Online travel platform Go Zayaan has introduced a new product called Go Zayaan Tours, a platform for day tours, activities, attractions, and day out packages. As more and more people choose to travel domestically, this is a good market where there is a growing demand for well-organized services. Go Zayaan aims to capitalize on this growing demand. Using Go Zayan Tours, you can book a wide range of day tours from expeditions at Sundarban to adventure fishing at Cox's Bazar to a day trip to Mawa Ghat.
Travel has particularly been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. We wrote in March: “Travel is one of the sectors that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. In the last several weeks, local online travel agencies have reported a drastic drop in their business. Some industry insiders reported more than a 50% drop in business in the first week and others continue to sound red alarms. As more and more countries shut their border and close their airports, it appears the nightmare for the industry is just getting started.”
International travel remains limited. The airline industry continues to suffer. The outlook for international travel remains grim. Relative to that, local travel in Bangladesh has rebounded to a meaningful degree in the past few months as Bangladesh slowly eases lockdown. In fact, many popular tourist spots in the country continue to experience a consistent influx of tourists comparable to pre-pandemic time. This shift is forcing many OTAs to pay greater attention to the local market. A number of OTAs including Go Zayaan who was predominantly focusing on international travel before the pandemic is now making a serious effort to make an inroad into the domestic travel market. For example, Go Zayaan has recently launched its local hotel inventory.
Several predictions suggest that international travel is likely to suffer through 2021 even if the coronavirus pandemic comes under control and there is a potential vaccine. Many experts suggest that in the coming years, even if people come out of the pandemic shock, people will travel more locally and widespread international travel is unlikely to rebound anytime soon. One thing everyone agrees that long-distance business travel is not coming back anytime soon as people see less and less value in traveling for business meetings while they could do these meetings over zoom without leaving their home or office. It means the future of travel is local, at least in 2021 and the near future.
