EnjoyFamilyTravel

Posted: 10/17/2020 | October 17th, 2020

Portland, Oregon, is one of America’s most unique cities. While it often gets overshadowed by Seattle to the north, Portland is one of the US’s best and most interesting metropolises. With a world-class food scene, plentiful local breweries, and postcard-perfect scenery, it’s surprising that more people don’t visit this eclectic place.

Nicknamed “the City of Roses” (after roses became a common garden staple in the late 19th century) and “Stumptown” (due to lots of tree stumps remaining after the city expanded and clear-cut the surrounding area in the mid-19th century), Portland is known for its liberal tendencies, its food trucks, and its hipsters (thanks, Portlandia).

My first trip here was back in 2011 for Thanksgiving. While in Spain I made friends who lived in Portland and paid them a visit on my way to Asia. What started as “like” during my first trip turned into love on my second.

And, since then, I’ve visited nearly every year. Portland is on the very tiny list of cities I would actually live in.

What I really love about Portland is the high quality of life. It’s compact and easy to get around, there is good public transportation available, the locals are friendly, it’s environmentally friendly, and, most importantly, the food and beer scene here is killer (so many food trucks).

To help you make the most of your visit, here are my favorite 14 things to see and do in Portland:
 

1. Take a Walking Tour

I always start my visits to a new city with a walking tour. It’s the best way to learn about a destination, get the lay of the land, see the main sights, and have an expert local guide answer all your questions.

Portland Walking Tours offers more than half a dozen different tours around town, focusing on food, the main sights, and Portland’s underground and alternative culture. Tours last a couple hours and cost around $23 USD. They’re a great way to kick off your visit. I really liked the Underground Tour especially, which focuses on a series of tunnels below the city that have been used for all kinds of nefarious purposes.

If you’re on a budget, Secrets of Portlandia is a top-rated free walking tour that will give you a fun and informative intro to the City of Roses (they’re closed until 2021 due to COVID-19 though).
 

2. See Pittock Mansion

Built in 1914, this is a stunning French Renaissance–style mansion located in the western part of town. The 46-room estate, originally owned by a wealthy couple from England, is part of the National Register of Historic Places and contains beautiful artwork and furniture collected by the original owners. You can explore the grounds (which span over 40 acres) and buildings by yourself or take a guided tour (the price is the same; however, guided tours are only scheduled when volunteers are available).

3229 NW Pittock Dr, +1 503-823-3623, pittockmansion.org. Open daily 10am–4pm. Admission is $13 USD.
 

3. Hike Forest Park

Forest Park is one of the nation’s largest urban parks. Covering a sprawling 5,000 acres, it’s home to over 70 miles of hiking and biking trails. There are over 100 species of birds here, as well as 62 different species of mammals. It’s also home to the Witch’s Castle, an abandoned stone building covered in moss. (It has no connection to witches. The name came from students who used to use the site for secret parties in the 1980s).
 

4. Browse at Powell’s City of Books

This is the largest independent and used bookstore in the world, home to over a million books. Established in 1971, it has 3,500 different sections and buys over 3,000 new and used books each and every day. If you’re a book lover like me, you could easily spend a good chunk of time here. There’s also a café (World Cup Coffee and Tea House), so you can grab a coffee or tea and cozy up with your new purchases.

1005 W Burnside St, +1 800-878-7323, powells.com/locations/powells-city-of-books. Open daily 9am–10pm.
 

5. Devour Delicious Donuts

Portland is known for its donuts. If you Google the city or search for it on social media, donuts will inevitably pop up. Voodoo Doughnut put the city on the map with its weird and wonderful combinations, such as Cap’n Crunch or maple bacon. It also makes cream-filled phallic donuts as well — so you can see why it’s become a quirky staple of the city.

Some locals might argue that Voodoo is for tourists, preferring donuts from Blue Star instead. You can’t go wrong with either choice. Why not try both and see for yourself. You only live once, after all!
 

6. Wander the International Rose Test Garden

Home to over 10,000 rose bushes and 650 varieties, this garden is where many companies test new varieties of roses (some are tested here years before they are commercially available). It’s the oldest rose test garden in the country. It also hosts an annual competition for the city’s best rose. The roses are in bloom between April and October, though there is also an amphitheater here that holds all kinds of events, such as classical music performances and plays. Don’t miss the Shakespeare Garden, which only has types of roses referenced in Shakespeare’s plays.

400 SW Kingston Ave, +1 503-823-3636. Open daily 5am–10pm. Admission is free.
 

7. See the Japanese Garden

Located near the Rose Test Garden, these Japanese gardens were created in the 1960s as a symbol of peace between World War II adversaries. Today, it’s considered the best Japanese garden outside of Japan. Spanning 12 acres, it contains traditional gazebos, waterfalls, ponds, Zen sand gardens, and lots of walking paths. It’s super relaxing and serene and beautiful all year round, though it’s particularly stunning in the autumn when the leaves are changing. It receives no funding from the city, so it’s not cheap, but if you want to escape the city for a while, then it’s worth every penny.

611 SW Kingston Ave, +1 503-223-1321, japanesegarden.org. Open daily 10am–7pm (12pm–7pm on Mondays). Admission is $18.95 USD
 

8. Visit The Freakybutture Peculiarium and Museum

If you’re looking for something decidedly weird and unconventional during your trip, visit The Peculiarium. This creepy emporium is full of all kinds of weird drawings and souvenirs, gag toys, unknown oddities in jars, and even a giant Bigfoot statue. There are fake severed body parts (which are super lifelike), and they also serve fresh-baked cookies…with bugs, scorpions, and mealworms inside and on them.

The city’s slogan is “Keep Portland Weird.” This place reflects that perfectly.

2234 Northwest Thurman Street, +1 503-227-3164, peculiarium.com. Open Tuesday–Sunday 11am–7pm. Admission is $5 USD. Not suitable for kids.
 

9. Take a Food Tour

If you’re a foodie like me, you can’t visit Portland without taking a food tour. You’ll get to sample some of the city’s best food, learn about its culture and history, and meet other foodie travelers like yourself. It’s the best way to get the culinary lay of the land before you head off on your own to eat your way around town.

Forktown offers a few different food tours focused on different cuisines and regions of the city. It will give you a solid overview of what tasty offerings Stumptown can dish up.

Tours last around three hours and cost $89 USD per person.
 

10. Relax at Laurelhurst Park or Washington Park

Portland has tons of green space to relax in and enjoy. Laurelhurst Park was designed by the same team that designed Central Park in New York. It has a laid-back atmosphere and is popular with locals and visitors alike. There’s a duck pond, bike paths, and the off-leash dog area.

Washington Park is another great choice if you’re looking to lounge with a book and enjoy the weather. The park contains memorials for the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Holocaust, and the Lewis and Clark expedition, and also offers beautiful vistas of Portland and Mt. Hood.
 

11. Indulge at the Food Trucks

One of the most important elements of the Portland food scene is its food trucks. The food trucks are a huge part of the local culture, and you can find pretty much every cuisine and every price point too. There are over 600 food trucks in the city, and they’re usually gathered in small pods so you can sample a few different ones without having to go far.

You can find plenty of tasty options on Fifth Ave, Third Ave, and at the food pods (food truck lots) at Cartopia and Hawthorne Asylum. Some of my favorites are MF Tasty, Burger Stevens, Hapa PDX Ramen, and Desi PDX.
 

12. Visit the Portland Art Museum

Opened in 1892, this is the oldest art museum in the Pacific Northwest. It’s also one of the oldest galleries in the country too (the seventh oldest to be exact). It’s home to over 42,000 items, from contemporary art to Native American works to Asian art and everything in between. There are permanent exhibitions, rotating temporary galleries, and an outdoor sculpture park. There’s a lot of variety here, so be sure to check the website to see what’s on during your visit.

1219 SW Park Ave, +1 503-226-2811, portlandartmuseum.org. Open Tuesday–Sunday 10am–5pm (8pm on Thursdays and Fridays). Admission is $20 USD and free on the first Thursday of the month from 5pm to 8pm.
 

13. Drink Some Beer

Portland is one of the beer capitals of America. There are over 75 microbreweries in the city — more than any other city on earth — and Portlandians take their beer seriously. The craft beer movement started here back in the ’80s, well before it caught on elsewhere. Many breweries have their own tours, as well as their own restaurants, so you can enjoy a pint and a bite to eat. Many offer tours, and there are also multi-brewery tours from companies like City Brew Tours. If you’re a craft beer aficionado, be sure to indulge (responsibly).
 

14. Hike the Columbia River Gorge

If you’re looking to get out of the city and stretch your legs, head to the Columbia River Gorge. Located east of the city, it is home to waterfalls, scenic vistas, and hiking trails. It’s the largest National Scenic Area in the country and makes for a nice place to spend a day. Oregon’s tallest waterfall, Multnomah Falls, can be found here, as well as a hundred-year old observatory that offers up views of the surrounding picturesque landscape.

Some suggested hikes are Dry Creek Falls (easy, 2 hours), Wahkenna Falls Loop (moderate, 3 hours), and Starvation Ridge and Warren Lake (hard, 8 hours). You can reach the gorge with a vehicle in around 30 minutes, but there’s also a daily shuttle for $20 USD (round trip) in case you don’t have a car.

***

Portland is one of my favorite American cities. It’s fun, eclectic, and energetic, and it has a lot to offer (especially if you’re a foodie or craft beer lover). It deserves far more attention than it gets — from domestic and international travelers alike. If you find yourself in the PNW, be sure to spend a few days here. Your tastebuds will thank you!

Photo credits: 2 – A.Davey, 4 – jellybeanz, 6 – Jim Choate, 7 – Daderot

The post 14 Things to See and Do in Portland, Oregon appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Updated: 10/15/20 | October 15th, 2020

To me, the crux of all online endeavors is good writing. With so many blogs out there, if you can’t write engaging stories, you’ll never get anywhere! So today, I want to introduce one of my favorite travel writers, David Farley, who is going to share his writing tips for fellow bloggers and writers out there!

I always thought that once I started writing for glossy travel magazines, I could relax a bit because I’d “made it.”

Nope!

Then I thought that once I began penning pieces for the New York Times, I could say I was successful.

Not. At. All.

OK, maybe when I had a book out, published by a major publishing house, things would get a bit easier for me. I wish!

Writers, in some ways, are a sorry lot. Rarely do they ever look at something and say “perfect!” Maybe for a moment — but give a writer a day and he or she will come back to that same article and find dozens of mistakes. Writing is a craft you never perfect.

We’re always striving to be better. Creatives tend to be perfectionists. Writing requires you to keep learning and improving.

But that’s good because that drive makes writers improve their work. And only through practice and effort do we end up with the Hemingways, Brysons, Gilberts, and Kings of the world.

If you’re a travel blogger, you probably started off not as a writer with a journalism background but as a traveler looking to share your experience. You probably didn’t have any formal training or someone to peer over your shoulder and give you advice.

So today I wanted to share some tips to help you improve your travel writing or blogging. Because the world always needs good writers — and good writing helps get your story heard more!

These tips, if followed, will better your writing and make a huge difference in the reach of your writing!
 

1. Read

This is number one. because whenever a budding writer asks me how they can improve, it’s my first piece of advice. Read good writing. Absorb it. Let it sink into your soul. When I was first starting out, I was sick one weekend, so I spent three days lying in bed reading every page of that year’s Best American Travel Writing anthology. After I finished, I opened up my laptop and started writing for the first time in days. What came out surprised me: it was the highest-quality writing I’d done to date. And it was all because I was absorbed in good writing and it filtered through me back onto the page in my own writing.

(Matt says: Here’s a collection of some of my favorite travel books that can inspire you. I also have a monthly book club you can join!)
 

2. Do it for love

Maya Angelou wrote, “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.” Don’t get into travel writing for the money — after all, that would be totally unrealistic. And please don’t gravitate to the genre because you want free trips and hotel rooms. “Instead,” Ms. Angelou added, “do [it] so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” Or, in other words, strive to become such a good writer that the editors of all the publications you have been dreaming to write for can’t ignore you anymore.
 

3. Don’t be attached to linear writing

You need not compose a piece from beginning to middle to end. Sometimes that’s not the ideal structure of the story. Sure, maybe you’ve already figured that out. But if not, it’s OK to just get a few scenes and paragraphs of exposition down “on paper.” Then you can step back and take a look at the bigger picture and rearrange what you have, figuring out the best way to tell the story.
 

4. Tap into your own sense of motivation and drive

The students of mine at New York University who have been most successful were not always the most talented in the class. But they were the most driven. They’d read enough quality writing and thought about it — understanding what made it so wonderful — that there was just something about writing that they got. They weren’t born with that understanding, but ambition drove them to seek out better writing and then to think about it, to analyze what made it good (or not so good).

Drive also inspires future successful writers to go out on a limb, to render themselves vulnerable, by reaching out to more accomplished writers to ask for advice, or by introducing themselves to editors at events or conferences. Don’t be shy! Standing in the corner quietly won’t get you as far as putting your hand out to introduce yourself will.
 

5. Try to figure out what gets your mind and writing flowing

Let me explain: I can sit down at my laptop and stare at a blank Word document for hours, not sure how to start a story or what to write about. Then I’ll respond to an email from a friend who wants to know about the trip I’m trying to write about. I’ll write a long email with cool and interesting anecdotes about my experience and include some analysis of the place and culture. And then I’ll realize: I can just cut and paste this right into the empty Word doc I’ve been staring at for the last three hours!

Several of my published articles have blocks of texts that were originally written as parts of emails to friends. The “email trick” might not work for everyone, but there is inevitably some trick for the rest of you — be it talking to a friend or free-associating in your journal.
 

6. Understand all aspects of storytelling

There are two types of travel writing: commercial and personal essay (or memoir). In commercial travel writing, you should make the various parts of the story an intrinsic aspect of your knowledge: from ways to write a lede to the nut graph, scenes, exposition, and conclusions. For memoir and personal essays, know what narrative arc means like the back of your typing hands. It helps to get an intuitive understanding of these things by paying attention to writing — to reading like a writer — as you read nonfiction (and travel) articles.
 

7. Don’t stress if your first draft is shit

Ernest Hemingway said, “The first draft of anything is shit.” And he wasn’t kidding. I find this true when I’m writing a personal essay or travel memoir. I write and I write and I write, and I’m not exactly sure what I’m putting down on paper.

What’s the point of this? I ask myself.

Why am I even doing this?

But here is where patience comes in: eventually, the clouds part, the proverbial sunbeam from the heavens shines down on our computer monitors, and we see the point of it all: we finally figure out what it is we’re writing and how to best tell that story. It just happens like magic sometimes.

And not all at once: sometimes it’s bit by bit, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. But as I mentioned, patience is key, because we never know when that divine magic is going to be activated. But sit around long enough and it will happen, I promise you. (Just be cautious when taking Hemingway’s other writing advice: “Write drunk, edit sober.”)
 

8. Write what you know

“Start telling the stories that only you can tell,” said writer Neil Gaiman, “because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that — but you are the only you.”
 

9. When you’re finished with a draft, read it out loud

Preferably, print it out and read it out loud. This will allow you to better hear how the piece sounds, and unacceptable segues and clunky sentences or turns of phrases will jump out at you in a more obvious way.

For longer stories or books, it can also be good to print out your story and line edit it the old fashioned way. This way you see the story on paper and as a reader. You can pick up a lot more mistakes and errors when you do this.
 

10. Always get another set of eyes on your writing

While all writers make mistakes, it’s harder to spot them without an editor. Editors are very important, but they don’t necessarily have to be someone with formal training. While hiring a copyeditor is always great, getting a friend to read your blog or story can be just as good. You don’t always see the forest through the trees and having another set of eyes is ultra-important to the writing process.

Matt says: I like having someone who doesn’t know about travel read my drafts. I have a friend who doesn’t travel much who reads my blog posts because she helps me make sure I include the important details I might have skipped. When you’re an expert on something, you often fill in the blanks in your mind. You go from A to C automatically; step B becomes subconscious. Getting someone who doesn’t know the steps will help ensure you include explain everything in your post and don’t leave your readers going, “Huh?”
 

11. Learn to self-edit

This is where many people go wrong. They write, they read it over, they post. And then feel embarrassed as they say, “Oh, man, I can’t believe I missed that typo.” You don’t need to be a master editor, but if you follow a few principles, it will go a long way: First, write something and let it sit for a few days before editing.

After your first round of edits, repeat the process. Get another set of eyes on it. Print out a checklist of grammar rules to go through as you edit.

As you review your work, say to yourself, “Did I do this? Did I do that?” If you follow a cheat sheet, you’ll catch most of your mistakes and end up with a much better final product!
 

12. Improve your endings

The two most important parts of any article or blog post are the beginning and the end. Endings matter more than you think. They are the last thing people remember about your story. This is where you can really hit home your point and leave the reader captivated. An average story can be saved by a solid ending. Spend some time working on a conclusion that connects the dots and leads to some sort of resolution.

All stories need an ending. Think of your favorite stories – and your least favorite ones. The ones with the great endings are probably the ones you remember the most.
 

