People will adapt to the “new norm” of travel post COVID-19, no matter how intimidating it seems at the moment, says the head of global tour operator, G Adventures. “People will travel again. We don’t yet know when, but we know that they will,” says Bruce Poon Tip, who likens the current crisis, in travel terms, to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001.
And when we do, the travelling public will get used to new requirements that they didn’t have before, like wearing face masks when flying.
“We adapt, we change, and then it becomes normal,” says Poon Tip.
For example, he says, “Who would’ve thought that you couldn’t take water onto a plane, or toothpaste, or whatever? And we adapt to the vetting that we go through. To get through a security checkpoint now is so intense compared to just before 9-11, when we didn’t have to take off our shoes, or take out our laptops… or we couldn’t travel with liquids or go through extra scrutiny.”
In the larger pandemic picture, Poon Tip says “Human beings are amazing at adapting – we’ve proven that for centuries, whether its evolution or just change that’s forced upon us… when people are living in war zones or living in areas with radioactivity or post-tsunamis, or hurricanes, or bushfires in Australia, we adapt and people around us adapt…
“We are extremely complex machines that are capable of great things and doing great things, and this (pandemic) is actually a small dent in our ability to behave differently checking in and getting on a plane.”
And don’t discount that people have “short memories,” says Poon Tip, pointing to how other crises like SARS and Ebola in West Africa have largely been forgotten by travelling public.
Which is not to say that the severity of this crisis will quickly be forgotten, assures Poon Tip.
“We never could have anticipated that this could happen, and it escalated so quickly; and things happened on a daily basis that we never thought could happen in our lifetimes. I remember saying, ‘There’s no way that a country could shut its borders,’ and then it did. There is no way airlines could just stop flying, and then they did…
“How many times does that have to a happen before you realize that you’re living in unusual times? We’re are all collectively living in a bad Will Smith movie.”
But, he adds, “I do think we will adapt… It’s just the new reality. (Our) kids are going to grow up with it; it’s like they grew up with technology that we never had… So, they have different sensitivities and challenges – and this will become normal.”
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