David J.
Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org 
Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
NOT Traveling Blog, 4th
Week Of June
What Will It Take To Get Back On The Road
In 2014 I was voted
by USA Today readers as one of the top ten business travel bloggers in the
USA. Now mind you,
I turned out to be number ten on the list of ten, but I did make it on (with my
thanks to all those who voted.) Now
that we’re all stuck at home and not traveling, I had to think about what to do
with my blogs. I could stop writing them
entirely – waiting till we all get through the current COVID19 pandemic /
crisis. I could wax nostalgic and/or
complain about past trips. Or, I could
focus all of my efforts on my day job – growing the use of collaboration
technologies – especially in light of how many people are now forced to use
those tools for the first time. In
reflecting upon those choices, what I decided to do is compile an ongoing list
of observations during the crisis. Some
of these may amuse, some may inform, some may sadden and others may help. My goal will be for you to have seen
something in a different light than you did before you stopped to read the
blog. I was going to apologize for how
disjointed these thoughts may seem when put together, but then it dawned on me
that feeling disjointed is our new normal – at least for a little while.
Thanks to all of you
who have been following my “not traveling” blogs these last few months of
COVID-19 sheltering-in-place. As I’ve
written about extensively, I believe we’re going to be in this mess for quite a
long time. The people who are acting
like its over just because they want it to be over (who I’m now calling Covidiots) will likely have a price to
pay in the near future for not paying enough attention.
In light of my opinions, I was recently asked what it would
take for me to get back on the road. That’s
a fair question to think about. I
realize how lucky I am that I can be just about as effective in my career
remotely as I could be in person, and also that not everyone is in that
position. I understand that deciding not
to travel is a luxury some literally can’t afford, and I won’t criticize them
for the choices they are forced to make.
This blog will be about my thinking and needs. Everyone needs to make their own decisions.
Firstly, 99% of the reasons I would travel for business don’t
exist right now. All of the conferences
and events I’d have attended have been cancelled or postponed. The next business conference on my radar that
is saying it will go on as scheduled is CES
2021 (and a lot can happen between now and then.) But assuming it does go on, that still means there’s
nothing compelling for me to attend until January – six months away.
What’s left is leisure travel, and my wife and I are dying to
get away somewhere. We’re as frustrated
by staying at home as anyone else. But honestly,
I don’t see it in the cards for us.
The reality of this COVID-19 situation is that there is more we
don’t know than we know. There were
media reports about how long the virus stayed viable on different types of
surfaces, but then there were reports that it was found on the cruise ships
weeks after the people left. So I don’t believe
any of it. We just don’t know. Every grocery, every piece of mail, every
delivery that comes into our home is wiped-down with alcohol before we put it
away. Is that paranoid? I’d absolutely love to have enough real data
and science to find out that it is, but for now, to me, before there is a
vaccine or even a viable and effective treatment, it is reasonable caution. In light of that, what would it take to
travel again:
·
To
take a taxi / ride-share again I’d need to believe the protocol used in the cab
matches mine at home. That means wipe down
everything between passengers, ensure that the car’s air filter can remove the
virus.
·
To
rent a car again, it’s essentially the same as the above. I’d want every surface disinfected, and I’d
want the air filter changed and the AC purged between each traveler.
·
To
stay in a hotel again – ugh, give me a break.
We’d need a real societal change that compensated housekeepers commensurate
with the job that is now being asked of them.
Would you sleep on a pillow that someone who had COVID-19 used, just
because the minimum-wage housekeeper changed the pillowcase? I wouldn’t.
Do I trust that housekeeping can manage close to the volume of rooms to
clean that they did before all this and do the job of wiping down every surface
needed? No, I don’t. Perhaps, when more science is in, hotels can
install some sort of UV lighting in each room that cooks any germs left behind
after all the bedding and soft goods like towels and rugs are removed for
thorough cleaning. As room guests depart,
these lights (with some sort of safety that there are no people present) are
turned on to fry the bugs for an hour or two before the room is made-up. That would likely take a long while to get in
place if it even works.
·
To
fly again – which I guess is one of the big issues – I’d need to see video of
airline CEOs and CFOs routinely flying in coach middle seats. No amount of cross-branding or promises about
any new process is going to convince me that the serial liars that run the US
airlines can be trusted with my or my family’s health. If they won’t travel in their worst
experience then I won’t subject myself or my family to it. If the experience is too unsafe or uncomfortable
for them then – if they were humans with any empathy at all – they’d realize
that it’s too unsafe or uncomfortable for the customers they’re supposed to be
caring about. How can anyone even believe
them anymore when they preach about safety being ‘job-one.’
·
To
cruise again – honestly, they couldn’t pay me enough to get on one of those
floating, smelly petri-dishes ever again.
My awful cruise experiences
before this, and more specifically, the nonchalant way the company responded
to them, tell me all I need to know about trusting them.
In addition to all the above, we have to acknowledge the need
to eat on the road. If I don’t even
trust my neighborhood restaurants enough to eat there, how can I possibly trust
the one’s I’d need to eat-in when traveling?
Take a look at this
Twitter thread from a waiter of a recently re-opened bar / restaurant for
how the service staff at these places really feels.
So, the bottom line for me is a whole bunch of things would
need to change before I’d ever travel again – many of them neither likely nor
practical. Traveling is not something I’ll
be doing – short of in a hazmat suit with my own packed food – until there is a
vaccine or treatment. As a follower of
science I realize that work on human vaccines for coronaviruses has never been
successful before. I’m hopeful that the
increased attention can change that, but the way 2020 is going, I’m not
confident about that success. I have
more faith that scientists – given the appropriate amount of time – will develop
an effective treatment for people who do catch the COVID-19 virus. That would be the lynchpin to get me to start
traveling again like I did before all this.
So again, am I being paranoid? Nothing would make me happier than having enough
real data and science for that to be proven true.
As always, please feel free to write to me with comments or
items I should add to a future Not Traveling blog (or if you just need someone
to write to.) Stay safe, be well, hug
those you’re sheltering with (but no one else) and do your best to stay
positive. We’re going to be in this for
a long while.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.