13. Aim for progress, not perfection

All too often, I hear from students that they don’t want to hit publish on a post or submit a piece because it’s not perfect. They want to keep tinkering, keep editing. While you definitely want to make sure your work is the best it can be, at the end of the day, perfection is the enemy of progress. If you keep waiting for every single word to be perfect you’ll be editing forever.

When it comes to blog posts, learn to accept good enough. Hit publish when it’s good enough.

Don’t wait for perfection because it rarely comes. Accept your best, and move on. Otherwise, you’ll be tinkering and editing until the cows come home and you’ll never get anywhere.

Writing is a craft. It takes time. It takes practice. Aim for progress, not perfection.

***

Writing is an art form. It takes a lot of practice. When you’re a blogger out on your own, it can be harder to improve your work, because you don’t have an experienced voice giving you tips and advice and pushing you to be better. If you don’t take it upon yourself to be better, you never will be. However, even if you aren’t blessed to work under an editor, these 11 tips can help you improve your writing today and become a much better blogger, writing stories people want to read!

David Farley has been writing about travel, food, and culture for over twenty years. His work has appeared in AFAR magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications. He has lived in Prague, Paris, Rome, and now New York City. He is the author of An Irreverent Curiosity and was a host for National Geographic.
 

The post 13 Ways to Improve Your Travel Writing appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Not everyone is ready to get back in the air, but as winter approaches, there are people itching to head to warmer weather and sunny destinations. And a lot of those travelers are confused about purchasing travel insurance during COVID. I know my parent’s Snowbird friends are planning on heading south whether it’s safe to […]

Read the original post Travel Insurance During Covid-19 – What You Need to Know on The Planet D: Adventure Travel Blog.

October 2020. We just returned from two weeks in the Dolomites, Italy’s Marche region and San Marino. Although our trip was primarily a personal one — to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary — we also wished to see for ourselves what was happening on the ground in travel and tourism (vs. talking about it on Zoom). Our goal: to witness firsthand how businesses are operating and adapting during this time.

Here is a summary of those observations, paired with takeaways for destinations and tourism companies. We include some best practices in messaging and operations, considerations to keep up with changing consumer trends and demands, and a reminder that sustainability doesn’t need to be at odds with COVID-19 safety and hygiene measures.

CAVEATS:

• We understand that Italy does not represent or reflect tourism realities across the rest of the world. However, we imagine many of these items may resonate on some level no matter where you are located and whether you have been allowed to re-open in some capacity (or if you think you will re-open soon).
• To be clear, we are not advocating that everyone get up and travel right now. COVID-19 rates are again on the rise in many areas, especially as cooler temperatures visit the Northern hemisphere and people retreat inside (see our COVID-19 Travel Resource Guide for more details on relevant data and considerations). However, people will continue to travel now and in the future. The considerations we outline bear that in mind.

1. Think shared safety: “For you, for me, for us.”

Kudos to one of the safety campaigns in the Dolomite region featuring this short but effective slogan:  “Für dich, für mich, für uns”  (“For you, for me, for us”). While travel safety has traditionally focused on the traveler, the new mindful equilibrium ought to pay attention to the safety, comfort and protection of both hosts and guests. Destinations and travel companies must actively educate travelers that regulations and precautions are in place for everyone’s benefit.           

2. It’s everyone’s responsibility.

In our conversations with many small accommodation providers in Italy, we found that they took the responsibility of enforcement on themselves. They not only made sure travelers complied with requirements, but they networked with other businesses to ensured that they did, too.

“If one of us fails to do this right, we’re all going to fail.”

Many of the business owners we spoke to understood that if one party is lax and someone gets sick, everyone would eventually suffer. An outbreak would negatively impact local businesses, economic activity and the health of the community. Destinations and travel companies have an opportunity to co-opt this and advocate a sense of shared responsibility and that we all — businesses, travelers, local communities — need to reinforce best practices and regulations for our shared travel public good.

3. Flexibility is king.

Be alert to travelers’ needs to remain flexible because of changing travel restrictions and border regulations.  While we appreciate the predicament in which many travel businesses currently find themselves, companies need to make changing and cancelling plans as simple and transparent as possible for the traveler if they wish to hold her trust.

Refund terms need to be upfront (e.g., immediate vs. 2-3 weeks). Don’t hold refunds hostage. If we as an industry wish travelers to return, we cannot make this process painful and confusing. Cancellation and refund shenanigans erode consumer trust and encourage travelers to stay home and “wait it out.”

