Events and high-end tourism: The challenge is between who can be more reassuring

At this difficult time when the world has in any case resumed production, even the Italian Meeting Industry, in order to keep up with increasingly fierce international competition, must organise its own restart with targeted strategies and new, more sustainable methods in line with the new market requirements.

It would be reckless to make predictions on future scenarios today because they are too dependent on imponderable variables related to virus evolution and pharmacological research.

What is certain, and what partly reassures us, is that travel will certainly rebound. Not as quickly and not all at once, but they will bounce back.

People's desire to travel and escape will indeed be much stronger than before.

Experts claim that it will fade away with time, but it will not be fast at all.

It is in fact a real emotional tsunami that must be properly managed.

This is the emerging need of the markets today, the preventive condition to be able to compete, a priority over any other strategic-promotional aspect.

In order to attract the tourist segments, especially the high-end ones (which will be the first to restart), it must be considered that the health and hygiene protocols established by institutions and corporations alone will not be sufficient to overcome travellers' phobias and fears.

This is certainly not because they are ineffective, but only because they will constitute the norm to which everyone will have to adhere.

The winner, attracting business, will be those who manage to be more reassuring than the others.

International hotel brands have already started promoting the strict specifications of their affiliates.

Chinese hotels that are reopening have ongoing campaigns based on hygiene and sanitation prophylaxis, with mailings to agencies and customers informing them of the protocols adopted, with photos of protective clothing worn by cleaning staff, rules for staff hygiene, and procedures and controls for food delivery drivers.