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Many of us can’t wait to travel again. We’re excited to fly in the skies, rides the rails, drive the roads, or bed down in hotels. (Or some combinations thereof!)
That time might come sooner than later for some of us who must travel for work.
Heck, you might be someone traveling now because your job mandates it.
Road warriors will be some of the first people traveling again when things start amping up again.
Are you nervous?
This piece by Skift’s Matthew Parsons brings up some interesting points.
“I won’t feel confident until a vaccine has been made available,” said frequent traveler Carolyn Pearson, who runs risk consultancy Maiden Voyage. “The lockdown has given us security and control over our environments but we have no such control over the cleanliness of hotels, transport hubs and aircraft. The prospect of being in a foreign ICU fills me with dread, which is sad given that the opportunity to travel has always contributed to my mental wellbeing.”
“ISOS and other risk companies are talking more about mental health than ever before. This is a virus that is creating serious mental health problems. Anxiety is going up, as well as depression for those people self-isolating who live alone,” added (Matthew Holman of Simpila).
Some of us may not have the luxury of waiting until there’s a vaccine. Our clients or employers may tell us when we’re traveling. And if we refuse, they’ll find someone else who will.
Then we’re out looking for jobs in a horrible market.
See the conundrum?
And that only plays into the anxiety element. If we believe what airlines tell us (because they always tell the truth, right? 😉 ), they sterilize the heck out of planes every night. But someone’s who carries COVID-19 could sit next to us, check us in a hotel, be a client we visit, etc.
“Can’t You Just Stay Home?”
Staying home won’t be an option for some of us with families to feed. I’ve already lost dozens of freelance jobs.
I may have to travel whether or not I want to. Obviously, I won’t put my family at risk. But I may have to make myself scarce at home when returning from trips.
What Do You Think?
I realize we’re at least still several weeks — if not a few months — away from the situation starting to improve. Assuming reduced job forces and remote work don’t claim our livelihoods, will you rush out to the airport? Or stay at home as long as possible?
Let’s discuss it in the Comments section.
Featured image: ©iStock.com/Chalabala
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I really am eager for travel to come back, but I’m also not in a hurry. I don’t see myself on an airplane until atleast august. Very strange to have no seat maps to check and things like that.
I don’t think people grasp the gravity of what we have created. Even if a vaccine comes along in 2021 there will be other flu viruses that follow. People also don’t yet understand the financial crisis that we have made either. Many tens of millions will lose jobs. This will impact investments, property values and whole sectors, not just individual businesses, will go out of business. Brick and mortar retailers and restaurants, as well as travel-related businesses (cruise lines, airlines, hotels, resorts, travel agencies), will be the hardest hit followed by REITs and eventually banks. In the USA we will start seeing a real impact in the next few weeks and most won’t actually understand what they are seeing until about Mid-July or August when unemployment and the $600 additional weekly UI stimulus is exhausted which will be followed by foreclosures on many homes this coming fall. Business travel many never return to the level it once was.
I don’t get all these posts saying ‘will you travel again’
A) some of us are still traveling every week. Nothing has changed for me. It’s mostly for pleasure, and I swapped some international trips for domestic in April…
But – like tens of thousands of Americans each day – I’m traveling on planes, trains, subways, Uber, etc.
So, some of us haven’t let fear decide what to do with our lives.
B) of course people will travel again in the same numbers as before. There is nothing more risky about travel now. Airlines and hotels will use cheap prices to build things back up, and by 2021, no one will notice.
Humans will wait for the media to tell them the next crisis to panic about, and CV will be forgotten quickly. Just like every other event that people get scared of for a short period of time before moving on.
Im an independent truck driver, contracted on with a decent sized foodservice company… so needless to say, I haven’t stopped moving.
Personally I’m excited to have some sense of normalcy return to the airlines. I live in Minnesota and my girlfriend lives in NYC for the time being. So I fly quite frequently to see her. She was going to be moving to Minnesota in may, but all that’s going on is probably going to delay that.
The one thing that’s been nice for me, I’ve been hitting very little traffic in the big cities, so I’ve had a lot less delays in route lately
I’m eager for some normality again. I have not curved any of my travels except where I was forced to (Vegas vacation, work conference in Tampa, Orlando trip to Disney World with the family). But when I need to fly, I don’t hesitate. I’ve even taken advantage of the relaxed change fee rules by booking out all of my travel for work in the month of March. Since my work travel schedule can change at the last minute, that was advantageous to me. Unfortunately, the fear is ramping up, and I may be forced to cancel many of those flights due to decisions from higher up.
But I want to travel again, and I want to do it tomorrow.
The intention is to travel, but unless the virus problem is resolved, nothing can be said.
Hopefully, the virus will end soon form the whole world. Then I’ll definitely travel.
“There is nothing more risky about travel now.” Hey Howard, you sound like one of the 70 who chartered that carefree spring break jet from Texas to Mexico last month or one of the 28 who brought COVID-19 back from the trip to UT Austin. Or one of the many asymptomatic students who flew back from Mexico on one of several commercial flights. You are right, in Bizarro World there is nothing more risky about travel now. Of course in the real world I experienced 17 days being stranded on a cruise ship with no COVID-19 or flu which was not allowed to enter any scheduled ports and then scrambled for a 3 leg flight itinerary from South Africa to Miami before the borders closed and all airplanes stopped flying. Had I flow 3 days later I would have been stranded for weeks in Istanbul. The reality is that there are many risks with travel today – risk of catching or spreading a very contagious illness, abbreviated travel, stranding, mandatory quarantines, and etc. Several friends are still stuck in various parts of the globe today. I guess in 2021 COVID-19 will be a distant memory – unless your retirement portfolio tanked, the tenants in your rentals bailed, your company failed, the value of your real estate got shaved, you lost your job or your employer never reopened. Best I can figure the ripples from COVID-19 will still be felt many years out. The only one not feeling those ripples in the future will be those in the temporary morgue trucks parked outside the hospitals.
Let’s get real – business as usual ain’t happening and if you travel without acknowledging or mitigating increased risk now you might get lucky, or you might wind up with your travel plans screwed, or you might get a free one-way ride in a truck.
I usually travel 2-3 times per month. I am very anxious to get back to that, and won’t be worried. I think my exposure to the virus is similar at the grocery store as it is in the skies, and I won’t be hesitant when travel resumes.