Why Travel Will Never Be the Same

Man, I am so excited to travel again

But before I get too excited, I have to come to the realization that travel will never be the same

Let me just put this into perspective really quick. I just read a report that said 121 million jobs in travel will have been lost by the end of COVID-19

meaning 121 million people who worked in travel now don't. And some of those people might get hired back once travel returns

but with that much turnover, travel will be different. The CEO of Royal Cruises says that this is equivalent to like 9-11

in that it will change travel forever. For the first time, airport security will become a direct federal responsibility

Now, I was super young and didn't travel a bunch during 9-11, but even still, I'm aware of some of those major changes

and COVID will be the same. But here's the deal. That's not necessarily a bad thing

In fact, some of these changes might actually be really good. There is a bunch of speculation

about what the new travel looks like. I was reading a report about like potentially

there being immunity passports where you have to show up to a country and show that you're immune from COVID-19

or you've been vaccinated. That's interesting and maybe we'll keep following that. but I've come up with a list of the six major things

that I think will certainly be a part of the new travel and how we can start to think differently about travel

to prepare for those things. So here they are. Number one, there's going to be a new

and enduring emphasis on healthy travel. I remember back in like February and March

when the borders started to become closed down and flights and everything became

this like totally off limits thing. And it just was so clear to everyone in the world that flying truly is what makes a pandemic go around the world

Travel was the culprit for all of the spread of COVID-19. In fact, most of the government policy around what we should do in response was to not travel, to shelter in place, to lock down

Travel is the driving force of something like a pandemic will stay in people's minds for many years to come

And so what you will see in the future is probably different procedures and etiquette within an airport context where you're really close to a bunch of people

You'll see an emphasis on cleanliness. You'll see an emphasis on mask wearing

You'll see an emphasis on temperature checks and health checks. If you travel in Asia, like in Hong Kong or Taiwan, you already see a lot of these things

And I used to go and be like, well, why are they checking my temperature when I come into their country

And now I understand why. And I think the rest of the world will now adopt this

It's because of this that we're actually working on a course around healthy travel and how you can better understand the different health dynamics within travel context so you can prepare for those

Number two, there is going to be a renewed focus on domestic travel, on travel in your backyard

I know that recently I've been feeling this. I've been going on like little road trips and exploring more close by because we can't fly

And I've been feeling this like deep appreciation for like, why do I need to fly across the whole world for a vacation when like a two hour road trip can provide a really interesting adventure Check out this graph from Google which shows how much people are searching for the keyword camping near me Camping is having a major surge right now for obvious reasons I

believe that domestic travel like road trips and RVs and camping and national parks will experience

a major surge in interest that won't go away very soon. I've seen this as an opportunity to really

take advantage of some of the treasures we have here in the United States. I haven't been to most

of the national parks in the United States and it just seems like why do I need to fly to another

country when I could drive to a national park and have a really cool enriching experience

Number three, there is going to be a renewed awareness of the true cost of tourism

In recent decades, there is this thing called over-tourism where a really popular place like

Amsterdam or Hawaii gets so overrun that it ends up really disturbing and negatively affecting the

locals and their way of life. This is a really hard thing to stop because when there's a really

popular place, people will just come and come and suddenly there's businesses and economies that meet

the demand. And before you know it, you have over tourism and you can't really go back unless you

have a pandemic and the streets of Amsterdam look like this or the beaches in Hawaii look like this

There's this petition going around amongst tourism boards from different countries and

tour operators and resorts and a bunch of different travel-related entities that are

signing the petition to say, we will rebuild travel, but we're going to do it differently

and we're not going to do it at the expense of locals. And there are a ton of companies and places and tourism boards who have signed this petition

It is definitely becoming a thing. I don't know exactly what this is going to look like

It may be limited capacity in major museums like the Louvre. It may be limits on the number of hotel beds that a city can have for tourists

It may be a crackdown on Airbnb policy in cities. I don't know, but I know we need to be prepared for it

Let this be a reminder for all of us as travelers that tourism and travel is us walking on to

somebody else's turf, their home, where they live, where they have cultural roots, and

experiencing it for a little bit and then leaving. The people who live there have to live there still, and it is their day-to-day life that we are walking into

I think it's easy to forget that when the crowds are so big and we're just sort of there partaking in that culture

but I think we are going to see a much deeper priority on how does this affect the locals

Are the locals okay with this form of tourism? And if not, what can we do to stem the flow

I think this is probably going to mean less dense urban packing in to go up the Eiffel Tower

and a lot more going out and sort of having your own adventure outside of the city and exploring

things on your own. Which leads me to number four, a surge in personal, private, and self-guided travel

Large packed crowds are scary to people right now. In fact, lately I've been watching movies

where like there's people gathered in a restaurant, they're all super close, and I'm like, why aren't

they're wearing masks. Like what is going on? I have to remember like oh wait COVID doesn exist in this world That is a very visceral reaction that is threatening that will last for a very long time I think we gonna see much more discouraging of everyone crowding around

the really popular iconic destination and instead a bigger focus on somebody traveling to a place

and going out into the countryside or going out into a local area

that isn't the urban core or the center of a city where all the old buildings are and cool museums are

a deeper focus on what a local way of life is in a different country instead of just

the important landmarks. So this is the one I'm kind of excited about. For years, I have been

pretty frustrated and critical with this idea of traveling to a city and everyone hoarding around

the one museum that you have to see or you have to take a picture in front of to like post to

