What travelers really want after the pandemic — and how they can get it

By Christopher Elliott,

Now what?

As the pandemic starts to fade, that’s a question the travel industry is trying to answer. What do customers want as they begin traveling again?

“Lower prices,” says Wayne Hundemann, a real estate agent from Edgewater, Fla. “And greater attention to cleanliness.”

Hundemann has already booked three cruises, but he’s concerned about buffet lines and their capacity for spreading germs.

Wish granted. The buffets will probably be gone — at least for now. He’s right; they’re too risky. As for prices, they will almost certainly rise. Experts say you should book now if you see a low fare.

Hundemann’s wants are part of a broad wish list that travelers are beginning to articulate. They include more reliable information, a little more room, and better customer service.

But that’s not all. Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection’s latest State of Travel Insurance report notes that travelers are looking for more flexibility. That extends to airline tickets, hotel reservations — and, of course, travel insurance. Travelers want policies that allow them to cancel or postpone their trips.

“Flexibility has become even more essential,” says Carol Mueller, a vice president at Berkshire Hathaway.

It remains to be seen which travel companies will continue the more flexible policies they instituted during the pandemic. But it’s a safe bet that airlines will be among the first to start tightening their rules, hoping to recover some of the revenue lost during the lockdowns.

Travelers also want more reliable information. Between November 2020 and January 2021, 67 percent of international itineraries were subject to travel restriction changes between the booking date and departure, according to TripActions, a travel management platform.

“Travelers want access to real-time data, and it’s not enough to provide it only in the planning stages,” says TripActions spokeswoman Kelly Soderlund. The fix is diligent research, working with a competent travel adviser, or using an app that updates you on the conditions at your destination.

Travelers’ thirst for knowledge doesn’t stop with information about quarantine requirements or vaccine passports, experts say. They also want information on their mode of transportation — and they want to see its application.

“For example, consumers don’t just want to read that an airline brand has strict sanitation policies,” says Raquel Rosenthal, CEO of Digilant, a marketing agency that tracks consumer preferences. “They want to see and experience it through digital signage and customer service interactions. And when a policy changes, consumers want to know why and how it will directly affect their experience.”

Alina Clark, a marketing director for a software developer in Los Angeles, says she would like some more of that in the future — and not just when it comes to airline seats.

“Social distancing inadvertently led us into getting more privacy while traveling,” she says. “Although the same levels of distancing would be hard to maintain after the pandemic, I would love to have the personal space maintained in one way or the other.”

That is a tall order. But based on how some airlines handled social distancing, we have a reasonably good idea of how they will do in the future. Airlines such as Alaska, Delta, and Southwest kept the middle seats open for the longest. It’s fair to assume they will try to offer a little more social distancing in the future, though probably not to the same extent as during the pandemic.

Annie Valades and her husband have plans to visit relatives in Germany in September. They have both received their vaccines, and their post-pandemic wish is simple. “We’re hoping that by then we won’t have to wear masks the entire time,” says Valades, a retired journalist from Colorado Springs.

It’s impossible to predict Germany’s mask requirements this fall, but based on the way things are going in Europe, there’s a good chance she won’t get her wish.

How about customer service? It’s true that during the pandemic, some customers lost trust in their travel brands. With cruises canceled and hotels closed, that is inevitable. Airlines, cruise lines and hotels will have to work hard to rebuild that trust in the coming months.

“They will have to build a new connection with consumers,” says Danny Turner, the global senior vice president of creative programming at Mood Media, a digital marketing agency. “More and more brands are changing their perspectives from a brand-first position to a more customer-focused effort.”

Will they go far enough? Some will. But others — and I think you can guess who those “others” are — almost certainly will not

“Companies that treat travelers with appreciation and personalized service will have the edge over the ones where you feel like a number,” says Jeff Galak, associate professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

No need to guess, though. The travel companies that treat consumers well will reveal themselves this summer — and I’ll be here to write about them.

Read more from Travel: Read past Navigator columns here