4. If booking directly would benefit your business, make it easy for me to do so.

Despite much ink having recently been spilled on the term “digital transformation” in travel and tourism, digital low-hanging fruit abounds. One such area: many accommodation and activity providers still don’t offer a simple direct online booking path for travelers. Particularly during this trip, we attempted to book accommodation directly as often as possible to ensure that as much income as possible landed in the hands of local accommodation providers. However, confirming a room directly was often difficult or impossible without online booking options and when phones and emails went unanswered.

Destinations and DMOs: If you wish to help local businesses capture more direct bookings and become less dependent on OTAs, research available tools and offer turnkey online booking options or plugin components for local provider websites. Note: We are not anti-OTA. In our tourism development work, we encourage local accommodation providers to establish a presence on them for marketing and market access purposes.

Kudos to the family-run B&B/hotel websites that not only had prompts on their website to book directly, but also provided information as to why booking directly — especially at a time like this — benefits everyone in the transaction. Asking for help is ok, and educating travelers on the importance of their booking decisions is, too.

5. Don’t compete on price. Compete on flexibility and options.

Offer more flexibility, adjustable/modular tours, shorter itineraries, self-guided tours, etc. Price is not the determining factor in most traveler decisions right now. Safety, travel confidence, border restriction awareness, and flexibility are.

Your competitive advantage in the long term shouldn’t be low price anyhow. Instead, compete on the quality and uniqueness of the experience you’re offering. In fact, as the pandemic plays out, prices may likely rise to reflect the true cost of product/service delivery in the new equilibrium.

6. Hygiene theater is often just a fig leaf.

Science tells us that COVID-19 is transmitted mainly through human contact and interaction, airborne droplets and human concentration indoors, rather than through surfaces. Mask-wearing and traffic/crowd control is what matters. But the temptation to spend cycles on what we feel we can control — the cleanliness and disinfection of surfaces — is clear. And we understand why: to make travelers feel safe, even if it’s effect is marginal.

The restaurant that packs itself full with people yet sprays disinfectant everywhere: pointless. Guest houses controlling traffic in common breakfast areas: mindful. Mask-wearing signs, elevator restrictions and guidance to core family/group, one person at a time in an office — these measures not only offer some comfort, but they better align with the science. And they not only help shift the immediate behavior, but they serve as a constant reminder that we need to be aware and vigilant for our own good and for the good of others.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the term “hygiene theater”, check out this article from The Atlantic.

7. Hygiene theater for sustainability is a bad exchange.

Don’t exchange or abandon environmental and sustainability practices for the sake of hygiene theatre. Re-embracing single-use plastics and plastic water bottles will not stem the pandemic. Instead, businesses should educate travelers on why and how their sustainability practices also comply with COVID-19 hygiene best practices. This is not zero sum.

8. Continually adapt to the new ask.

Understand changing traveler behaviors — avoiding crowds, embracing outdoor activities, private groups — and focus your destination and travel product offerings to support this. This approach not only meets evolving traveler demands, it also helps manage visitor flows and aids client dispersion within a destination.

For example, make it easier to find information on how to visit towns, villages or national parks which may be less busy. For restaurants, consider extending or adjusting dining hours and offering outdoor seating options (and blankets) to help limit the number of people indoors.

9. As a default, wear a mask.

This goes for both travelers and anyone working in the tourism industry. If you or your employees even wonder or think, “Should I wear a mask?”  Just do it.  Even if it’s not legally or technically required, wear a mask anytime you are near or talking to someone who is not in your immediate or family circle.  For example, even though the removal of one’s mask was allowed when at a table at a restaurant, many people kept their mask on until they finished ordering and interacting with the waiter. That’s good for everyone.

10. DMOs, destinations and travel companies: Answer your emails!

We understand business is difficult and lives have been disrupted. But if you intend to be an ongoing concern or organization, now is not the time to ignore inquiries. Keep communication lines open and make an effort, even if quick, to respond to inbound calls or emails, regardless of whether they inquire about a transaction, logistics or the current situation. These emails may not result in immediate sales, but your response to them can help to develop a relationship and earn trust. If your plan is to ignore travelers and customers until COVID-19 is over, and only then re-engage when money is guaranteed to flow, you are making a mistake.

The post Tourism and COVID-19: Observations from the Field appeared first on Uncornered Market.