Some­thing big is hap­pe­ning. The­re is undoub­ted­ly news about the on-going Covid-19 pan­de­mic in every sin­gle World’s media right now. Coun­tries around the glo­be are reac­ting to this thre­at one by one as the virus moves forward.

Sud­den­ly ever­y­day life has beco­me very strict and rou­ti­ned on micro level, whe­re­as on macro level, glo­bal­ly, ever­ything esca­la­tes and trans­forms dai­ly. Ever­ything is sta­ble and still so unstable.

Tra­vel has faced its big­gest trans­for­ma­ti­on sin­ce inno­vat­ing motor vehi­cles. Flights are being can­cel­led, bor­ders are clo­sed, ever­y­whe­re has beco­me dan­ge­rous. Liter­al­ly, the who­le World can­cel­led tou­rism; fair enough to note tra­ve­ling still takes place as peop­le need to move around, local­ly at least. What does this all mean for tou­rism in gene­ral? We all know espe­cial­ly short-term los­ses, as eco­no­mi­c­al los­ses but how about long-term bene­fits? Can the­re be a sil­ver lining to all of this hor­ri­fy­ing virus terror?

Tra­vel indus­try has been noted as the 2nd most pol­lu­ting indus­try in the World. As the World has ope­ned up for work and leisu­re tra­vel and made easy by ie. low-cost air­lines, an eco­lo­gi­cal cata­stro­phe has been cree­ping clo­ser and clo­ser under­ne­ath our noses.

Now that the flights, leisu­re trips and most of public trans­port has been can­cel­led (not to for­get a huge drop in pri­va­te dri­ving), Earth seems to be breat­hing again. Air has clea­red in big cities and waters have beco­me clean in some rivers and sea­si­des. Wild­life has star­ted moving ”abnor­mal­ly” clo­se to humans.

Tra­vel indus­try has for long been bet­ween the stone and ham­mer about eco­lo­gi­cal issu­es, and now that the volu­me of trips have drop­ped to mini­mum, we might gain back some­thing that could have been other­wi­se lost. Envi­ron­men­tal batt­le is still on bet­ween ego­ism and what the World needs, but for now it is an excel­lent time for fra­gi­le natu­re to brea­the. Perhaps the cur­rent boom of working from home makes you con­si­der the need of fly­ing out for mee­tings in the future?

As you might be stay­ing at home with your loved ones a lot more than usual­ly, perhaps you appre­cia­te the time tog­e­ther in lon­ger run. A fami­ly holi­day beco­mes some­thing worth plan­ning as time starts to disap­pe­ar for hec­tic ever­y­day life errands. May­be you could con­si­der a domestic holi­day ins­tead of fly­ing afar, saving time with your fami­ly, money and the environment?

We stron­gly belie­ve that some things are meant to chan­ge. What we hope will chan­ge in tou­rism is that peop­le would seek nati­ve expe­ri­en­ces ins­tead of bucket list resorts. Many small entre­pre­neurs offer won­der­ful local ser­vices that won’t fall even if the big­gest cor­po­ra­ti­ons would. This is pos­si­ble becau­se the­se peop­le live on what they give to offer. Their lives won’t stop and chan­ge if the tou­rists disappear.

What even more, we think peop­le might remem­ber for a while that tra­ve­ling and being able to visit new pla­ces is some­thing worth appre­cia­ting. On even big­ger sca­le than only rela­ted to tou­rism, one’s health, free­dom to tra­vel, and clo­seness to fami­ly and friends should not be taken as gran­ted. This pan­de­mic reminds us to enjoy more sim­plistic things in life.

As we speak, thousands of health indus­try workers are figh­t­ing tog­e­ther, ris­king their own health to save lives. We want to remind you that plea­se, stay home and give the­se extra­or­di­na­ry and bra­ve peop­le less worry. The time for tra­ve­ling is not now, but when it again dawns, let’s make it respon­si­b­ly towards each other and the natu­re around us.