Why I Am Optimistic About Travel
Some of you might know I run Linger — or at least was till everything came to a standstill in March. So do read this with the bias assumed.
But I wasn’t quite feeling this way a few weeks ago — travel everywhere has taken a massive hit, and there has been a lot of gloom all around. The thought process has taken a little bit of thinking, a lot of reading and talking to people to firm up.
But now I think travel could improve a lot in multiple ways — for travellers as well for the smaller guys offering the deeper experiences that travel should be about and that need time to peel the layers off and explore.
Living With Corona-virus
There will of course be lots of changes in the short term, and we will get used to certain precautions by default. We’ve already rolled out sanitizing processes and audits, and safe distancing norms at the properties. Thankfully, the low density and lots of available space always meant this was easy for us.
We also have be aware that most of these places have been less likely to be exposed, so the risk is probably more the other way round when folks travel from more crowded locations to these, and we need measures to ensure the staff stays safe as well.
Finally, it is likely this will turn into another flu strain we get used to/have a vaccine or medication to manage, and live with. We might even go back to living in “touch” with the planet like we were meant to :)
Remote, Uncrowded Locations
There’s been a lot of mention of this in travel webinars and discussions. At Linger we of course always thought that the best experiences of a place — its life, flora/fauna, culture, food etc — are away from the crowded centres. We’d really love to see this happen more!
Longer Breaks and Workations!
Remote working, WFH were options for a few and we’ve always had a few guests take multi-week breaks at one or two locations and explore the area, get involved in the farm, make friends with the village etc while they worked there.
With almost everyone getting some level of comfort with working remotely and with organizations starting to think in terms of official policies around this (it helps them reduce operational costs and improve operational efficiency a lot!) — we see a lot of folks starting to travel for longer periods of time and to places further away than the usual 3-day-weekend dash afforded earlier. Of course, the occupancy levels would improve and costs and prices for the longer stays would be lower on a pro-rated basis. Travel would feel a lot more refreshing, relaxed, overhead costs and effort a lot lower and even the work would get a creative boost at these places.
We asked this question recently and got a phenomenal response to it!
Reconnecting With Nature
Travel as a pure play consumer activity is nice enough, but it becomes a lot more meaningful when there’s a deeper reconnect with nature, or history, or participation in something useful locally. With Covid making a lot of people aware of their relationship with the planet and as people start taking longer breaks, we think this might start finding a place in the “to do lists” comprising places to visit and sights to see alone.
And of course, Lower Footprint
We have always talked to, learned from and worked with our guests very openly to not just lower the negative impact that tourism today has, but in fact try turning it into a net positive force. Many of our guests have not only taken this as a responsibility, but indeed suggested and demonstrated to us new ways of extending this idea. As folks make it “home” for a bit longer, we hope to push this to new levels.
We’re in fact exploring how folks could come add value/skills/services to the farms, or to the village and in turn get hosted for a much lower cost. If we find a lot of this happening, travel could indeed turn into a major positive agent of change.
Looking forward to all of you on a lot many more longer, nicer, happier, productive Linger breaks!
