So it very quickly goes from safety to economic security. MC: We talked early about the bad habits, and even the aggressive actions, passengers have picked up over the past 18 months.
Do you feel like there are any positive habits that passengers are forming during this time? SN: So I do think that the word has gotten out that you probably need to give yourself a few more minutes when you're coming to the airport.
Because there's going to be unknowns. There's going to be hold ups at security. There is going to be a all kinds of things that may delay your ability to get to the gate and have your stress level pretty high.
I do think that people are taking that in a little bit and incorporating that into their travel experience. I would just say right now they're recognizing that the airlines are not, in some cases not going to be able to provide every things.
So we don't have all the concessionaires back up and running for example. And we also have cut back on the service for COVID reasons because the more interaction that you have, the more that you have people taking their masks down while they're eating or drinking, the more likely that you have opportunity there for spread.
And so in order to keep everyone safe, we don't have the same level of service there and you don't even have the same level of access to food and drink that you might have had in the past at the airports. So I think people are starting to come to the airports with a recognition that they better think about how they're going to be able to take care of themselves and their own needs. And that's good because that just means when something goes wrong, they're well prepared.
I think some of those things that people are starting to think about as travelers are going to serve them well going forward. MC: How do you feel like your own personal travel experiences have changed over the last year and a half? SN: When I started flying as a flight attendant, I had to get my air legs underneath me. That's often what we call it. And almost every single flight I would get up and get sick in the lavatory.
And so I had to get used to the rigors of flying. You're flying in a pressurized cabin at an altitude of 8, feet [or more], and you are bumping around in the skies, and oftentimes that can create a lot of fatigue on your body. And when you become used to that, it's like you're conditioned—almost like a marathon runner. So when you have a break in that, it's hard to get back to it.
And I have to say, I'm remembering what it's like. I'm luckily not getting up after every flight and having to run to the restroom, but I do feel more fatigued and more worn out after those flights because we just haven't been doing it as much. MC: Yeah, we're all just getting back in the game.
And it's exciting that travel is back in some way and that hopefully that will continue going forward. Thank you so much for joining us. If people want to keep up with the union or with you, where can they find you on social media?
And so you can keep up with what the union is doing and the good tips that the unions have about how to stay safe too. LA: Let's start by talking about the past year, which is no easy feat for anyone.
What has travel been like for you, both as an editor and also as a traveler? Divia Thani: Well, it has been a whirlwind, in retrospect. I can't believe how quickly it's gone by, but of course, while we were in it, in the thick of things, it felt like it was completely unending and would go on forever.
I'm sure that's everybody's experience from all around the world. I spent my year, last year, started off in the Maldives and managed to travel quite a bit within India, which is where I was living at the time. After lockdown started, of course, we were very much confined to our homes for a long time.
It was a very strict lockdown in India, in Mumbai where I live. But by the end of the year, we were starting to move out again. I managed to go to Dubai, back to the Maldives, traveled a lot within the country to Rajasthan and other places, as well.
And then as it has been in many places, we had a second wave and things went back to being quite bad quite suddenly. And so it's been a lot of up and down for this past year. Obviously as an editor, I've been committed to telling travel stories all year. But also just as a traveler, I think so many of us who love to travel really identify as travelers. So when that was completely taken away from us, when travel was on pause for so much of last year, I have to confess that I had some very, very dark moments, Lale.
I know that many of us who are either in the travel industry or so close to the travel industry really felt like there was a point where we just didn't see a way out of it. I'm so happy that we are where we are today, where we're seeing signs of things opening up again in such a big way and the excitement has just been incredible.
That was also quite tricky, I have to say. Moving countries is tricky enough on a normal basis, but with COVID and the pandemic and all of the restrictions that come with that, it was definitely, I think, more challenging than it normally would have been. I am happy to say that I managed to get four days in Switzerland in between, which was absolutely lovely. So I think overall, if I had to say what the last year was like, I'd say that there were lots and lots of ups and downs.
But every time I could travel and make a trip of any kind, whether that was really close to home or moving countries, or just being able to go about and feel a little bit normal, those were absolutely the highest points for me from last year.
DT: I think all of us had some days last year where we were completely devoid of inspiration and didn't know what to write about. It's very hard to write about travel enthusiastically every day when there's absolutely no flights taking off or even cars out on the street in many places.
The first was the fact that people were absolutely consumed by when they would be able to be let out of their homes and when they would be able to travel again and when they would be able to reunite with people that they loved from all across the country and all across the world. And I think people having that sense of community, people coming together in a time like that, it really felt like we were so united all across the planet.