Insta. I just feel like that is such a reductionist way of seeing a place. And I think that now that

crowds are scary and that crowds are seen as disruptive to locals, you're going to see a lot

more emphasis on go out into the countryside and experience this country's culture in an authentic

way instead of just in a sort of touristic way. This is in fact the very reason we started Bright

Trip to say like instead of having a guidebook tell you exactly where to go or the most popular

places, why not empower yourself with knowledge about the story of a place? Be able to go out and

experience that place with a more informed point of view. Ramen is a creative dish

a platform for experimentation and innovation. In this course, we teach you everything you need

to know about transportation in London. We'll even help you understand some of Cape Town's

complex and often controversial history. And so our courses teach you about a place and teach you

kind of how to approach the food and how to approach etiquette and things like that, but

don't necessarily focus on you have to go to the places where all the crowds are gathering

together. And maybe I'm biased because this is the type of travel that I prefer and because

Bright Trip exists for this very purpose. But all the stuff I'm reading, all the reports from the

travel industry seem to agree that this is going to be a thing. And I guess we'll see. Next up is

something that has already had some momentum as a trend in travel, but I believe is going to speed

up. And that is sustainability within travel. There were some really compelling images that

came out during COVID-19. The cs of Venice suddenly crystal clear because there were no

tourists and boats muddying the waters. Or satellite data of carbon emissions over the

continent of Europe before COVID and after COVID and seeing the huge impact of no flights. Again

I think this is something that has already been on our consciousness to some degree, but we've sort of forgotten about it or sort of swept it under the rug. I think now with COVID-19 and these

really stark reminders. It has woken us up to like, do we really need to get on that flight

Is it worth the carbon cost of flying? I think a lot of companies will start to really question

whether or not they need to fly everyone for a conference or just do it remotely. And I think a

lot of travelers like us will really start to consider, is it worth it for me to fly across

the entire world to go on this vacation? And sometimes you decide it is worth it, but now

at least you'll do it in a way that has the environmental cost on your mind

I believe we also going to see a lot of the tourism industry cater to this trend Whether that is resorts that have a carbon neutral footprint meaning no footprint at all and they advertise that

So you can feel like you can go and experience that place without being totally indulgent from a carbon standpoint

or potentially more companies that offer to plant trees to help offset the emissions from your flight

There's a name for this that's sort of trending. It's called rejuvenative travel

It is travel that does not have such a stark disruptive impact

on the environment and contributing to global warming. And while it was a trend before

I think it's only going to speed up with this new rebuilding of the travel industry

I've been brainstorming for a while on a course about how to sustainably travel

It's kind of a big topic, so I don't really know how to like attack it, but I have a feeling that it would be a really useful course

And I think there's a lot there that we just need to dig into. So keep an eye out for that

Finally, I think that a major part of the new travel is going to be slower travel

So here's the way I think about this. Number one, you have a bunch of people

who are now remote workers. A lot of offices have said like, hey, we're not opening up again

We are now 100% remote. So you have a lot of people who have jobs

but are now totally location independent. They don't have to live anywhere. Mix that with a renewed focus on sustainability

and environmental impact. I think you are going to have people who are more interested in going to places

and staying there for two months or three months instead of just like a quick 10 day trip

and sort of embedding in the culture and starting to work from there because they're location independent now

and wanting to experience a place in a much deeper level. I've been talking to our friend, Nathaniel Drew

who is like a big slow traveler. In fact, he has published videos about slow travel

I'm calling what I do slow travel. And he lives this life and is potentially gonna make a course on slow travel

and everything he's learned from this process. So I'm actually really excited about that

I don't never done slow travel before, so I can't speak to it, but Nathaniel can

And there may be a Nathaniel Drew course on break trip in coming months

Okay, so the upshot here is travel is changing. There's some really big downsides

in the form of economic loss for people in communities, thousands, millions of jobs being lost

But there's also a major opportunity to change the way we think about travel

and to approach the rebuilding of this industry in a more sustainable, in a more locally minded

in a more empowering, knowledgeable way. And I believe that that's ultimately a good thing for the world, for communities around

the world and for our environment. So we're going to be here at Bright Trip making courses and keeping an eye out on all of these

things that are changing and making sure that you have the tools you need to go out and

have the best, most informed trip you possibly can. So thank you all for watching

If you don't know, Bright Trip is a platform we just started and we have a handful of really

useful courses. that library is growing all of the time. So check back, go to brighttrip.com slash courses

to check it out. You can always sign up for our newsletter too, which we always let you know when we drop a new course

So if you don't see the course you're looking for now, but want to be informed in case it comes out

sign up for the newsletter. I'll put the link in the description. And thanks for listening to my thoughts

about the new travel. I'm very curious to hear if anyone has feedback and I'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye