COVID-19 - The Enemy of the Travel Industry

These past few weeks have been incredible.  Who would have ever guessed that a virus would literally shut down the entire world.  While I had personally thought that a recession was on the horizon, I don't think that anyone could have guessed that the entire world would shut down with life coming to a standstill at a moments notice. 

While I am sure that you are tired of hearing about COVID-19 (I sure am), the fact is that it is here and do not see it radically disappearing in the near future.  This obviously has and will have tremendous effects on everyone's daily life but the one industry that is absolutely reeling from the effects is the travel industry. 

Airlines have reduced services with some grounding their entire fleet, hotels have done the same and various other ancillary travel services are feeling the immediate contraction. 

While I have no intention of downplaying the seriousness of the virus where people are sick and dying, traveling has become a way of life for a lot of people.  Travel has so many benefits from seeing different cultures, trying new foods and making your realize that the world is actually a small place where everyone is really interconnected.  

The entire blog was started in order to show people how timeshares can be used to travel around the world in luxurious accommodations for a very reasonable cost.  Timeshares have such a horrendous reputation that most people simply have no desire to learn about them, much less purchase one, since they are widely considered a scam.  While there are serious and material issues with timeshares, the goal is to understand them and use them for your benefit!

Finding Opportunities

While most people likely have no immediate plans of traveling for the next few months or even the next year, I would venture to say that we will travel again.  There is so much to see out there and people will travel again.  Things will be as good as they were before.  When, I do not know, but I am confident that things will boom yet again. 

During this time while travel is non-existent and work has slowed down / stopped for many of us, this actually becomes a great time to take advantage of opportunities that do not come along too often.  

I purchased my first Hyatt timeshare in 2008 via re-sale.  I started the buying process and was just about to close on it when I was laid off from my job.  With the Great Recession upon us and no foreseeable method to obtain income, I was left with the choice of walking away from the purchase or going forward.  I ended up going forward with the purchase and paid $6,500 for that timeshare.  About a year later during the most significant part of the recession, the same timeshare was selling for $1.00.  Do I regret the purchase?  Absolutely not.

While I would have loved to purchase the timeshare for a $1.00, having the timeshare during 2008 forced me to travel when I wouldn't have been able to afford it before.  There were abundant airfare deals to encourage people to travel.  The timeshare gave me the opportunity to travel affordably while I had no income but had the time to do.  

There are some many times during our lives where we have the income to travel but don't have the time and there are others where you have the time but not the income.  Travel doesn't need to be expensive and timeshares are one way to travel well and affordably. 

I foresee this upcoming economic period as something similar to 2008  While the underlying reason for the recession is different and while this recession is directly targeting the travel industry, there will be some incredible deals with timeshare, hotels, airfare, cruises, etc. 

Now is the time to do you research to figure out whether a timeshare can work for you and your travel style, determine what timeshare brand may be the most beneficial and to look throughout the marketplace to determine the current costs for timeshares so that you can snatch up the deals as they occur.  There will be some fabulous opportunities to get some quality timeshares for cheap!

Conclusion

It may be hard to start thinking about traveling while the world around us is imploding but I am confident that this will pass.  It will pass and we will get back to traveling and seeing the world.  When we emerge from this difficult time period, the best thing to do is be prepared.  Now is the time to review and research. 

While there are likely a lot of lessons to be learned from the pandemic, the one that resonates the most with me is that life is short and we don't know what tomorrow will bring.  We are all "stuck" at home with our families and hopefully enjoying some of this time where life has slowed down. 

While we all have some more time on our hands to think about life and the future, I know that some of the best times that we have had as a family has been traveling, enjoying different cultures and foods and taking us out of our comfort zone.   My recommendation is to use this time now to prepare for that future and make sure that travel stays a part of your life.