In most parts of the world, people have spent most of 2021 in lockdown policies and travel restrictions. Recently, many travel restrictions and bans have started getting lifted. People who have been away from their homes are excited to get back together with their families. Those who have been restricted to their homes are happy to go out on vacation finally.
Due to this pandemic, the travel trends of 2021 have been quite different from the past years. The travel industry and travel agents have faced a roller-coaster amidst the ongoing pandemic. The first quarter had a rise in the search volumes related to tourism and travel destinations. When countries started imposing lockdowns last year, most people expected it to last for only two weeks. That’s why people began planning to travel right after it ended, and these travel trends and vlogging trends continued at the beginning of this year. People also started searching for Covid-19 vaccine rollouts in the first quarter of this year.
By the second quarter, we started seeing more clarity in the global travel guidelines. People were getting more optimistic about the pandemic coming to an end. Some people even started planning a vacation to celebrate their vaccination. But now that we are already in the third quarter, vaccination rates in most countries are still below 90%, resulting in prolonged travel restrictions. We can still not have the kind of carefree traveling experiences that we could have before this pandemic started.
In this article, we will be discussing seven summer travel trends that will help you capture the fluctuating demand in the travel industry for 2021.
7 Travel Trends of 2021 to Take Note of
Here are 7 trends that you can probably relate to, as we have all faced these situations in one way or another related to travel experiences this year.
1. Travelers Are Planning Longer Trips
Since nobody has enjoyed long vacations since March 2020, people passionate about traveling are now planning longer trips than ever before. As the vaccination rates in different countries rise, travel restrictions are getting lifted. This is giving hope to the traveling enthusiasts to be able to go on their dream vacations again.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
On the one hand, many people have faced financial losses during the extended lockdowns in their locations. But on the other hand, people are now willing to spend more than ever out of whatever savings they have to go on vacations for months. People are feeling the need to reboot and refresh their minds by visiting new places. Lists of travel destinations are now longer than ever before. This is not among the common travel trends observed over the past many years. It is a new trend, and it looks like it will be in place for at least the next two years.
2. Domestic Travel is Still the Preference of Many
When we say that people are planning longer trips, we refer to the traveling destinations overseas. Many people are still afraid of getting stuck overseas if another layer or corona-related disease hits their country. That’s why many people still prefer traveling within their country.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
The rise in these domestic travel trends is boosting the local travel industry in many countries. Tourist traveling destinations and associated travel agents see the opportunity to make a lot of money, as long as the lockdown has been lifted from there. Outdoor recreation is something many people are craving for after being stuck indoors in their houses for so many months.
3. Final Working Vacations Are Being Planned
Many people who have been on the working-from-home mode are now seeing their former routine coming back soon. Soon they will have to firm up their sleep patterns, wake up early every morning, and go to the office. The trend of working from home is hopefully and finally coming to an end. These people are planning a vacation to enjoy this flexible routine to the fullest before it comes to an end. This is among the most remarkable travel trends observed during this third quarter of 2021.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Many people plan their final ‘working vacations’ before their offices open, and the mundane lifestyle begins. On the one hand, they are bored of the series of imposed lockdowns, limiting their travel distances. But on the other hand, they know that they will miss the flexibility that they have been enjoying all this while regarding their working hours and office deadlines. This emotional dilemma is not only felt by the working class but also by their dependent family members.
4. Hygiene and Health Protocols Seem to be Here to Stay
The two years of pandemic have made most people a lot more cautious about their health. This is why the extra hygienic habits imposed on people seem to be here to stay, even after everyone has been vaccinated and the pandemic has ended.
For example, it seems like people will continue to use hand sanitizers regularly for the years to come. Social distancing might reduce once this Covid-19 is gone, but people’s overall heightened hygiene standards will probably stay. People will most likely continue to wash their hands more frequently and maintain their overall hygiene more diligently.
This is particularly true for travelers. The travel industry will see a rise in travelers’ hygienic practices, even when everybody is already vaccinated. The pandemic seems to have instilled a permanent fear in many people, causing them to remain cautious of their cleanliness at all times, especially when they are in public places. This is part of the travel trends of 2021 and is good for enhancing the hygiene conditions of communities as a whole.
5. Seasides Are Perceived as Heavens
The beaches seem to be calling the people who have been stuck at home for months. People are craving to spend time at the seaside. The open and fresh air of beaches is among the ideal travel destinations for people nowadays. People have missed the seaside fragrance and are tempted to spend more and more time at such places.
This is a good opportunity for travel agents to further promote the travel industry by highlighting all the beach resorts and other travel destinations in their packages.
6. International Travel Will be on the Horizon Soon
Even though people currently prefer domestic travel, as soon as more travel restrictions are lifted, international travel will also be counted among the strongest travel trends this year. Moving towards December, people are hoping that they will be able to travel overseas in the holiday season.
Since things are a bit unpredictable, people are hands-on keeping in touch with travel agents, taking updated information regularly about different travel destinations where they want to go by the end of the year.
7. Sustainable Tourism is Growing
One of the changes in travel trends observed this year due to the travel restrictions imposed last year is that people are now a lot more interested in the less popular travel destinations as well. All the tourist attractions that were less in demand in different countries are now more in demand as vacation spots. This is because travelers are currently seeking rich traveling experiences, as they have a desire to lessen the impact of their travel on the local cultures.
Another reason is that people expect the less popular tourist spots to be less crowded than the more popular ones. Hence, they expect to be able to practice social distancing more easily in these places. Generally speaking, people now have a more conscious approach to vacations and tourism.
Benefit From the Travel Trends as a Travel Agency
If you are one of the travel agents or are running a travel agency, this is a great time to earn good money by taking advantage of the latest travel trends. The first thing you need to do as an agency is to have a professional website representing your services.
If you do not have a website yet, you can create one all by yourself in a single day on our platform, Strikingly. Our system allows you to build a complete website without writing a single line of code. Check out some of our users’ testimonials on our landing page.
Image taken from Strikingly
We provide you with the tools, features, and ready-to-use templates that enable you to build a simple, free-of-cost website to showcase your services. We also provide live chat support where our customer service staff is available to resolve your queries 24 hours a day.
We are happy for you in your business pursuits and are ready to serve you in your web development and web maintenance process in any way possible.
