I may covet a closet filled with Prada and LV, but what I want IMMEDIATELY is the opportunity to safely travel outside my Zip Code. As I listen to MSNBC, FOX and CNN, I am warned of COVID variants, the emerging need for booster shots, the increased number of people getting sick and death lurking […]
Is Medical Tourism Safe?
At first blush, Medical tourism seems like a good idea. Travel to Thailand, UAE, or Germany – and while exploring the culture, food, wines and shops, make a stop at a local hospital for a tummy tuck, a kidney transplant or a hip replacement. What is Medical Tourism? Medical tourism (also known as health tourism, medical […]
Tourism and Pandemics: Do They Coexist?
What makes COVID-19 different from previous diseases in the speed and reach of the virus and the extent of the contagion beyond the traveler to the destination? Tourism is about movement. Pandemics are about stopping a spread. It does not matter if your news source is social media, television networks, or print, the link between […]
Ignorance, COVID-19 and Tourism
It is convenient to claim that the tourism industry has been brought to its knees because of COVID-19; however, the blame would be misplaced. The broader picture includes a confluence of culture, politics, science, and geography joined together by incompetent leadership resulting in the elimination of millions of jobs, billions in lost revenue, and a future that is […]
Airplanes: Part of the COVID-19 Problem
Since the beginning of COVID-19, many people have stopped flying! Why? The reasons are multiple and complex. Business travel has declined thanks to Zoom and other remote meeting options. International restrictions on American passports has put a crimp in leisure travel, and 24/7 media coverage of the virus and its spread has convinced us that the […]
Tourism Impasse: Cannot Stop or Go
The hotel, travel and tourism industry contributed to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably cruise lines and airlines; however large their role, these enterprises cannot be held accountable for its origin or for the irresponsible approach of governments and global health agencies to the identification, mitigation, control, and elimination of the virus. First Hide, […]
Sea Sick: Is Cruising Still a Happy Business?
The cruise industry before COVID-19 generated $134 billion in travel and tourism revenue prompting the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) to paint a rosy future. This was before COVID-19. Before COVID-19, almost 351 million posts with the tag #travel on Instagram were generated by happy voyagers. Passengers supported the wellness programs including oxygen bars, healthy […]
Will meetings return? Can hotels really open safely?… Or should we stay home?
Tourism Encounters a New Paradigm Up to, and including the beginning of 2020, many professionals in the hotel, travel, and tourism industry would have agreed that “bigger is better.” Demand created a need to build larger cruise ships, more and differentiated hotels, additional stadiums and convention centers, faster and bigger aircraft. There appeared to be […]
Why Tourism is part of the COVID-19 Problem?
VID-19 appeared first on the Chinese radar screen at the end of December 2019 and became part of the global dialogue at the beginning of 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a pandemic on March 12, 2020, and since then the virus has touched every aspect of the world economy including but […]
Tourism Will Reboot When Industry Faces COVID-19 Reality
Invisible But Deadly: COVID-19 When you can see it, there is no challenge to keeping surfaces clean and sanitized. Find dark particles on the desk top from construction, dust bunnies hiding in corners that escaped the vacuum, cobwebs on windows that have not been opened in weeks, wine stains on the rug from the party […]