Travel is back but rules have changed

International travel has never before seen the extent of the crash or the scale of the recovery that resulted from the pandemic and its aftermath. The numbers are astonishing. The World Travel Organisation, a UN agency, reported 1-billion fewer international tourist arrivals in 2021, and a loss of $1-trillion (R18-trillion) in total export revenue from international tourism.

Then, from January to July this year, international tourist arrivals increased 172% over the previous year.

While the numbers are still 43% below those of 2019, they represent the beginning of a sustained recovery, and the gap narrowed from 70% at the beginning the year to just 28% by July.

On October 16 the US Transportation Security Administration reported more than 2.49-million passengers, the highest one-day total since before the pandemic, and not far off the 2.6-million reported for the same day in 2019.

As a trend, it points to record numbers in the near future.

The reason is simple: rather than persuading people to embrace at-home lifestyles, the pandemic has engendered an unprecedented appetite for travel.

Entrepreneur magazine includes “bucket list” trips and wellness travel among the key new leisure trends.

Condé Nast Traveller points to personal development retreats and “workations” that take advantage of the work-fromanywhere revolution.

An unexpected trend is a revival in business travel. It had been assumed that the costeffectiveness of virtual events and meetings would persuade CEOs to mandate these, but the opposite happened.

Major industry events have returned from virtual to inperson occasions. The enthusiasm of delegates reveals the extent to which the hosts made the right call.

Business-class sections of airliners are invariably full.

It turns out companies do better business face-to-face than via a Teams call.

But this boom has been accompanied by a massive slump in personnel available to airports and airlines.

It also turns out people don’t like working for peanuts. And when the pandemic shut down travel and people were forced to look for alternative employment, many discovered they preferred the alternative.

The result is that airports, especially in Europe, are severely understaffed. Numerous airlines, especially in the US, have had to cut flights due to crew shortages.

The net result is a miserable time in transit. And this has changed the rules of international travel. Regulars have their own hacks and tricks. Others learn the hard way.

But a few golden rules have emerged:

● Travel light. Small suitcases that fit in overhead bins have become standard.

● Book flights that have early departures, when airports are less clogged, and arrive early. Read the rules for security control.

● Book connecting flights with leeway for flight delays and security lines.

● Keep valuables, documents, medication and a basic change of clothes in hand luggage.

● Have printouts of all travel documents to hand. The world isn’t as digital as we’d like to think.

● Finally, be patient. Everyone is in the same boat. Or plane.

Instead of persuading people to embrace at-home lifestyles, the pandemic has engendered an unprecedented appetite for travel