There was so much darkness and unhappiness and sadness and just trauma all around us that I really felt that our role was to make people feel a little bit better and for them to focus a little bit more on whatever little signs of positive things we had around us. And there were people that were doing such incredible work during this entire time and I really felt like telling those stories would really help uplift everybody's spirits.
And so that was one of the really guiding principles for me in the kinds of stories that we were telling. The second thing for me was obviously the travel industry was so badly hurt and affected right away and where I was in India at the time, I was surrounded by all of these hoteliers and people in the airlines who were all, while in the midst of the worst crisis they had ever been in, were thinking about how they could use the resources they had to help other people.
Hotels opened up their doors as quarantine facilities. Some of them were converted into hospitals. Airlines were really helping transport people who were really ill, moving goods back and forth, welfare supplies, all of that sort of thing.
And so it was incredible to see that at a time when that industry had literally been brought to the ground, that they were more than rising to the occasion and really, really—in the true spirit of hospitality—putting the needs and desires of other people ahead of their own. As an editor who works in travel, I really felt like those were the stories that we had to highlight and that we had to tell people what these brands were doing.
Because it's so important, I think, as we hopefully come out of the pandemic, for us to remember people that were good to other people and people that really went above and beyond what their normal jobs were. People who really looked out for each other. I feel like we've done that a lot in our personal lives but I think also it's important for us to remember those businesses and those companies that really helped us make it through that entire time.
I have to say, I think that all of our editions across the world, all seven of them, put out some of their best work last year and that to me is so incredible and I'm so, so proud of all of these teams, because it was really a difficult time. DT: I think so. I think looking around at the people that we were surrounded by and just making notes of those that were doing such incredible work.
I think we really saw the best of people all around the world. We saw people working so hard and so selflessly. I think for a lot of us, it was looking at that and really seeing the goodness of people that really made so many of us hopeful for the future. And I feel the same way now. I still feel like that fire is still alive and kicking. I really do feel that travel even now is what everybody is dreaming of at the moment. We've all started taking little steps and making small trips and I know, Lale, you just made a big one, I got to see you in London recently.
But even for those of us that are making little trips at the moment, I think just dreaming about travel and knowing that it's on the horizon and knowing that we will be able to be in a beautiful place in the warm sunshine with the people that we love, eating and drinking and all of those things that we used to take so much for granted—the fact that they are so much closer to us now than they were a year ago is really keeping me and I think many, many other people very hopeful at the moment.
LA: Speaking of those little trips and people starting to dip their toes back into travel in ways that they feel comfortable with Looking ahead, what experiences do you think travelers are going to be looking for? And, even beyond this moment, what do you think some of the long-lasting effects might be in terms of what people are prioritizing? DT: In the short term, of course, we all know that we've all been seeking sort of the same things, and that's true for our audiences, again, all across the world.
We all wanted to be out more in nature. We wanted to make sure that we were in places that were really beautiful. We cared about the quality of the air. We cared about how crowded or not crowded these places were.
A lot of those things are quite common to travelers now across the world. I think that, in general, at the moment, people are looking more for the familiar. I think we used to all have bucket lists of very exotic far-flung destinations and now it seems to be, I want to go back to my favorite places, whether they are in Italy or in China or in France or in India. I sort of feel this need to go back to what's comfortable in a certain way and I think that that at the moment is what we're seeing as well.
One of the really interesting things that came about in the past year was the very new interest in sustainability and sustainable travel. All the questions we started asking ourselves last year about how should we be better travelers when this is all done? How can we be more responsible? We all had a taste of what the world would be like when we weren't out and about so much, when we were grounded, when we were not using and consuming as much as we were.
We saw what cities would be like if there weren't as many people there and certainly not as many tourists in certain cities. And we realized that they were much nicer places and that we needed to think more about local populations in these places. We saw both the good side of people not traveling and we saw the really horrible side of that because so many communities around the world really suffered as a result of people not coming in there, and these are places that are very heavily reliant on the tourism industry.
We saw what happens to conservation efforts when we don't have safaris taking place in Africa, for instance. So I think that all of this talk about sustainable, responsible regenerative travel is something that I think people will be talking about a lot more and I think it's wonderful that we're doing it. These are the things that we saw as, I would say, perhaps micro-trends a few years ago, that have suddenly become so much more popular, so much more mainstream.
And I think if there's anything that comes out that's good from this last one year, I hope it is the idea that all of us can really remember everything that mattered to us this past year. That we don't forget it, that we really value experiences more over products. I feel like we've had such a jolt to our systems in this past year and I do feel that I have faith. That we will all become better travelers as a result of that.
