The Future Travel in America
Story by Noah Wright | Photos by Lexi Wicks | Design by Sara Roach
You have just arrived at SeaTac International Airport. Your bags are packed and the hotel is booked — the feeling of eagerness arises as you get ready to board the flight for your dream vacation just like they do in the movies. But the movie scenes are dreams compared to what traveling is like now amid the pandemic.
Currently, airports are experiencing multiple closed shops, flights are now requiring seat vacancies, airlines are providing decreased flight options and hotels are accommodating less and less occupants every day.
But the nightmare that is traveling especially haunts the people and businesses that make up the travel industry. For these people, the vacant seats, lesser accommodations, closed shops and decreased flight options are more than just minor inconveniences.
Current Problems
According to Louis Smilanich, general manager of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, “In March and April there was a 95 percent drop in bookings.” With business travels being a key to airline profits, this extreme drop in bookings has put the industry under tremendous stress.
While there are still small amounts of leisure travel, the number of people taking weekend vacations is not enough for the industry to get by. “The cost structure is not at the same pace if we are only flying weekend travelers,” explains Smilanich.
With the comfortability businesses have gotten with the virtual work setting, limited business travel may continue to be a problem. The ease of having meetings over the computer or phone has shown to businesses that they may no longer need to send employees on trips to conventions or seminars.
“Hotels are hurting”, says Justin Taillon, professor and department head of the Hospitality and Tourism Program at Highline College. “Every hotel is making less than 50 percent than last year [and] 8 percent of the hotels have closed fully.”
Taillon explains, the hotels near SeaTac are doing relatively well because of passengers that require quarantine upon arrival, mostly due to ease and availability. However, these hotels are making nowhere near enough to offset the hotels that are struggling.
This issue can be alarming to many because if hotels get to the point that they foreclose, then there is no coming back. Taillon notes that once a bank takes control of a hotel, they no longer run it as a hotel and the building is then sold or remodeled.
Finding Solutions
Smilanich notes that “government subsidies are in place because if airlines shut down, the economy will be negatively impacted.” Most airlines have adjusted flight schedules to flights that have only been partially loaded. “Cleveland Hopkins at one point had two flights a day in May and four … flights a day in June,” recalls Smilanich.
According to Taillon, airlines have also laid off a number of workers, usually those that are the least experienced and those that are non-essential, in an attempt to decrease costs.
The major combative effort of airlines is the teaching of workers and travelers. Taillon says that airports are “focusing more on COVID-19 related hygiene practices. We have to get people to follow COVID protocols.”
Smilanich similarly explains, in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the airlines were primarily focused on rescheduling and dealing with customers. But now the problem is “trying to keep, at one point, 80,000 employees [aware of] changes.”
As for hotels, Taillon says, there isn’t much to be done. Besides giving building owners discounts, “the hotels have closed floors to reduce the operating numbers so that they can save money.” They have also “laid off employees that were not essential,” he adds.
As for the problem of businesses working in the virtual setting, there isn’t much to be done. Businesses will either start traveling again, or they will settle into the virtual setting.
However, Carla Jellum, assistant professor and program director of Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management (HTE) at CWU, says, “Virtual tools and technology are being discussed in HTE courses. New courses are under development to not only address virtual/digital technology, but also cover virtual marketing and participant engagement, among other relevant topics.”
Education is one of the major factors that can help aid this industry in surviving future economic events. Jellum says, “The HTE industry has been extremely impacted by COVID-19 and it is critical to incorporate discussions about the trends, challenges and resiliency of our industry in the classroom.”
The travel industry is vital to the economy and “recovery of jobs will take time, but as people demand more travel, jobs will return,” promises Jellum.
