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The good news about Covid-19 vaccines has been on the rise this month, and with it, an increase in inquiries to travel agents about what these medical advances could mean for travel in 2021.
Calls don’t always lead to reservations, advisers said, and while the good news is tempered in part by rising cases across the country, consumer response to news of the vaccine appears to reflect high levels of pent-up demand. and announce the incipient return of broad consumer confidence to travel.
On November 9, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that preliminary data indicates that their vaccine is more than 90% effective. A week later, Moderna said on Nov. 16 that preliminary analysis found its vaccine was more than 94.5% effective. And just before Thanksgiving, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said preliminary data found that their vaccine was up to 90% effective.
“An hour after Pfizer announced its vaccine, we started getting calls,” said Helen Papa, owner of TBH Travel in Dix Hills, NY. “In an hour. It was amazing.”
Cruise lines also saw some positive effects attributable to the vaccine news. During Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ latest financial results call, the day after the Pfizer news, Chairman and CEO Frank Del Rio said the previous 24-hour bookings were “pretty good, better than four or five. previous Mondays “.
“And that, I think, is attributable to the news of the vaccine,” he said. “We didn’t have any particular promotions and we didn’t do any large marketing.”
Similarly, Royal Caribbean Group Chairman Richard Fain addressed the issue of positive news about vaccines during Travel Weekly’s CruiseWorld, which was held practically earlier this month.
“I don’t think it’s surprising to anyone that when the news is scary, people tend to go back to their cocoons,” Fain said. “As the news gets more positive, it comes out. What’s encouraging is how quickly they respond.”
After the news broke from Pfizer and Moderna, Skyscanner found that searches for travel from the US to Mexico exceeded their weekly volume from last year, up 10%. Skyscanner also attributed that increase to vaccine news.
Helen Papa
For Dad, some of the inquiries he received at TBH have turned into reservations. Clients are “cautiously optimistic,” he said.
Across the country from Papa, Coastline Travel Advisors in Garden Grove, California, also received a series of emails and calls from clients following the vaccine announcements, according to President Jay Johnson.
While there has been a general sense of optimism and more confidence in the return of travel for next summer, he said, the influx of inquiries has yet to lead to new business.
“There is certainly a lot of pent-up demand for travel in 2021,” Johnson said. “All we need now is confirmation that the vaccines are working and a reduction in cases. Then we will be ready.”
Joshua Bush
Avenue Two Travel in Villanova, Pennsylvania, saw both calls and bookings spike as a result of positive news about the vaccine, but that was tempered by the growing number of cases across the country, Chief Executive Officer Joshua said. Bush.
Avenue Two has seen steady increases in travel week-over-week since mid-August, thanks to domestic travel and customers dreaming of traveling in 2021, Bush said. In addition to the closest domestic reservations, Avenue Two has even been booking things like world cruise segments and expedition trips. Overall, business has fallen roughly 70% year-over-year, but better than the 95% to 97% it was when the pandemic first struck.
The week before Pfizer announced the effectiveness of its vaccine, the business was “absolutely dead”, which Bush attributed to the unstable US presidential elections.
But the week of November 16, Bush said, “with the election result [more widely accepted] and the vaccine … we are on track for our best week this year since Covid. ”Those bookings were for both the holiday season and 2021, as travelers are becoming more optimistic about a vaccine.
At the same time, the good news is offset by increasing cases and deaths around the world, especially in the US.
“We are hitting historic death toll,” Bush said. “We are reaching big cases on individual days. That’s really kind of squashing the news that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are definitely still in this.”
In some places, however, travelers have shown less concern about traveling during the pandemic, and the news of the vaccines was similar to an incident. Jeanne Polocheck, owner of Well Traveled Texan in Houston, said her Texas-based clients continued to travel during the pandemic. Initially, things had slowed down earlier this year, but by Memorial Day customers were out of place again, a trend that has continued. Domestic places and Mexico have been popular.
He didn’t even get a phone call from a customer about vaccines.
A potential obstacle to recovery from travel is the reluctance of some people to get vaccinated. A Gallup poll conducted between October 19 and November 1, before the results of the vaccine trial were announced, indicated that 58% of adults surveyed were willing to get vaccinated, an increase from 50% in September. .
Long-term and significant reluctance to get vaccinated will likely present roadblocks to overcome when it comes to travel in the future, said Ensemble Travel Group CEO David Harris.
He pointed out the flu vaccine: It has been available for decades, but a portion of the population skips it every year.
However, he is more hopeful about a Covid vaccine, given how severe the impact of the virus has been. While a vaccine will never be 100% effective, it could go a long way toward resuming travel, he said, by giving governments confidence to relax quarantine requirements and other deterrents to travel.
“Those should, in theory, be relaxed if you get traction from an effective vaccine,” he said.
Johanna Jainchill contributed to this report.
