[Travel Daily News] As many travelers express their concerns over the new Omicron variant, those who work in the industry still expect very strong growth in 2022 for the travel sector despite the new variant, travel restrictions, and airline cancellations.
In fact, Bruce Rosenberg, the President of HotelPlanner, recently stated “Our business has not been affected by Omicron. Omicron is actually seeing a spike for us, so sales are up…We’re seeing a huge rebound.”
“As of October, half of US adults said they planned to fly in the next six months, and that survey was taken at the height of the Delta variant. Now that the U.S. has lifted travel restrictions from 33 previously banned countries, millions of inbound travelers will still visit the U.S. in the coming months and years, regardless of the Omicron variant or future variants. Travel confidence should remain high regardless of temporary and localized travel bans due to new Covid variants. In Europe for example, more than half of British adults plan to travel overseas next year, a 46% increase compared to this time last year. Despite all the pandemic challenges and uncertainties, the return of global travel in 2022 will have positive ripple effects across the service and hospitality industries around the world.”
- Conventional wisdom says travel is decreasing. Not all of it. In the past few months, weddings, reunions, and more have increased dramatically to the point where many hotels transform lobbies into wedding spaces.
- Some workers are refusing to apply for cleaning jobs. Many pilots refuse vaccines. These trends lead to staffing shortages, which in turn are causing travelers to run into delays when checking into hotels, a lack of cleaning people, and more new dilemmas. Fear not. Hentschel has tips to get you through it, like hotels’ new digital check-in programs.
- Weddings aren’t the only additions to lobbies. Many hotels are renovating lobbies to resemble Starbucks to welcome workers who work on the road.
Australian Hospitality Alumni Network Vietnam 