Nowadays the world is going through a new era that has never been lived. Society is experiencing a change due to the pandemic and the “post-corona world” is an emerging concept within the tourism sector. Or, as some tourism bloggers have said, “we should rather ask ourselves what to do in a COVID world”. The world of tourism is also experiencing a change and it’s evolving from famous and crowded places to inhospitable and unowned villages with their own and personal cultures and heritage. The corona crisis has made many travellers realize how much they appreciate wide open landscapes, different cultures, flavours, and the sense of freedom.
We have spoken with different leading bloggers from the world of travel and we have asked them their opinions about travelling nowadays. They all have agreed in many aspects, of which stand out sustainable tourism, support the local economy, and focus on quality rather than quantity.
“There are tons of places that would deserve to be discovered and are not crowded at all, I guess this is the right time to encourage people to go there”, said Laurène Philippot, from the blog Carnet d’escapades. Why go to Rome if we can discover a hilltop village in Molise? Why Mykonos, when Astypalea is a better opportunity to immerse ourselves with the local culture? According to the bloggers, now is the perfect moment to bet for small programmes whereby people can meet up with two or three locals and explore their home with them. Becki Enright, from the blog Borders of Adventure, knows what we are talking about and says that she is fascinated by cultures different from her own, that she is always looking for connections and she loves meeting people who can show her a deeper side to a destination.
Because why is it better than meeting locals and taking their own advice? Michael Turtle, from Time Travel Turtle, says that he “looks for what locals want to show you, rather than what big travel agencies are trying to convince you to do. I look for things that I have never heard of before I started researching”.
Furthermore, according to Simon Falvo, from Wild About Travel, getting lost is one of the best activities to discover the city or the town while just wandering in the streets and the alleys.
We can travel to empower and employ locals while enriching our experience as travellers, and this leads us to the following topic, sustainable tourism, the kind that directly supports local communities while also being mindful of the environment, according to Shivya Nath, from the blog The Shooting Star. All of them forgot the era of taking the cheapest option and rejoicing in budget travel or booking a trip based on a whim, and instead, they propose to travel with purpose and social good. They think that society needs to dig deeper into what companies, platforms, and services we use because the accountability of where our money is being spent is important.