Birdwing ran a quick survey targeting the travellers (not specific to wildlife tourism) from 09th June 2020 to 12th June 2020 – 4 days.
The survey form was only shared on Social media handles of Birdwing and their respective photo mentor’s social media profiles. The survey was not advertised to a larger audience. Objective was to obtain the data as relevant as possible.
We wish to thank people who participated in this survey to begin with.
Timeline of COVID-19 Pandemic in India
The map below shows the timeline of COVID-19 spread across India starting 30th January 2020 to – 3rd April 2020. (Source: Wikipedia)
By Shanze1 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
COVID-19 Cases as of 16-June-2020
COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India
Phase 1
25 March – 14 April
21 Days
Phase 2
15 April – 3 May
19 days
Phase 3
4 May – 17 May
14 days
Phase 4
18 May – 31 May
14 days
Phase 5
Only for containment zones:
1 June 2020 – ongoing (16 days);
Scheduled to end on 30 June 2020
Status at the time this article was published.
The MHA issued fresh guidelines for the month of June, stating that the phases of reopening would “have an economic focus”. Lockdown restrictions would only be imposed in containment zones, while activities would be permitted in other zones in a phased manner. This first phase of reopening is termed as “Unlock 1”.
Each state has recommended quarantine rule for inter-state travellers. At this stage most of the air travel has been relaxed, few national parks have opened their gate for wildlife enthusiasts and wildlife photographers to visit before the parks closes for monsoon.
Why this survey?
It’s evident that the entire economy has crippled and still we don’t have any clue on when and where this situation is going to take everyone.
We as an established travel company in the tourism sector where our Photo tours have come to a halt, we wanted to take a stock on where we are and what is the current situation from a travellers perspective. This situation has definitely changed the dynamics of the travel industry. Before this pandemic hit us, we use to pack our bags and head to our favourite place to spend our weekend or to be in the midst of wilderness. This has changed!
It was imperative to know how this behaviour will change with our travellers and also to understand how to align ourselves with respect to future travel.
Data Collection
- Sample data was collected from approx 80-85 people.
- We targeted travellers from various work background.
- Gender of the traveller was not captured. (To keep the answers unbiased).
- Questions were based on their work background, financial status (post COVID-19) and their opinion on how this COVID-19 has impacted their travel thought process.
Survey Results
Sector
Industry
Earnings
Travel option
Ready to travel
Conclusion
- We have selected the top two answers given by participants to keep it crisp.
- Earnings during this Pandemic has marginally affected majority of the participants, which suggests their spend capacity might go down till they recover financially.
- The fear among the general crowd is that this pandemic might last for close to 6 months to 12 months, which suggests they might not travel on leisure or adventure.
- As the lockdown eases, the data suggests that travellers might choose to travel within their state of residence and will not prefer long distance travel.
- Travellers might be comfortable traveling starting January 2021.
Our action points
- We have advised our travel partners (Service providers) about the MoHFW guidelines and preventive measures to be taken.
- By default, our clients who enroll on our travel programme will be given Single Supplement accommodation till further notice from MoHFW.
- If they are a couple from same family, they will be given a choice between Single Supplement vs double share.
- Participants to take pre-travel tests to have a comfort factor within the travel group.
- As a responsibile citizen, its our utmost duty to stay safe and maintain social distancing all throughout the travel, hence participants will be asked to travel alone or with maximum one more person along with them.
- As a responsible travel company, we will be taking all the precautions and adhere to the guidelines provided by MoHFW.
We hope this pandemic will die down soon for us to travel again to our favourite forests, mountains or river.
We hope to see you soon on our tours.
