Longer vacations, less overpacking, more small ship cruising, and an uptick in bleisure travel are the post-pandemic behaviours the world’s most experienced travellers are revealing, according to a recent survey by Global Rescue.
Travellers are making up for lost time due to the pandemic. Despite higher prices and frequent flight disruptions, people are not only scheduling trips for 2023 but many are planning longer ones. One out of four travellers responding to the survey will take longer trips in 2023 than in the past. Less than 10% of respondents said they would take shorter trips, while the majority (65%) said their trips will be about the same as in the past, neither shorter nor longer.
Bleisure, business travel increasing
Business travel is predicted to surge and bleisure travel has taken off, according to the survey. Seventy percent of business travellers responding say their work-related travel will match or exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2023. Most business travellers taking the survey (65%) will include bleisure travel, adding extra days to their business trip for personal or leisure activities.
More than half of responding business travellers (55%) will travel both domestically and internationally for business compared to a year ago when nearly three-out-of-four respondents (72%) had not travelled abroad for business or did not have plans to do so.
The business traveller mindset has changed, and employer attitudes have shifted, too. Face-to-face meetings are more effective at establishing and maintaining relationships than virtual meetings. It’s no surprise that domestic and international work-related travel is rising along with bleisure travel.
Cruising is back
Cruises are back on the travel list. Travellers are casting off on cruise ships in record numbers, surpassing 2019 levels and breaking sales records. Forty percent of respondents have already taken a cruise since the pandemic started or, if they haven’t, they plan to in 2023.
Part of the comeback is due to revenge travel, but smaller ship sizes and access to new, remote destinations are important factors attracting passengers. The survey revealed that people taking cruises prefer smaller ships when it comes to vessel size. Half of cruising respondents (50%) will set sail in small ship cruisers that have a capacity of fewer than 800 passengers. Only 11% of respondents who plan to take cruises this year selected mega-ships with a capacity greater than 3,500 passengers.
As travellers return to cruising, their concerns are changing, too. Traveller fears of COVID have plummeted, according to the survey. Their greatest anxiety is having an injury or illness unrelated to COVID. But, while confidence to cruise has returned, travellers must remember that access to medical help for an illness or injury during travel at sea is limited. Health safety resources on board a cruise ship are similar to a health centre – but it’s not a hospital.
Traveller mistakes
More than a third of travellers revealed their biggest blunder is too much luggage. Overpacking is a persistent traveller mistake, but the improvement has been substantial since COVID. In February 2020, immediately before the pandemic, more than twice as many respondents said overpacking was the biggest mistake they make.
A new mistake travellers listed is assuming they understand the laws of the country to which they’re travelling. Eleven percent of survey respondents noted that this was a common mistake. The laws of a traveller’s home country don’t travel with them – that’s why knowing the local laws of the destination is critical before travelling.
(Dan Richards is the CEO of The Global Rescue Companies, a leading provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services, and a member of the US Travel and Tourism Advisory Board at the US Department of Commerce).