6 Ways How This Lockdown Has Made Us Better Travellers
The past few months have shown us what travel truly means- an escape; comfort; adventure; inspiration; discovery. Travel can be a lot many things for a lot many people, but one thing is common, to travel is to live.
With countries opening up their borders, airlines doing their best to offer safe passages to travellers and travellers being a little sceptical amid this virus scare, the question remains, will travel soon return to business as usual or rather should it?
The lockdown became a time to go inside, reflect on our choices, appreciate what we have, develop new habits, basically make the most of our forced holiday. This time taught us a lot of lessons and these lessons will change the way we travel, forever.
1. Discover and Appreciate
The lockdown is almost over and though it was tough to pass it in a completely zen mode, most of us did learn to stay calm, feeling content while we were forced to be confined in the four walls of our home. As the days turned into weeks and weeks into months it became easier to accept and appreciate existing in just one place.
With this new-found calmness, is it possible for the nomadic travellers who are always on the move, hopping from one destination to other to stay put at one place to discover more and have an immersive experience?
If travellers learn to appreciate finer details of a place will they not be less inclined towards visiting popular sights, also to keep away from large gatherings?
Also, can the excitement of discovering a new destination outweigh the need to tick off the must-visits?
2. Take It Easy And Slow
Suddenly everything came to a standstill, the fast-moving world just stopped. We started taking it one day at a time. Does this mean we will stop moving vast distances in short spaces of time? Will we be more mindful of our travel and travel plans?
The which new destination to explore approach will be swapped with re-exploring destinations closer to home.
3. Including Nature In Our Travel
Photo by Peter Jan Rijpkema on Unsplash
People living without the luxury of green spaces around them have after being in lockdown for months realised the importance of nature. The missed chance to step out even for a breath of fresh air has triggered a whole new appreciation for the beauty we usually take for granted.
More and more people will now explore those lost woodlands, forest trails, parks that they earlier used to pass by in the excitement to discover faraway places.
Besides more nature-focused travel, it will also be more about local or domestic travel as our country is full of scenic beauty.
4. Sustainable Travel
Since the lockdown, the sky is brighter, the air is crispier, the water bodies cleaner, and the wildlife including animals, flora and fauna springing back in places they previously abandoned. What climate activists had been working on for years to make us understand the impact of climate change, corornavirus showed us within weeks.
The best change to our travel habits that could come from months of lockdown would be adopting sustainable and responsible travel practices.
5. Staying Connected While Still Apart
For months, most of us had to stay away from our families and friends, no face-to-face interaction, video calls being the only way to keep us connected. We are yet to see how the callous demand for social distancing will impact our travel habits?
Will we maintain distancing and opt for more solo trips or would we realise we never ever wish to miss out on the in-person experience and take more and more trips to visit family and friends?
6. The New Trend in Travelling- Contactless Travel
The one thing that this pandemic has taught us all is to minimize the human touch and this will definitely impact the way we travel. More and more of us will switch to travel technology like the OGenie app that will help us minimize contact while we gear up for the new way of travelling, coz to travel is to live and we are now equipped to live better.
