With the good news of COVID-19 vaccines arriving recently, people in the world are in a wait-and-watch mode to start travel and to resume their businesses.
Local tourism will surely start with the local people who will gain enough confidence to travel when the COVID-19 restrictions are eased after vaccination.
It will take a certain amount of time for international travel in the country.
In a bid to restart tourism post COVID-19, we need to prepare now with the industry’s stakeholders to offer hotels and experiences to local travellers at competitive prices.
It should be the first step in travel and hospitality post COVID-19.
Meanwhile, we need to find new destinations for community-based tourism which can generate income among local communities. Post COVID-19 travel and hospitality enterprises should prepare transformational, conscious and responsible tourism which will take advantage of the inclusiveness and participation of the people in doing tourism by recognizing the importance of the social relations and local cultural traditions.
Community tourism has been promoted in our country because we have diverse traditions and culture of ethnic peoples across the country.
In the post COVID-19 period, every country would try to attract visitors because international travel is a lucrative business that earns huge amounts of money for a country.
In our country, there are many places that are quite uninhabited or far off. Some travellers come with a mindset of being able to be far off and in uninhabited places. But we must be careful. It is important to make sure that the places are not destroyed or spoiled by visitors.
Being least developed at least gives us the opportunity to take lessons from others, and this in itself is a plus, so it is important for us to take these opportunities and make the best out of it. When we plan our travel business and attract visitors, we need to look at the requirements of the whole country.
We should not look at one, two or three places only. The majority of our population need to develop. The travel businesses need to benefit the majority of our people.
GNLM
