The Hardest Part of Traveling in Pandemic

The tourist crisis that nobody is talking about and how we can help

Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash

At the beginning of November, I decided to start traveling again.

After reading all the protocols that the airlines are using, reviewing the places that are opening, and buying all the hygiene items that I needed, I felt that I was ready to be “free” again and enjoy a passion that was closed for more than 8 months.

But what I was not prepared for was what I was going to see in the destination country: the post-pandemic crisis and everything that has come with it.

According to Yelp data, 60% of business closures due to the coronavirus pandemic are now permanent. Throughout the past eight months, restaurants, bars, and nightlife venues have been hit the hardest by the restrictions brought by the pandemic: more than 32,000 restaurants have closed, as of Nov. 1. The number of restaurants forced to permanently close is slightly above Yelp’s total average, at 61%.

But that’s not all.

The businesses that have remained open have faced a rather difficult task: convincing customers that eating, shopping, or even just being in their businesses is safe.

My experience as a tourist in New York

Seeing New York so empty is pretty depressing. There is practically no one on the street, there are parking spaces wherever you want, and you no longer have to stand in line to take a decent photo over the famous Times Square staircase.

The worst part was deciding where we were going to eat. Practically all the owners of restaurants that are still open begged us to go eat there, while we are walking, we see empty businesses and waiters looking for a way to attract people.

A man was even going to give us free drinks if we ate there.

The post-pandemic crisis is something almost no one is talking about. We are focused on “getting back to our normal life” on “stopping using masks” or “please stay home” that we are forgetting about all the things that are being lost in this process.

While 4.2 million businesses have received emergency loans from the Small Business…