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Travel expert: Americans will fall in love with the road again as coronavirus pandemic eases

Bridgette Webb
·Producer
Updated ·2-min read

Few industries have fallen as far as tourism and travel amid the coronavirus pandemic.

And while air travel remains very low in the absence of widespread testing or a vaccine, CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg thinks that Americans will eventually fall back in love with road trips.

“You're gonna see a lot of road trips,” Greenberg said on Yahoo Finance’s On The Move (video above). “Right now, people want their security blanket and they want to be in control. And being in their own car gives them that feeling.”

American flags are displayed along an access road during a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Golden Spike National Historic Park in Promontory Summit, Utah, U.S., on Friday, May 10, 2019. (Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
American flags are displayed along an access road during a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Golden Spike National Historic Park in Promontory Summit, Utah, U.S., on Friday, May 10, 2019. (Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

He noted that travelers will likely start small.

”Remember, we're not going to go on long haul road trips here,” Greenberg said. “We're talking within 300 miles of home one tank trips. That's how we're going to re-enter the marketplace right now.”

Hotels, Airbnb listings, and Bed and Breakfasts — all of which have been gutted by the pandemic — could use the business. The national hotel occupancy rate plunged to 28.6 percent as of May 2nd, a nearly 59 percent drop from the same time last year, according to data from hotel research firm STR.

So far, 19 states have reopened with restrictions in place. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)
So far, 19 states have reopened with restrictions in place. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

Greenberg said that businesses, especially hotels, will have to enter the brave new world of waivers.

“You're gonna have to sign a waiver for the first six months going into this no matter where you go, that if you contract the disease, you can't sue them,” he said. “The lawyers are going to have a field day with this. And think about that, in the in the absence of widespread testing, or a vaccine. It's going to be a march of waivers.”

Bridgette Webb is a producer at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @bridgetteAwebb.

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