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Yorkshire Times
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9:00 AM 12th May 2020
travel

Corona Shapes Holiday Trends – Travel Boss

 
The continuing lockdown will play a key part in shaping what type of holidays people book later this year and beyond.

That’s according to Rebecca Masri, founder of Little Emperors, the private members luxury hotel club.

She said: “The fear given to people of crowded places, where you are more susceptible to catching this virus, has led to a craving for open spaces.

“I believe this will also become a trend in future travel plans, initially domestic travel, the English Countryside, Normandy for the Parisians, and then when people are confident enough to fly again, long empty beaches in the Maldives, the jungle in Costa Rica, drives through the Amalfi coast, rainforests in Bali, safari in Tanzania, deserts in Utah, island hopping in Greece, waterfalls, practising mindfulness outdoors and using nature to recharge and reset.”

The result, she said, would bring about a shift in how many of the world’s luxury hotels responded.

“Many will implement new policies and measures surrounding hygiene, safety and cleanliness. The reality is we will be travelling with the virus still around and without a vaccination readily in place globally, and so luxury hotels will be looking at ways to protect the overall health and wellbeing of their guests. This will go beyond just having necessary cleaning protocols in place as this will be expected.

“For instance, I think we can expect to see spas and hotels around the world testing customers for covid-19 on arrival or temperature checks on arrival, more and more hotels using apps for contactless arrival and departure, keyless entry, touch-free hand sanitizer stations in lobbies, advanced technology driven cleaning tools such as germ-detecting ultraviolet lighting in rooms, hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes in all rooms for guests to use, and the removal of mini bars for fear that they bring in germs to the rooms.

“Cleaning may be done with hospital-grade disinfectants with increased frequency. Perhaps hotels will remove and rearrange furniture in common areas to allow more space and distancing, and rooms may have less complicated designs with fewer touch points, and easy to clean surfaces. The overall reduction of touch points is a given, with more features like automatic doors and elevators.”

Little Emperors annual membership fees starts from £250. Tel + 44 203 178 4984 or email info@littleemperors.com