10 Trends to Expect with Coronavirus Era Travel and Tourism

What will the coronavirus era of travel and tourism look like? As places like the Winchester Mystery House, the Crescent Hotel and the Old Joliet Prison have announced their re-openings, I’ve watched with interest to see what sort of new procedures they’re each implementing.

Here are 10 trends I’ve identified so far.

1. Social Distancing

We’re all familiar with this by now, aren’t we? At many destinations, people traveling together will be allowed to get as close as they want, but separate parties will be asked to stay six feet apart.

This one sort of sets the stage for all the other trends. Places everywhere have to figure out how to accommodate proper social distancing measures.

2. Masks

Whether you agree with wearing them or not, most places are going to require you to wear them. Not all, though.

Take the Liberty Tree Tavern in Elgin, Texas, for example. They will actually refuse service to anyone wearing a mask.

But it looks like going forward most tourist attractions will require masks, especially when social distancing is more challenging. (Like if you have to share an elevator or utilize common areas like lounges and lobbies.)

However, I hope more places follow the example of the Crescent Hotel and create masks for guests. Weird as it may seem that’s the new sort of souvenir I’d now like to collect! What about you?

Sidebar: Speaking of masks, check out the masks I’ve added to the Spirited Quarantine Style list of the Skarepoorium. Sadly, most must be coming from China because it’s a month –or more– delivery time, but I had to add them because I want one of each! Also, in the spirit of full disclosure: if you happen to buy a mask from the list, Amazon is one of our affiliates and we may earn a commission.

3. Temperature Checks

We can expect to see mass transit and modes of transportation –airplanes, trains, cruises, buses, etc.– implementing temperature checks before we’re allowed to board with other passengers.

4. Smaller Group Sizes

In an effort to make social distancing easier, group sizes will be limited.

Some places with guided tours, like the Old Joliet Prison, are limiting tours to between 8 and 10 people. Some places are also keeping tour groups to people within the same households and not co-mingling strangers.

5. Timed Visits

Many of us schedule visits in our travel calendars to various tourist destinations, but we’re also pretty flexible about it and allow for wiggle room to adjust our plans.

For instance, when we jaunted to Vegas we knew we wanted to visit Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum, but we didn’t know exactly which day we’d go.

Are the days of drop-in visits for impromptu sight-seeing excursions over? Perhaps.

To help maintain social distancing at various places, many places are instituting timed visits, not just as far as picking which date but also a specific time.

Alcatraz island is closed right now, but normally you pick not only the day you’ll visit but you also can also choose a specific departure time for the ferry that takes you to the island. Miss it and you’re at the mercy of available spaces on later ferries, which means if they’re all full, you’re not getting to Alcatraz.

When it was open to promote the movie, the IT Experience had timed entries too. Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf exhibit is currently closed, but I want to say they also utilize timed visits to control how many people are inside at a given time.

6. Limited Hours

Much like grocery and big box stores adjusted their hours to give employees time to stock and clean, places might limit their hours too.

For instance, the Winchester Mystery House is operating on reduced hours and the Crescent Hotel is only accepting guests certain days of the week.

7. Contactless 

“Social distancing” became the buzz word of the coranavirus era. “Contactless” is becoming the buzz word for the coronavirus era travel and service industry.

From tickets to maps and brochures, expect to rely even more on your mobile devices to acquire and use tickets to access destinations and get info about them once you’re there.

8. Right to Refuse Service 

So far I’ve only seen the Crescent Hotel reserve the right to refuse to accommodate anyone from a state that the Arkansas health department has deemed a hot spot.

However, who’s to say other places won’t adopt such policies? Particularly if states stay open and if other waves hit. (Because do you think based on how this first lockdown went that anyone will do that again?)

9. Cancellation and Refund Policies

Coronavirus has definitely made people more aware of cancellation policies. Some events and locations have since adopted more flexible policies, but not all.

It’s maybe even more important than ever to read the fine print and be aware of “cancel by” deadlines.

It’s also good to be aware of whether refunds will be issued partially, fully, or rolled over to another event.

I noticed a lot of paracons didn’t issue refunds for events that were rescheduled during the height of coronavirus lockdown. If they were canceled they did, but a lot of organizers found themselves on the hook financially to locations who didn’t let them out of contracts and didn’t issue them refunds, so the best they could do was roll people’s tickets over to a rescheduled time.

What happens if people can’t attend on the rescheduled date? I guess the hope is you’ll find someone to buy your ticket. This is an issue I want to research more actually.

10. Travel Insurance

More travelers might try to financially protect their trips by buying travel insurance.

When we cruise we always buy it. Luckily we weren’t on a boat when coronavirus struck. I’m not sure the insurance we normally get would’ve covered an abrupt halt to our trip and any hotel stays we may have needed or last-minute airfare to get home. I usually choose insurance that refunds at least most, if not all, of our money in case we have a last-minute cancellation due to my husband’s job.

However, going forward I’ll also search for insurance that covers as much as possible in this time of coronavirus era travel.

Check-In

Have you scheduled a summer getaway? Have you noticed any coronavirus era travel changes?