Mar 7, 2021 3 min read

President Joe Biden’s announcement last week that the United States expects to take delivery of enough coronavirus vaccines for all adults in this country to receive vaccinations by the end of May is a big step in the battle against the pandemic.

If that indeed happens, that would be two months earlier than the administration’s previous estimate.

The most formidable challenge beyond that will be getting the vaccines administered as quickly as possible – a task that will test the best coordination that the states and federal government can muster.

However, success on those two objectives won’t produce an all-encompassing cure-all. The troubling impacts from the coronavirus are destined to linger for years.

A Feb. 22 Wall Street Journal report contained information about which tourism-dependent regions should be troubled although not surprised, considering all that the pandemic has wreaked on the economic and health fronts over the past year.

There remains a window of opportunity, nevertheless, to promote tourism assets in a meaningful, effective way amid the daunting challenges that are destined to persist in the months and years ahead.

The key will be the ability to capitalize on whatever opportunities are forthcoming by using the best public relations instincts to get the message out about what exciting tourism opportunities are available.

Nevertheless, the information in the Feb. 22 Journal report does not bode well for tourism in this second year of the coronavirus’ presence, if everything comes to pass in the way the article says it might.

According to the Journal, the United Nations World Tourism Organization has concluded that prospects for a 2021 rebound have worsened, after having polled experts on the issue last October and in January.

In October, 79% of experts polled believed that a 2021 rebound was possible, and only 50% expressed that belief in January, with some 41% thinking travel would not reach pre-pandemic levels until 2024 or beyond.

On the lodging front, hotel-data company STR and Tourism Economics are jointly predicting that demand for hotels won’t return to 2019 levels until 2023, with room prices not fully recovering until 2025.

Meanwhile, travel-market research firm Phocuswright was quoted in the Journal report as saying gross travel bookings in the United States, including hotels, air tickets and car rentals, still are expected to be below 2019 levels in 2024.

The U.N. World Tourism Organization branded 2020 as the worst year for tourism on record, with one billion fewer international arrivals. That said, it also is unclear when people will feel comfortable about traveling in the future.

Suffice to say, areas that are dependent upon tourism cannot sit back and merely watch the coming tourism season evaporate because of not having adequate planning in place for reacting quickly and correctly to positive developments.

Beyond that, lessons learned from the pandemic should be embraced as building blocks for a better, more organized overall tourism effort after COVID-19 becomes a defeated enemy.