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How Travel Companies Can Survive The COVID-19 Crisis
With the world going through a partial lockdown due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the travel industry seems to be the most hit. It is no more business as usual for a lot of businesses and founders are going through huge stress due to the unexpected outcome of the year.
The travel industry has experienced a dwindling demand for their services as they receive a large number of flight cancelations in the past few weeks. So many countries have placed a travel ban or restriction, suggesting that things are not likely to be back to normal anytime soon.
In light of these developments, how can travel companies survive the pandemic and come out stronger?
Pilots, air hostesses, booking staff, and other travel workers are temporarily out of their jobs as many travel companies have suspended their operations until this pandemic is over. This indicates the suspension of any interaction with customers until the staff has been made to resume work again.
However, as a founder, totally suspending interaction will hurt your brand and make it difficult to bounce back when the pandemic is over. Therefore, the best way to survive the pandemic is to keep on engaging your customers regardless of the current situation. There are numerous ways you can engage your customers and some of them are highlighted below.
Virtual Travel
People can’t travel the world due to the pandemic? No problem. This is the time for you to embrace virtual reality and hack into innovative technology.
You can create an app for travel enthusiasts to travel the world from the comfort of their homes. With the global lockdown and travel bans due to COVID-19, virtual reality (VR) may be the only escape for travel companies.
Although a VR experience may not be as great as the real-life experience, it can give travel enthusiasts the feeling of being there and keep them company during the lockdown. As each day progresses, people are at a loss on what else to do with their time and this might just be the next thing to keep them busy.
Travel World VR, a New-Jersey based company has actually created a tool to help travel companies market or promote travel destinations. Since investing in creating an independent tool might be expensive and take a long time to complete, you may subscribe to this for the meantime.
Some other companies have also invested in creating virtual travel experiences for people around the world. One of the simplest tools created over the years is , which allows individuals to own their own VR headset and travel to anywhere in the world — from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and any other place you can think of.
Google Earth VR is actually free for users, making it a probable cheaper choice to partner with. The most amazing part of embracing virtual travel is that it will remain a useful marketing tool even after the virus is conquered.
Therefore, investing in virtual reality is a great investment during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a report by , the managing director of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said that it would take up to 10 months for the tourism sector to return to normal once the outbreak is under control. This means that there will be an increasing appetite for VR tourism in the next few months.
Also, psychologists have discovered in one of their that it takes an average of 66 days to form a habit. This means that VR tourism might not be going anywhere even after the pandemic.
Most people spend a larger part of their day on social media due to this pandemic. Therefore, this is the time to improve your social media interaction and engage your customers in discussions.
This could be a post asking people to share their travel experience through pictures, videos, or stories. You can also encourage people across the globe to share pictures or videos of views from self-isolation.
That way, people from all over the world can discover new places and beautiful views from other people’s lenses. There are numerous content ideas to engage your audience during this pandemic. All you have to do is be creative. Educate your customers about staying safe by dropping useful tips regularly. So many tips on staying safe are being dropped online daily and I’m sure most people are tired of it already.
However, this doesn’t prevent you from educating your customers. Go beyond preventive measures by educating them on what to do if they were unfortunate to contract the virus.
Also, besides going the conventional way of educating people through publishing content, you can also embrace innovative ways like creating a COVID-19 themed mobile game.
Social Media
Interaction
Educate Your Customers
The pandemic has no doubt disrupted what this year was supposed to be about for your travel company. However, tough times will not last forever.
Your goal as a company in the travel sector is to make sure that you are ready to bounce back stronger when the pandemic is over.
Credit: Anofiu Jelailah