Does the Future of Travel lie in Relationships?
Over the weekend, the UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, was reported as saying that it was too early to start booking summer holidays. As a result of this, I followed a few threads on Twitter and this was an example of the type of response that the Foreign Secretary’s comments garnered:
“Anybody that books a holiday should be prepared to loose their money at short notice.”
There were other, more critical comments typical of Twitter, best ignored, but it did make me think about the future of travel following this wretched period in our collective lives. In truth, Andrew and I have done little but think about the future of travel ever since this pandemic began to affect our lives back in March 2020. With our Bed & Breakfast business, and our Granada Concierge portfolio, we are but a tiny cog in the workings of the worldwide travel and tourism sector. However, there are many, many small businesses like ours that make up the worldwide travel sector and without us there wouldn’t be nearly so much excitement and adventure when it comes to the thrills of travel.
After the first lockdown, it frustrated me that the travel press, so long suppressed by the inability to travel, immediately appeared to jump on the promotion of coastal destinations such as Benidorm, and tourist hotspots like Ibiza. Of course, when reporting on the future of travel, traditional tourism hotspots are bound to be a part of the recovery plan. However, I think this pandemic has provided an opportunity to examine closely many aspects of our lives that actually might not work very well in the future.
When I worked in the UK, I spent much of the time advising and educating businesses on the commercial benefits of inclusive design, inclusion and diversity, and one topic that came up repeatedly was the death of the high street and how this could best be avoided. Very few people had a magic wand and it was down to a few individuals, like Mary Portas, to try and come up with a cure-all to prevent the obliteration of community retail and services. Although I am digressing slightly from the travel topic, the frustration remains the same. To me, the fact that so many people now have to work from home provides the very exciting opportunity to use this time to revitalise the communities in which remote workers find themselves. Instead of appealing to workers to return to their offices at the earliest opportunity, in case this resulted in the downfall of Pret-a-Manger, I feel strongly that the UK government should be using this opportunity to encourage home working alongside the rebuilding of local communities, and they should be thinking creatively about the opportunities across the country for the regeneration of local communities. The drive to shove employees back in the main commercial centres just lacks imagination.
The same thinking applies to travel, in my opinion. Should we be thinking about a return to the travel of before which included overcrowded resorts, or is this an opportunity for us to discover a new way to travel.
Obviously, our knowledge and experience is fairly parochial, and we wouldn’t want to speak for the travel industry as a whole. However, for some time, the Spanish government has been trying to explore ways of moving attention away from the Costas, where spend-per-head is pretty low, and divert attention inland with a view to attracting the higher spending, independent explorer. Mallorca managed to do this very successfully with the strategy to develop old farm buildings into boutique accommodation through the agroturismo initiative. This successfully diverted attention away from the package holiday hotspots of Magaluf and Palma Nova and rebuilt a reputation on celebrity glamour, architectural style, the natural beauty of the island, the food and wine.
Mainland Spain is a much larger land mass, and there are vast areas where luxury travel would be almost impossible to nurture. However, as we face the future of travel, Spain does have everything necessary to persuade the potentially hesitant holidaymaker to take those first steps safely back into the world.
Rural depopulation in Spain is a serious problem and there are many inland areas where the population is fewer than 10 people per km2. If you are looking for natural social distancing, then this is one of the countries in which to find it! Young people have had to leave rural communities in their search for work, and as older generations die out, the community numbers are simply not being replenished. A report into Rural Depopulation in Spain, published by the Centre for Studies on Depopulation and Development of Rural Areas, concluded their research by stating:
““The sparsely populated territories exemplify like no other the contradictions of development, which despite having more than acceptable economic indicators in terms of income, wealth and employment levels, expectations are negative and are often initially unattractive places to live. However, if one looks at its potential, these territories can become places of opportunity.””
In the same way that the UK government could take this opportunity to look creatively at their own rural communities and find the opportunities around the recent changes in work patterns, collectively we can change the way we look at travel.
Travel is not just about the two-week-long break in a large hotel slap-bang on the beach, although this will continue to be what many people yearn for. Travel and tourism has such a vital role to play in terms of sustainability and responsibility. We see this in our own very small community. When we first moved here, the first question posed by the villagers was whether or not we would be living here permanently or temporarily. To the residents of these small, historic villages this is a vitally important question as it helps determine whether or not the village has a future. Our own village of Moclín is considered to be at risk from rural depopulation and, apart from agriculture and construction, there are few other opportunities for work. Sustainable, cultural tourism is a vital lifeline and it needs to be developed, quickly and sensitively. This goes hand in hand, we feel, with the purchasing of property in these areas. In our own small way, we urge anyone thinking of buying a property in rural Spain that, with it, comes a responsibility to play a part in the future of the community in which they choose to live. We have friends in the village here, and by their own admission their Spanish language is limited. This has not, however, prevented them from throwing themselves into the very heart of village life and making a contribution that means everything to the local population. They became close friends with the owner of one of the village bars, helped with the olive harvest (which is no mean feat as this is hard, manual labour!) and were devastated when the bar owner sadly died during this pandemic. It doesn’t take much to make a massive difference here.
“Travel and tourism has such a vital role to play in terms of sustainability and responsibility. ”
So, when considering travel for the future, we should bear that in mind - it doesn’t take much to make a huge difference. Our corner of Spain is one small area that offers opportunity - the opportunity to rediscover nature, be in the wild, be surrounded by unfathomable depths of history, sink blissfully into a rich cultural heritage. But imagine the impact wrought by such travel, and what it means to the local community. It can mean the difference between survival of the village, or its demise. Perhaps we should now consider travel to be a relationship rather than a one-sided experience. For some years now, this brand of experiential travel has been very much in vogue - immersive adventures that allow the visitor to get under the skin of the country they are visiting. We don’t have to travel to the other side of the world for this type of adventure. Adventures are right on our doorsteps, and together local communities and travellers, through their relationship, can create the most enriching experiences for both parties.
