The MSC Orchestra in Venice earlier this month. Photo: AP
The sight of the 92,409-ton and 294-meter-long MSC Orchestra, which arrived in Venice on June 3, 2021, raised the alarm bells. The problem was not so much the tourists on board as the route the ship took across the city’s lagoon, an ominous throw-in into a majestic panorama. The giant’s arrival comes just under two months after the Italian government announced a ban on cruise ships through the Venice lagoon. It is a reminder that once again a scourge from the past knocked on the door.
Cruise traffic in Venice came to a standstill in 2020 due to the pandemic. The same happened in other Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean ports that had suffered from over-tourism, such as Dubrovnik, Santorini, Kotor and Barcelona. Despite the damage to the local tourism industry, many locals enjoyed the absence of tourists as they returned to their favorite cafes and strolled around without avoiding the camera-swinging hordes.
For all its horrors, the pandemic healed a few things about travel that needed to be fixed – but will they be fixed forever or just suspended?
Bad behavior in the sky
Photo: Getty Images
Now that we can get on a plane and fly to a nice place, you might think air travelers would be grateful and compliant, but not everyone thinks that way. Instead, the pandemic has added another source of complaint to flyers with a heightened sense of entitlement. Some people refuse to have their civil rights violated by telling them to wear a mask while flying, and they are willing to go for a few laps with anyone who tells them otherwise.
The Gold Bad Behavior Award goes to a passenger on a JetBlue flight from the Dominican Republic to New York who refused to wear a mask, threw food and an empty alcohol bottle, yelled profanity and fought with cabin crew. She landed back in the Dominican Republic instead of New York when her flight made a U-turn, facing a potential fine of over $ 30,000.
At the other end of the scale, some extremely cautious travelers have flown head-to-toe in PPE equipment. A germophobia was booted from a United Airlines flight after trying to wear a narwall mask, an airtight full face cover with a snorkel air filter. Russian airline Aeroflot now has a special area in the back of the aircraft for passengers who don’t want to hide.
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Nature has returned, but is withdrawing again
Mountain goats roam the streets of LLandudno in Wales during lockdowns last March. Photo: Getty Images
Fewer travelers, cruises, and flights gave Mother Nature a break in 2020, and wildlife quickly benefited. Wild goats Strolled through a quiet village in North Wales, Pumas haunted the streets of Chile’s capital, Santiago, and wild boars became rubbish divers in Haifa, Israel. After decades of absence, sea turtles have returned to some beaches in Thailand and Malaysia to lay their eggs in sand caves. Fewer cruises along the west coast of Canada meant less propeller noise interfering with whale communication, and marine scientists heard whale songs they had never heard before.
It wasn’t all good news. Poaching increased in parts of India and southern Africa. Some animals that depend on tourism for their daily bread – elephant rides in India and Thailand, pigeons in European cities – were given short rations that brought them close to starvation where some are still floating.
The air was fresher. The Year Earth Changed, a documentary narrated by David Attenborough, reported that, for the first time in decades, people in the northern Indian city of Jalandhar saw the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas more than 150 kilometers away. Global carbon dioxide emissions fell by seven percent due to lockdowns and the slowdown in business and leisure travel, according to climate research data. That is already changing. In May 2021, a measuring station in Hawaii recorded the highest atmospheric carbon dioxide content ever measured in the facility.
See also: Do you think nature will return without tourists? Think again
Overtourism
The Mediterranean and Caribbean ports, which have suffered the most from overtourism, mainly driven by giant cruise lines, will be quieter this year, but the appetite for cruises remains high. If everything is going well this northern summer and there are no new unchecked outbreaks on cruise lines, expect the industry to ramp up during 2022 and near its full strength in 2023, with the number of ships only built in the 1990s, to go to the deck yards.
Carnival Corporation, the name behind the Princess, Carnival, Cunard, Costa and Holland America cruise lines, has reduced its fleet by 19 ships, but some are being renamed to operate under the flags of other cruise lines. Locals in Venice, Barcelona and Dubrovnik might howl, but the protests are drowned out by the local tourism industry.
Air travel is uncomfortable again
Air traffic fell off a cliff following the 2020 pandemic outbreak. For anyone who flew into April, flying felt like a joy and a privilege. The queues evaporated, the flights were almost empty, the security clearance was quick and friendly and the flight crew smiled – at least as far as you could tell from someone with a face mask. It was like traveling back in time, but it didn’t survive. The pent-up demand for travel and the return of business travel mean the crowds are back while COVID-19 protocols add another layer of control to the aviation business.
See also: Get well soon: Seven things in travel that won’t come back
See also: If you are not a “high quality” tourist, there are places that you no longer want
