Has COVID-19 changed the way you will travel?

I remember going to my hometown on every holiday as it took only 4 hours by trains and 1 hr by air. Also, when you have a kid with you these does of transport become easy. But since the COVID epidemic, things have changed a lot. The common modes of transport like - air/ rail or cabs look bit challenging when going with a kid - who understand no hygiene norms and can touch anything making the trip difficult till it ends.

As the world faces this epidemic, most of the airlines and Govt. organizations have made hygienic as #1 factor for traveling. Diff. initiatives have been take to ensure safe journey for travels. But the question remains are travelers actually feeling safe while traveling?

There have been a lot of new trends adopted by airlines or hotels to help ensure safe travels:

• IOT has been utilized to help us in these critical times. Use of robots at airports for thermal screening has been observed, seamless integration with reservations systems & camera vision. The physical contact has been reduced and online web check-in, self baggage drops / abrading passes, baggage info via SMS are the ‘new’ norms for today’s travel
• Apps like Aarogya Setu have to be enabled by passengers to ensure they are safe while traveling. Also, the traditional methods seem gone with new measures being tested
• Health checks are conducted, social distancing, PPE / hygienic kits are provided at boarding, in flight sanitation & sanitizers are here to stay.
• Regular use of masks to prevent virus spread will be a continuous practice for a longer period
• Blocking middle seats have been done by most of the USA airlines like Delta, American Airlines or United Airlines to maintain social distancing
• Flexible booking option has also been introduces to entrust travelers in buying air tickets
• Also, Hotels have added hygienic measures to ensure safety of travelers by providing cleanliness measures, sanitizers, thermal checks, additional room cleaning services etc.
• Though the corrective measures have been taken but it looks that domestic travel will stay against international travel for a year or so
• According to a U.S. Travel Association survey, people feel more comfortable traveling in personal vehicles & staying in vacation rentals than they do taking flights or cruises & staying in hotels.
• These all considerations have also highly impacted the economies and business across the travelers industry - enhancing layoffs and lower budget availability with travelers

Hence, it will be also important to observe if people would like to travel and when in midst of lower salaries or economical budget constraints.