As we head into Spring and look to put lockdown restrictions behind ourselves, the prospect of travel and leisure returning cannot be more welcome. This is especially true in the UK where the ‘exit mechanism’ of vaccination has reached a third of the population and almost all of the vulnerable groups of people – the exit seems to be in sight but isn’t entirely clear. Yet – but it’s coming!
- Vaccine certificates or passports could be a way of opening up travel as the roadmap, which sets a path out of England's coronavirus lockdown.
- Beach destinations such as Málaga, Alicante and Palma in Spain, the Algarve in Portugal, and Crete in Greece were the most popular as the country sought something to look forward to after a winter stuck at home.
- Andrew Flintham, managing director of TUI UK and Ireland, said they had seen a 500% jump in bookings overnight, with particular demand for Greece, Spain and Turkey from July onward.
- Skyscanner said visitors to its site increased by 55% after the prime minister's speech and bookings that day were 69% higher than the previous day, with the most popular destinations being Spain, Pakistan, the US, and Greece.
- EasyJet said flight bookings jumped by more than 300% and holiday bookings surged by more than 600% week-on-week after the roadmap was announced.
- Big movers were bookings from the UK to Portugal (up 176% on the previous day), to Spain (170%), to Italy (122%), Turkey (113%) and Greece (96%).
There is a clear interest in the resumption of travel and latent demand for a resumption of holidays has been evident in search and booking behaviour. On 23 February 2021, the day after Boris Johnson announced the plan to ease England’s lockdown, Google searches for “TUI” reached over 100k, making it the top 5 search term. Also “Skyscanner” made it top 8 with more than 50k searches, and the term “International Travel” was the 10th most searched query that day with more than 10k searches.
Google Trends graphs – 23rd February 2021
This clearly shows that market pull is healthy, and that in itself can be construed as a sense of purposeful optimism by eager travellers. On the supply side, this optimism is to some degree shared but also driven by an economic imperative: the ongoing foundations of even the largest travel and tour operators remains threatened with finite limits to the extent of refinance available. Sooner or later, liquidity takes control of events.
With every major airline having recapitalised or restructured, or combinations of both, this sector of the transport industry is primed for a return to the skies. The fleets will be renewed, the operations streamlined, surfaces will be clean, the experience will be increasingly digital for the consumer – and the novelty of a new form of passport will make an appearance.
Whether or not governmental bodies choose, a form of certification of test or vaccine status is inevitable. Furthermore, some countries look like they cannot wait for supra-national solutions and will open green corridors for travel. The combination of traveller demand, safety assurances, clean, new fleets and facilities is enticing for not just returning to normality but necessary injections of trade into starved resorts. Greece and Spain are increasingly likely to set the pattern here.
Similarly, the resort destinations have ensured that their facilities are equally clean, safe and welcoming. The gaps in occupancy have left plenty of scope to ensure that facilities are up to scratch: nobody wants to be suffering from poor ratings at a time of heightened concerns and sensitivity amongst travellers. The freshest reviews may well carry the most clout in destination choices in 2021 and beyond.
In some ways, things may get better even quicker than we expect, especially if the arrival of Spring coincides with a reduction in the metrics that are holding back economies.
Snowdrop is ready for the new demands of this marketplace
Snowdrop Solutions travel, leisure and transportation customers are all seeing a strong correlation between increased demand and various positive government announcements. More than ever, today’s travellers are looking to ‘take more control’ of their holiday experience. They want to plan more, look for unique experiences and change the way they holiday compared to previous experiences.
Feedback from our customers is generally that customers want more from their traditional package holiday. They want to plan more activities, try new experiences and be more informed at point of sale at what they can do in resort. This means our customers want to enhance the maps experience for their customers. Visualisation is key to installing consumer confidence in their brand.
Now is the time to react quickly to the latent market, ensuring your company website has the best representation for Maps implemented, providing a clear, informative experience for customers.
Snowdrop continues to support the deployment of map visualizations in the booking flow for key customers. This ensures availability of critical geo information at this time when having the right offering for the traveller is so important. We also continue to provide Professional Services and Customer Care support, including:
Journey Planning
A vital part of the booking experience in a post-Covid world
Destination Guides
Increasingly aimed at safety and peace of mind
Optimised Implementations
As always, we aim to ensure that customers get the best use of Google Maps (not necessarily the most use)
Updated Customer Care Packages
Launched this year, with even more granularity of reporting detail, we strive to give actionable insights and timely usage metrics. These allow rapid analysis of application performance post launch, or within beta test programs
Snowdrop remains willing to look beyond these areas and assist our customers with all aspects of map implementation and usage. If you would like to discuss any of these topics please feel free to contact your account manager or hello@snowdropsolutions.co.uk.
Contact our sales team to know more
WRITTEN BY
Stuart Scott - COO, Snowdrop Solutions
Stuart has been involved with mobile and internet for 25 years, contributing to multiple applications and organisations in this time. He brings practical experience of the mobile internet, with particular emphasis on client and server mobile application software, as well as hands-on business skills gained from a variety of executive positions. Presently, he runs Snowdrop’s Maps Business, including Operations, which has engineering, product development and fulfilment.
Stuart has a BSc in Physics with Physical Electronics, and an MBA, both awarded by the University of Bath.
