FORGING THE FUTURE
THE TRAVEL SECTOR WILL BENEFIT FROM THE INNOVATIVE ADVANCES THAT HAVE BEEN HASTENED BY THE PANDEMIC, SAYS NICK SHAY, HEAD OF TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY AT PUBLICIS SAPIENT
F
or those of you that took regular business trips prior to the pandemic, the hotel breakfast
buffet may have been part of your ritual. While presenting your room number
and being shown to your table, you would give a cursory glance across to assess what was on offer and to decipher the correct protocol for picking up your food and cup of coffee. $QG ZKHQ \RX fiQDOO\ WRRN WKH
plunge, there were the pauses, the sidesteps and the quiet apologies as you did your utmost to avoid your fellow diners without making a fuss. Now, we are living in an era where
the need for more-stringent hygiene protocols and social distancing has put a stop to such rituals that were once so familiar. Will they return and will we ever go back to the way things were? SARS-CoV2 became part of our
vocabulary in early 2020, but according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, coronaviruses were fiUVW LGHQWLfiHG LQ WKH PLG V They are not new. And while the
pandemic will almost certainly end, health experts believe that the virus will continue to circulate within society, with new variants emerging. Moderna hopes to have a booster
shot for its two-dose Covid vaccine available in the autumn, providing further evidence that living with the
NICK SHAY
dissatisfaction, which is not good for business. Earlier this year, it was widely
reported that passengers arriving at Heathrow were facing up to six-hour queues to enter the country. Chris Garton, the airport’s chief solutions RIfiFHU WROG 03V WKDW ȊWKH VLWXDWLRQ LV becoming untenable”. The cause of delays is the need to
process passengers manually to meet regulations and guidelines. Does the passenger have a valid
virus rather than eliminating it is the likely new normal. It is time to accept that things have irreversibly changed and we must now aspire for things to be better than before.
SAFETY VERSUS PROGRESS Every day, I engage with travel and hospitality leaders around the world, and it is clear that they are gently balancing the opportunity provided with recovery alongside their company’s survival. This is both understandable and
essential, but the inconvenient truth is that it is not enough. Without careful attention, a safer experience will be a slower experience that limits customer volumes and drives customer
WHVW" 'RHV WKH WHVW FHUWLfiFDWH PDWFK WKH identity of the passenger travelling? Is the passenger travelling from a red list FRXQWU\" +DYH WKH\ fiOOHG RXW WKH passenger locator form correctly? Do they need to follow test and release? This challenge is temporary, of
course. One day, both travel and health data will be commonly exchanged securely. Biometric gates will recognise the passenger, act on this data and the overall experience will be safer, faster, and better than before. Today, there are a few examples that show promise of a future that is to come. The Good Health Pass Collaborative
is one of several groups pushing for the creation and adoption of digital health pass solutions. One such member is Medical Utility
Network Accreditor (MUNA), which is being used by the Kuwaiti government
28 —SEPTEMBER 2021 —
TRAVOLUTION.CO.UK
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