By Christopher Elliott | July 21, 2021
It’s the biggest travel question of the summer, and maybe of the year: When will travel go back to normal?
We’re not there yet. Travel restrictions remain in place. Prices are unpredictable. And people are nervous.
“I would not call this normal,” says Sertan Kabadayi, a marketing professor at Fordham University. “I think ‘somewhat normal’ would be a better descriptor. Even though we can travel more than last year and feel better about it in general, there is still a lot of uncertainty, confusion and even anxiety created by ever-changing travel requirements and restrictions regarding testing, vaccination and quarantine.”
Will we ever get there? That all depends on who you are – and how you define “normal.”
“Ultimately, we will get back to a pre-pandemic normal,” predicts John Lovell, president of Travel Leaders Group. “We’re almost there.”
Things are starting to feel a little more normal. According to TripActions, a travel management company, a plurality of leisure travelers (23 percent) are making their bookings more than 50 days in advance of the travel date. “That suggests a high degree of confidence in the long-term outlook for travel,” says Kelly Soderlund, a spokeswoman for the company. Last year, roughly the same number of people were making their reservations on the same day as travel, she says. Just 13 percent made their bookings more than 50 days in advance.
Read the full article at Yahoo Life.