Travel PR and Coronavirus Recovery – Finding Success and Hope Amid the Crisis

As we write this, we are well over a month into navigating the pandemic’s impact on the hospitality industry. Like many of you, it has been hard for us not to only focus on how difficult things have been or how worried we might be for our hospitality PR clients and the industry as a whole. Recently, however, we have made an effort to shift our collective mindset to focus on positivity and the ways in which we’ve found creativity and success as one of the top travel PR agencies, setting the stage for coronavirus recovery. Our top priority is to ensure we are still working strategically for our travel PR clients, leading us to a few particularly successful opportunities shared below.

We’re also continuing to remain hopeful for the travel and hospitality industries.  With this in mind, we’ve concluded the newsletter with all of the reasons why we’re staying positive and continuing to focus on the future of travel – and tips specifically relating to travel PR. We hope you’ll join us and share what you’re hopeful for. Let’s work together to look toward a better future.  

What makes the hospitality industry so special is its ingrained desire to lend a helping hand.  As a luxury travel advisor to many leading brands around the globe, we were so proud to watch our hospitality PR clients quickly identify ways to give back to their communities while setting the stage for coronavirus recovery. From Jamaica to London, Kentucky to Chicago, the creativity and support is something to applaud.  

Round Hill Hotel and Villas is supporting their local charity partner, Hanover Charities, which is working to craft care packages for vulnerable families in Hanover Parish. At Jamaica Inn, their non-profit organization, Jamaica Inn Foundation, is providing safety masks to the White River Fish Sanctuary to protect wardens’ health and safety on patrol so they can continue aiding with the ongoing preservation of Jamaica’s marine environs. AJS Hotels, parent company of Louisville’s iconic Galt House Hotel, is extending services and new initiatives to both its employees and the community. Hourly associates may access a food pantry from Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and all first responders and hospital staff can enjoy a 25 percent discount on carryout from the hotel’s iconic brasserie, Walker’s Exchange. In Chicago, the Hilton Chicago team members packaged and donated 200 personal care kits to longtime partner, Catholic Charities, and in London, COMO Metropolitan London and COMO The Halkin are supporting the UK’s National Health Service workers (NHS) with complimentary accommodations after the crisis is over, through the #TreatOurNHS campaign. On a larger international scale, Cathay Pacific Airways has been working on re-outfitting passenger aircrafts to accommodate shipments of PPE. The airline has added more freighter flights, converting 257 aircrafts into cargo-only flights, with an increase in transportation of medical supplies such as face masks, protective clothing, hand sanitizer and other pharmaceutical products.

Though wellness has continued to rise in popularity – in the travel space and others – this rings especially true these days when everyone is staying home and seeking ways to take care of themselves and loved ones as we work towards coronavirus recovery. We saw an opportunity for our wellness-focused travel PR clients to create their own virtual content to bring elements of their respective wellness experiences to people at home. 

CIVANA Wellness Resort & Spa began streaming its signature morning intention setting ceremonies and evening gratitude circles on Instagram Live, and the resort’s fitness experts curated at-home workouts that live on CIVANA’s “Wellness at Home” blog. But we didn’t stop there. With our guidance, CIVANA nearly quadrupled its digital wellness content – from healthy recipes such as broccomoli and wellness elixir cocktails, to tips on how to make your home feel like a spa and breathing rituals to release stress, and much more.​ COMO Hotels and Resorts has leaned into its sister brand in wellness, COMO Shambhala to allow guests to connect to their wellness practices at home. The brand has shared many recipes from its Pleasures of Eating Well cookbook by founder Christina Ong, in addition to various nutrition and mindfulness tips from brand experts including Eve Persak, nutrition advisor, and Susan King, intuitive counselor. By swiftly – but thoughtfully – creating expert-driven wellness content across topics that were relevant to consumers, we were able to insert our clients into a variety of virtual and at-home service-driven pieces across multiple verticals including culinary, wellness, travel, fitness, stress management, spa, and lifestyle.

Creating dream-worthy content while navigating coronavirus recovery strategy, is not an easy task, but we’ve found that our subscribers at Travel Curator (www.travelcurator.com) are looking to us to provide them with a virtual escape. Now more than ever, it’s important to keep dreaming, keep planning, and keep believing that crisis recovery is possible, and that traveling as we know it will soon return. We created our “Escapism” editorial initiative as a way to keep the travel bug alive by providing our readers with an insider’s look at some of our favorite places around the globe, and why we’re dying to return as soon as we are able.  

Here are the ways that Travel Curator has been providing a moment of hope (and wanderlust!) to our tribe:

1. Escapism: Bustling Cities We’re Dreaming to Explore
2. Escapism: Beach Resorts We Can’t Wait to Book
3. Escapism: Surprising Romantic European Destinations
4. Escape the City: Our Favorite Destinations for Natural Beauty
5. Escapism: What Wanderlust Dreams Are Made Of 

As we said at the top of this newsletter, above all else, now is the time to remain hopeful as we and the world navigate coronavirus recovery and look at what we’re anticipating in the near future of travel PR to look like. We are appreciative of our luxury hospitality and travel clients for setting the stage to be at the forefront of change, and we look forward to watching travel continue to involve and strengthen. 

Below are our topline forecasts for the travel industry and tips for travel PR professionals as we prepare our clients – and ourselves – for Coronavirus recovery:

1. Domestic and drive-market travel will bounce back first, opening up new opportunities for US hotels and unique emerging nearby destinations 
2. Travel and lifestyle magazines are still publishing inspirational travel content, giving readers a license to dream 
3. The luxury market will make a faster comeback, particularly for ultra-luxe travelers, i.e. private jets, villa and home rentals 
4. Consumers will want to travel more than ever, as soon as it’s safe to. It’s time to finally book that bucket-list trip that might have been on the backburner. 

In Travel PR, safety is the new luxury. Find ways to communicate new safety protocols and procedures with both media and guests. On your website, social channels, and in your pitching efforts.

Follow along with us –

@brandmanagency

@travelcurator