Will COVID-19 Affect Travel Demand Post-Pandemic?: Say Yes To Travel

John Dekker is the one of the best Travel Agents I know. He’s been in the game for over 20 years with his company, but has worked for airlines, created model airplanes, and grew up with a father in the travel biz. He knows everything about travel!

With over 30 years of experience in the travel industry, he knows everything about the industry. John Dekker dives into the interview sharing tips that all travers can immediate use.

TRAVEL TIP: If you have a flight and need to cancel, wait. If you cancel now, you will get a credit for a future flight, but if you wait, the flight might get canceled. If an airline cancels a flight, you are due a 100 percent refund.

Another great way to get in touch with airlines when the phone lines have long waits is via social media. Twitter is a great way to get in touch with someone from an airline.

Travel Agents are the way to go when it comes to booking travel. OTAs (Online Travel Agents) are much trickier to get refunds and can often times charge additional change fees.

Dekker sees airline travel becoming more expensive in the future. There are great deals now, so if you can, take advantage. But as travel comes back, he sees airlines not coming back as quickly as the demand–thereby making airfare more expensive.

Dekker believes that domestic travel will come to a full stop. The hope is that we come out of this at the end of May, but this is still a big question. Domestically, travel will prove to be tricky as different parts of the country will be on different timelines in regards to the pandemic.

OTAs will suffer greatly from this pandemic, but he foresees more companies selling direct-to-consumers on discounted platforms.

Cruising is expected to bounce back as there are die-hard cruising fans that will not be deterred by the pandemic and the bad press the cruise industry has had.

Airbnb/VRBOs should do well coming out of the pandemic. There is a different mindset when it comes to staying at a home versus a hotel.

Ultimately, this pandemic will shake out the low hanging fruit of the travel industry. The businesses that were doing well before will continue to do well afterwards.

Find him online to book a fab trip at www.surfcitytravel.com

Or on instagram at @johndekkertravel

Say Yes To Travel has a new episode every Thursday!