How The Travel Industry Is Responding To Covid-19 With Resilience And Robust Strategies

The Coronavirus has considerably reduced the momentum of the travel industry.Being a significant contributor to many national economies, Tourism has faced immediate and immense shocks in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which has had a toll on the wider economy.

Despite these challenges it is important to understand that in the near future, people will inevitably begin traveling once more. Travel has always bounced back no matter the crisis! The manner in which brands respond now and the way they connect with travelers during these tricky times will decide how rapidly business is able to recover. You need to give your travel business the most ideal chance to endure through COVID-19 and go on to flourish once this crisis has died down. You can leverage the reduced speed in travel as an opportunity to fortify your organization various ways. Travel businesses need to analyze current ways of working, inventory and products, digital infrastructure and customer service to reconceptualize your business for the time when the demand bounces back.

Connect with customers to stay top of mind

Even as numerous travel businesses are lowering budgets to conserve cash, they should remember that marketing is more vital than ever. As they are essential parts of their local communities, travel companies need to continue to seek various ways to partake actively in the COVID-19 response. For instance, one airline company is flying medical volunteers for free while a top hotel is offering free rooms for healthcare workers. Research has found that businesses will be able to accelerate their post-COVID-19 recovery by building brand value and awareness while the crisis is going on.

Reassess your competitive landscape

As different parts of the world work to curb the spread of the COVID-19 on different timelines, it’s understandable that recovery will not be uniform. Accordingly businesses will need to reconsider what the competitive landscape may look like once it all bounces back. Though the timeline may be difficult to predict, businesses need to make strides now to be prepared to gain market share, put forward new products and penetrate new markets.

Go digital and optimize your contact center

With customers across the world are altering and cancelling their travel, company contact centers are experiencing exceptionally high spikes in volume. Businesses can lower call center volumes by optimizing their digital touchpoints. This will make it simpler for guests to cancel and rebook through digital portals. Your business would need to blend call center and digital teams and automate the use of natural language processing tools to audit calls and streamline customer demands smoothly across channels.

Put health and wellbeing at the center via “no touch” technologies

In a post-COVID-19 world, health and wellness protocols will be mandatory. Anyone travelling will expect elevated standards to safeguard their health and wellbeing. Digital tools will facilitate and increase “no touch” options. Guests and travelers will significantly increase their usage of mobile technology all through their travel journey from boarding passes and passports right up to keyless room entry and digital hotel checkouts. Hotel owners would need to speed up their investments in “no touch” technologies, for instance, gesture controls, automation, and biometrics in an effort to personalize digital interactions at the same time adhering to social distancing.