Charting the transformation of travel in Asia Pacific

The cumulative economic and emotional impact of COVID-19 is starting to bite.

Asia Pacific’s prolonged pause in travel is resulting in business closures. Debts and defaults are rising. Livelihoods are being lost. New lifestyles shaped during the 2010s are being eroded. Pessimism prevails where previously buoyant expectations uplifted.

The entire infrastructure of travel is being reshaped.

Airline fleets are grounded. Travel agents, hotel staff and destination guides are displaced or on hiatus. Domestic travellers are spending cautiously.

Inevitably, attentions are turning to vaccine distribution. The “magic bullet”.

In these bewildering times, a travel recovery seems forlorn without one.

Amid the gloom, we can prepare for a Travel Re:Set. A belief within all of us that the experiences of 2020 must not overcome us.

There is hope for experimentation and improvisation. For transformation. For travel to shake itself from an obsession with statistical growth. To rebuild better. Restore hope. And bring people together once more.

Because, having been bitten by the travel bug, we still want more. We yearn to explore again. To aspire, to discover, to meet and to eat in unfamiliar surroundings.

Travel provides meaning, it engenders hope. And it challenges bias, division and exclusion.

Asia Travel Re:Set has no mission statement.

It is a new resource for travel professionals, researchers and students. Twice weekly, I will try to chart travel developments across the region as we enter an uncertain era.

Please join me on a journey into Asia’s Travel Re:Set. There’s much more to come…

Thanks for being onboard.

Gary