11 WAYS TO IMPROVE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE POST PANDEMIC

- DALAI LAMA XIV

Love travelling?

Visiting new destinations and taking in new sites?

Love the adventure, excitement and joy received from travelling, but hate the completely uncalled-for stress and effort that goes into planning your vacation?

We know that planning any trip can include a huge amount of effort, especially when there are many people travelling together.

Now-a-days people tend to spend more time planning for their trips than they spend on the trip. Right from booking flights and hotel rooms to hiring cars everything can be done online. But why stop there? You could do a lot more than that and digitize your entire trip.

Various companies have come up with various apps and customer-centred solutions to improve user experience. Today, 60% of leisure and 41% of business travellers are making travel arrangements via the internet, according to research from Smart Insights.

Digitizing your travel experience will make organising the trip a whole lot more efficient and easier. This way you can focus on enjoying your trip rather than worrying about anything else.

1. DECIDING ON AN EXCITING VENUE IS KEY

Many times, it seems to be extremely difficult to choose a travel destination. Beaches or hill stations? Some people prefer the cold, while some prefer warmer places. Coming to a decision that will make everyone happy can be really really stressful.

If you can’t come to a decision about where to travel to, simply ask all your co-travellers to vote based on their choice of destination. This will help you get an understanding of where the majority of the people want to travel to.

2. CHECK FOR ACTIVE CORONAVIRUS CASES IN THE LOCALITY

Once all the lockdowns have ended and airlines and other forms of travel open up, check for current or active coronavirus cases before you begin planning. Also, if there’s a vaccine out by then, get yourself vaccinated. It’s always better to be safe than sorry!

3. SEND OUT INVITES FOR THE TRIPS

Once you have decided on your travel destination you can send invites or details about the trip to those traveling with you. Send automated email invites to all your friends and family. Either that, or you could send out individual personalized invites to each member of the group. That will definitely make your co-travellers feel special and more than welcome. The choice is really up to you (:

4. CREATE ITINERARIES AND ALWAYS KEEP EVERYONE IN THE LOOP

Create an itinerary for the trip and share it with your group. If you happened to plan your trip way in advance, get the app to send you reminders before the actual day. If there are any last-minute changes in the itinerary because of bad weather or other unforeseen events, make updates to the original itinerary so that all will be aware of those changes.

5. FOOD! THE WAY TO THE SOUL

Food is the window to another culture. But when there are so many people travelling together, it is obvious that there will be many different food preferences. Get your employees to vote for their favourite food items to decide the menu for all the days of the trip.

6. LEARN THE LOCAL LANGUAGE

Learning the local language will help you navigate your way better around the place. It will help you get around the place using local/ public transport. (It’s cheaper and more fun)

It will also help you interact better with the local people and hence get to know the culture of the new place a little better. Talk to as many local people as possible!

7. SHARE LOCATIONS VIA GOOGLE MAPS

You can also share google-maps links to the places of interest in the itinerary to make sure there is absolutely no confusion, and everyone reaches the decided venues on time.

8. A LITTLE CURIOSITY NEVER KILLED ANYONE!

Visit new places with an open mind. Try to learn as much as possible about these new places and make the most of the trip. Having a healthy amount of curiosity will encourage you to find out new things about the place and gain a more authentic experience

9. REAL TIME SHARING OF NOT JUST IMAGES, GIFs, OR VIDEOS BUT ALSO MEMORIES 😊

Clicked too many pictures during the trip and want an easy way to share them with all those who travelled with you? Upload all the images, videos and other media to a travel app and allow access to all the travellers, all this during the trip!

Share, like, and react to all the shared media. This will help you relive those amazing memories. Be it the relaxing sound of the waves, or the images you shared from that safari you went on where you heard that wondrous roar of a tiger etc.

After all, what is the point of a trip if you can’t look back at those memories and experiences and share them with your loved ones.

10. IN CASE THERE's A FREE DAY ON THE TRIP..

In case the group has a free day to themselves, people can share their individual plans for their day with all the others in the group; and see who all wish to join in on those plans!

Last but certainly not the least…

REMEMBER TO..

carry a good amount of sanitizers, gloves and masks on your trip just to be sure and keep yourself as safe as possible from the coronavirus.

You could digitize your travel experiences and all of this using our app, Mavent tech. Be it your vacation plans or office off-sites meetings, not only travel, but also other types of events in your life like weddings, exhibitions, work conferences etc. But that’s a story for another time!

So, the next time you decide to pack that suitcase and go on a trip, (obviously, post the coronavirus pandemic), be sure to minimize all the hassle and stress and go digital!