Travel reservations for domestic vacation travel are starting to rock and roll

In the last 30 days we have seen domestic travel steadily pick up as COVID vaccinations are now approaching 3 million people a day. Tie this positive news to all the pent-up demand as well as the warming spring weather and you have people not only dreaming of traveling but making reservations as well. People are saying, “It’s time to live again” and they are getting out their credit cards and making travel reservations throughout the U.S.

The green light for limited travel to Europe may appear as early as mid-May – Our friends in the U.K. have circled the date of May 17 in the hopes that they can open flights to countries that have the highest levels of vaccinations (like the U.S. and Israel). They are moving to rate each country on a stop-light, red, yellow, green basis and allowing flights to and from those countries based on the percentage of COVID vaccinations in each country.  Green = highest vaccination levels resulting in flights to/from those countries. Many experts are now predicting that the start of European travel, in general, will probably be pushed back into the third quarter of the year, and in some countries my not start until after Labor Day. CLICK HERE to read more. 

Air travel is rebounding but still is 38% below April 2019 numbers – One of the best ways to measure the current state of the travel industry is to compare how many travelers went through TSA checkpoints during the last week. Using that number shows we are still operating at about 2/3 of normal airline passengers. My guess is most of the missing travelers are business travelers who are not yet back into the travel saddle. 

I can’t wait for the return of the breakfast buffet to hotels – One of the biggest causalities of COVID is that almost all hotels stopped serving breakfast buffets to their guests. In place of buffets, some hotels offered brown bag, grab-n-go breakfasts while most just stopped offering buffets altogether. Health directives shut many of them down and some were casualties of cost-cutting. We will know things are getting closer to “Normal” when we start seeing hotels return to offering hot breakfast buffets to guests.  

Delta is saying no more empty middle seats on May 1 – Delta is the last of the major airlines to end blocking middle seats effective May 1, 2021. One year ago when COVID hit us Delta, American, and Southwest Airlines all announced they would block middle seats as added protection for passengers. Now that airplanes are getting more full Delta has decided it is leaving too much revenue on the table by blocking middle seats so wave goodbye to all that shoulder room after May 1. CLICK HERE to read more.  

New luxury hotels being built are including condos as part of the mix – The pandemic is rapidly changing how new luxury hotels are being built. To take out some of the up and down occupancy risks of hotels the new hotels going up are including a large number of luxury condominiums as part of the mix. This stabilizes revenue streams and allows for less financial risk for the developers.  This also means that many luxury hotels in the future will probably have a lot fewer rooms which will allow the hotels to maintain a higher-priced hotel room.  CLICK HERE to read more. 

Celebrate Fall with the Women of the Midwest – The popularity of our women-only journeys is growing with the speed of light and tours are filling up fast. If you want to travel this fall, we still have a few spots open on three awesome itineraries. September 4-10, join our “Fall Celebration”-tour to Boston, Cape Cod, and the Islands, October 8-15, a “Grand Tour” to Mackinac Island and Niagara Falls awaits, and finally, October 24-30, our favorite way of experiencing the “Historic South” still has a few seats left. This tour features Charleston, Savannah, and St. Augustine, and much, much more. CLICK HERE to see all the tours offered – call or email our friendly group department (402) 858-0033 / GroupDepartment@executivetravel.com to learn all the ins and outs of this cool “Travel Solo Together” concept of ours.