LA: I'm going to wrap things up with a fun one: Where are you most excited to travel to? DT: Oh goodness. As I mentioned, I relocated to London just less than a month ago now and I'm so excited to have all of Europe at my doorstep. It really does feel like such a privilege to be able to have it so close by. As I mentioned, I would really love to go back to places that I love and that I've always loved. So I would have to say that at the moment it would probably be the south of France or Italy.
I would love to be in Tuscany at this moment. LA: That sounds like the dream. Divia, where can listeners find you on the internet to follow your new life in London and hopefully your trip to the south of France? I think we're all very excited to be setting an example and being the very first ones out there.
So you'll catch us all across social media, so please do follow us. Lindsay Nelson: Well, I definitely think it's made for good socially distanced cocktail chatter in terms of what does it mean to be in an executive travel role at a time when the entire world has been standing still. Obviously, it's changed a lot.
I think in some ways, we've definitely tried to find the silver lining, particularly around using a moment when the business sort of comes to a complete standstill to think about how we can sort of disrupt ourselves and how we can innovate from the inside. From that perspective, this last year and a half has been both a journey and a gift, and what came out of that for us is a subscription business that we're really excited about. I would say on a personal level, it has been interesting to think about: What is your role as a company that ultimately supports travelers?
We're a travel guidance company. And what does that mean in a time where there's so much uncertainty? And what's our role to help people sort of create confidence and knowing and understanding? Then we also have deep partnerships with businesses, many of them small businesses. And so how do we think about navigating getting people back out there, when there was such a moving target month, after month, after month? I think that sort of moment for us is a little bit behind us, but there was a period of time that it was an interesting tension when your business is built on servicing people to travel.
And for a long time it was important to tell people to stay home. MC: How have you guys seen the way that people use TripAdvisor change from maybe last summer to this summer?
What have been the different peaks and valleys of that? Increasing amounts of it, too. Too darn expensive is how expensive. The sad fact is, though, the luxury travel some of us envisage is just beyond our means. Now, some of us prefer to keep our travel domestic. After all, our home countries, whichever they may be, offer an embarrassment of riches beyond those we see on an everyday basis.
On the other hand, when some of us travel, we really travel. Vacations can find us visiting the other side of the darn world. What does that mean? It means exposure to a whole range of exotic new viruses and bacteria, which your colon does not want to get on first name terms with.
So, yes. Good for you, friend. However, health concerns are just the start of it. So there you are. Footloose and fancy-free, with some actual money to your name.
Where are you off to? Well, just about anywhere you fancy, really. The whole planet is a metaphorical oyster with your name on… or something. Spare a thought for the families among us, though. For one thing, as Money Saving Expert reports, they sometimes face fines for taking children out of school during term times and the holidays tend to be much more expensive, of course.
Which is helpful. Sadly for you, your two-year-old is having mixed feelings about the air pressure and turbulence on the airplane, and has decided to express them by screaming throughout the whole six-hour flight to Iceland. The funny thing about this situation is, your fellow passengers all give you, the parents, funny looks.
What are they expecting you to say? And what if your child suffers from travel sickness on top of that? And wants to pack absolutely everything they own? In the last several decades, travel has taken off in a big way. A huge way. The industry has advanced in leaps and bounds, and this wide world of ours is more connected than past generations could ever have imagined.
The upshot of all this, sadly, is that the magic of travel can be seen to have been diminished a bit. There you are, excitedly telling your in-laws about your recent trip to Europe. Nobody has ever done that before, you fearless photographical innovator, you. World-renowned tourist destinations like the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, Chichen Itza and the pyramids are truly iconic, and very, very popular. As Rick Steves reports, visitors to certain pickpocketing hotspots will need to be darn careful with their valuables.
I still remember my first experience of travelling abroad as a child. I felt like I was dang well playing Russian roulette just brushing my teeth in the morning. Speaking of glamorous, cruise ships just define swanky travel in my books. Back when I was a nervous first-time cruiser, I was told that you barely feel the movement of the ship, if at all.
Still, this is going to depend on all sorts of factors, like the time of year and where exactly you are in the world. Jet lag is just the worst. Airplanes are wondrous, impossible things. I know science has done its best to explain how these great metal behemoths fly, but my feeble brain will never be able to grasp the concept. The awful, woozy sensation we call jet lag is a bad time all around. I was plagued by travel sickness as a child.
As such, my memories of vacations are very conflicted. While I loved being away, I hated actually getting there and coming home again, naturally.
To this day, airports make me every possible kind of uncomfortable. Not only did I feel that sense of impending doom, but airports are just bizarre.
Anything goes. Vacations are your crucial break from the working year.
0コメント