UK shares some statistics Opinion: Travel begins at 40’s Mark Bibby Jackson

A CLEAN AND green future

Travel Begins at 40 Founder Mark Bibby Jackson thinks that the travel and tourism sector will recover from a calamitous year by moving onwards and upwards

Let’s face it, 2020 was a pretty miserable year. It didn’t matter who you were - with the exception of Jeff Bezos - nobody emerged unscathed.

The travel and tourism sector was particularly hard hit, with international flights and holidays ground to a standstill. There was a surge in domestic tourism towards the middle of the year, but the second wave of Covid-19 put paid to that as winter arrived.

A slow recovery

It would be great to predict that travel will rebound in 2021 but the reality will be different. Many parts of the world have either banned international travel or placed onerous restrictions upon entry, meaning the keenly awaited recovery is yet to come.

Domestic tourism should continue to fare better than international, but a whole sector upturn is largely dependent on the success of the vaccines and the establishment of a robust health passport scheme. Whatever happens, the face of tourism will be considerably altered.

At least for the medium term it will become increasingly difficult just

to jump on a plane, bus or train and wing it. Many destinations will demand onward tickets, insurance to cover any Covid-19-related complications and a full itinerary, including proof of hotel bookings. The immediate future of travel is looking a lot less spontaneous as well as more digitised.

Positive ripples

In the long-term, travel could become more clean and green, especially since more travellers are showing that they want their holidays to be beneficial to the destination and the planet.

For many, community-based, sustainable and eco-tourism have been phrases synonymous with a PR-driven greenwash aimed to salve the conscience of travellers sipping cocktails on perfectlymanicured beaches. But the

Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) released research from October 2020 which showed that more than half of consumers believe that the travel industry should reopen in a greener and more sustainable way.

That doesn’t just mean banning single-use plastic and placing a sign on your bed asking for your sheets not to be changed. The traveller of the 2020s wants their holiday to be more meaningful, whether that involves acquiring a new skill, or forging equitable relationships with

About Travel Begins at 40 Featuring great travel writing aimed purely at independent-minded travellers over the age of 40, Travel Begins at 40 is a website for people who aren’t content to follow the crowd and want to travel responsibly and imaginatively. In 2021 it launched #SustainableSunday, a series of articles about sustainable and regenerative tourism and we will be sharing a selection of these in Charitable Traveller. charitable.travel/travel-beginsat-40

the host community. Travel Begins at 40 fully supports these kind of measures when they come from the heart rather than the pocket.

Regenerative tourism

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