Travel plans on hold?
Join the club.
Dreaming of road trips to great new destinations may well be a sanity saver for those of us around the world in locked-down isolation.
As recently as three weeks ago I was holding on to the (rapidly fading) hope that the Lady Driver and I would be on our way to Barcelona to board a cruise liner for a week’s wandering in the western Med, to be followed by a week-long road trip in Spain.
And something else. I was to celebrate one of those Big Birthdays in Barcelona. Never you mind which one, let’s just say it was Very Big Birthday. I had even booked a real flash hotel for the event.
As a good mate of mine used to say: How sad. Too bad. Never mind.
Today it seems the whole world has shut down. Well, anywhere you might want to go has certainly put up the barricades.
There are countries that still allow travelers to arrive, but would you want go there?
Would you hell!
So spend the time you have on your hands planning new travel adventures.
One thing is for sure: The travel industry will never be the same but it will always be there . . . our desire to experience all that wandering the world offers is just too great.
Who knows which airlines will survive the present economic blood-bath. What effect will that have on fares?
Interesting notion from Greg Foran, the new CEO of Air New Zealand. (Poor bugger, started his new job a couple of months ago and fairly much his first task was to close down 85% of the airline’s flight schedule).
He predicts that when the dust clears there will be a lot of airline casualties which will result in a lot of aircraft being dumped on the market.
As the late, great Kenny Rogers said in his ballad, The Gambler, “Every hand’s a winner, and every hand’s a loser”.
So for some the industry carnage will be an opportunity.
One of the earlier posts on my Instagram page quoted an old Chinese definition of a crisis: “Opportunity riding a dangerous wind”.
Out of the wreckage, Foran reckons new airlines will emerge, having picked up aircraft at distressed-sale prices. That cost structure will allow them to offer cheaper air fares.
If he is right we might still be able to flit off to foreign climes much as before.
So, now that you are stuck at home for a while, use the time to plan for your next, and subsequent, bucket-list holidays.
If nothing else it may help keep you sane, or at least less stressed.
Dream about those places you’ve always wanted to visit. Start a digital scrapbook of things you want to see and experience. Foods you want to try. Adventures activities that will get your adrenalin pumping. Ancient sites to marvel at. Great works of art to behold. Shopping to deplete the credit card balance. Interesting people to meet. Scenery that excites the inner eye. Interactions with the natural world. Flying. Walking. Riding. Diving. Climbing.
All the things that make travel the rewarding experience it is.
Eventually, for good or ill, this crisis will pass and we will gradually return to a new “normality”.
Eventually there will come a time when there is spare cash to splash on a brand new venture into the truly wonderful world that will still be there after this all passes into history.
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