The worldwide hospitality industry has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with experts forecasting that it will take hotels, resorts, and other areas months if not years to recover from the impact and once again turn a profit.

The fall of the pandemic at a time when most individuals would have been booking and planning their upcoming holidays has had a disastrous effect on the industry, with hotels all over the world having to refund, cancel and shift bookings to late summer and beyond – with some resorts unable to open even now due to the new regulations and restrictions in place. The summer of 2020 – the time of the year when most families look to go abroad for long-awaited holidays – is on hold, with a large percentage of the population choosing to remain in their home country and instead enjoy a “staycation”.

So, what does that mean for the industry – and what happens next?

Responding to the shift in 2020 travel plans

 Nobody knows that the next announcements and updates with entail; whether they will follow an easing of further restrictions or impose new ones in light of a fresh wave of the virus.

Adapting the hospitality sector to fit with these ongoing changes is one of the biggest challenges the industry has ever faced, with lockdowns and restrictions calling for face masks, social distancing and isolation – none of which are conducive to the generic idea of a summer holiday, but all of which are necessary to ensure the highest levels of safety for guests.

As such, the immediate future calls for a shift in the way that the public approach holidays – and a similar shift in the way that the industry caters for and to different travellers. One way of doing this is to offer new and innovative means of following social distancing guidelines without impacting the luxury nature of a hotel stay – for example with secluded suites and accommodation options which allows guests to keep within their own small parties of company.

Some of the best examples of this are already part of the widespread hospitality sector, though had previously always been reserved for the most high-end travellers – namely luxury treehouse stays in the heart of the countryside, and Adharia’s luxury floating suites which float atop bodies of natural water. Do new travel restrictions mean that these types of hotels and resorts will increase in popularity with the mass population? We anticipate that this could well be the case.

Plans for a long term future in the hospitality industry

 In the long run, we can safely assume that hotels, resorts and even restaurants will be looking for ways to make social distancing as easy and enjoyable as possible – finding creative solutions which ensure guests uphold all long term restrictions while making the overall effect of these on their experience as minimal as possible.

It seems inevitable that we are facing a future shrouded in “the new normal”, and it is up to the hospitality industry to find ways to turn this into an opportunity rather than become lost in the challenge.