The future of travel, according to ‘Amazing Race’ host Phil Keoghan

PHIL Keoghan isn’t used to sitting around at home. The host of “The Amazing Race” - a 19-year-old globetrotting reality show - has averaged about 250,000 miles of travel a year for the past 25 years.

The show was filming its 33rd season in February when the spread of the novel coronavirus prompted producers to send everyone home until production could start again safely. Keoghan thought it was a good decision and figured they’d be back at it in a few months. Instead, he said in an interview in late May, his late February flight home was the last time he was in the air - or anywhere.

“This is without doubt the longest period that I have had not only on the ground but also in one place,” he said. “Because apart from my office and my house, I don’t go anywhere else. I go for a run, but I have not left my neighborhood. And I cannot remember the last time in my life that I did that.”

In the meantime, he’s been working on a new competition show for CBS called “Tough As Nails” featuring essential workers, which finished filming before the virus outbreak and premieres July 8. And in his downtime, he’s been watching global plane traffic on flight tracking apps, pondering the future of travel and looking forward to seeing his family in New Zealand again.

Q: Have you been thinking about how you expect your own job and the production of the show to change?

A: I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I’ve talked about it a lot with people, because we come into contact with so many people when we travel. Say in Europe, how do we go to a country there and we’re working with drivers and security people and production people and we get in a confined space with them in a car and drive five hours to a location - how does all that work?

Are we wearing masks and are they vetted? Are we vetted? Are we constantly having our temperatures taken? I don’t know. I’m really interested.

Will people ever shake hands again? Like will we arrive in a foreign country and shake a hand? Are we going to be more like the Japanese and is it going to be a nod or a bow or an elbow? So much is going to change. — The Washington Post