely moored at their ports of call. And at my company, Ovation Travel Group, where just last year we managed travel for over 300,000 business and leisure travelers, new sales evaporated nearly overnight and cancellations multiplied exponentially.

Three months after those low water marks, where do we stand as lockdowns had initially given way to staggered re-openings? Where are we, especially now that many states are pushing the pause button on re-opening in the wake of new spikes in COVID-19 cases confirmed in all too many new hotspots?

Reviewing TSA statistics, the number of passengers filing through airport screening has grown substantially from that low point in April and is now regularly over 700,000 per day. While the new totals are nearly 10 times what they were just three months ago, they remain just under 25% of where they had been one year earlier. Since air travel statistics are the leading indicator for the rest of the travel industry, this means that while the situation may be improving, things are still relatively bleak.

Even if the comfort level of Americans has grown and translated into increased travel bookings, there are additional factors posing significant new threats to the industry. These unprecedented circumstances are further compounded by the number of travel destinations that are now off-limits to U.S. travelers, particularly in the decisions by the European Union and the United Kingdom to close their borders to U.S. citizens now that COVID-19 is spreading here at its fastest rates yet. Ironically, while a minority of Americans feel their freedoms have been trampled upon simply because they are being asked to wear masks, their freedom to travel has been severely limited due in part to their refusal to follow proven practices to stem the spread of COVID-19.

I get that it’s easy to despair. While we know that the pandemic will subside someday somehow, it has become a depressing parlor game to contemplate just how many travel-related businesses will be left by the time that happens.

Visionary leaders look not only for green shoots and silver linings, but for ways to pivot and change course if necessary. They also look for opportunities to recast their enterprise amid rough waters.

Such needs to be the case for leaders within the travel industry. We must be prepared to turn on a dime when we are able to truly open up. In my company, we have been laying the groundwork for the travel industry’s eventual comeback since before we ever sent our employees to work from home during the pandemic.

Personally, I am naturally inclined to be an optimist. It’s why I continue holding out hope for breakthroughs, whether it is a vaccine – or at the very least, effective therapeutic drugs that can diminish the ravages of COVID-19 until a vaccine is proven effective. My sense of optimism is also why I have implored my team to think strategically on where we may have new opportunities to grow as well as how we can be best positioned once travel returns to some semblance of normalcy.

Crucially, this groundwork includes a lot of communications, not only internally with employees, but also with our customers, no matter how infrequently they may now be traveling. It is also incumbent upon us to communicate with myriad partners across each of the various segments of our industry.

Once travel returns, companies like ours – along with all other players across each of the industry’s vital segments, as well as destinations themselves – must be in a position to assuage our collective clients’ concerns and fears about the travel experience itself. We must be able to demonstrate that from the moment travelers first set off for the airport to the time they enter their hotel rooms, that every possible consideration has been made to mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19.

They must be able to “see” the clean. While cleaning and sanitization procedures were formerly hidden from public view, it has never been more important to place these on full display for the traveler to see. Employing social distancing practices, providing readily available hand sanitization stations, and requiring the use of face masks inside airports, airplanes and common areas of hotels and cruise lines are just some of the simple common sense approaches that travel suppliers can take to provide added peace of mind.

But it’s not just enough that the traveler actually sees and experiences these changes. It is critically important that these practices and procedures are communicated fully to the traveler long in advance and that they either remain in place through the time of travel, or are further strengthened. As part of my company’s efforts to be better positioned on the other side of this crisis, this is the top reason why we are working with each of our trusted travel partners. We need to be able to reassure our clients and restore their confidence in the travel experience.

Removing any lingering concerns around enhanced safety precautions will bolster traveler confidence. Only after each travel industry segment fully communicates how they are increasing hygienic practices to the benefit of their guests will we ever be able to effectively reopen.

With the travel sector’s groundwork already well under way, other industries can take a page from ours to leave no mystery about their care for employees and clients alike. The earlier we all acknowledge the science around the pandemic and commit as business leaders to provide true peace-of-mind around health and safety, the sooner our economy can truly open with confidence.