What does the future of business and luxury travel look like post Covid-19?

Predicted surge in private travel and bespoke concierge services

Firstly given the current and predicted lack of availability of commercial travel options there is likely to be a surge in private jet travel and personalised concierge services. As Manfred Spies Managing Director of Cevalon explains:

“Our discerning clients recognise the key benefits our private luxury travel and concierge service provides – from the higher standards of our ‘double-clean’ cleanliness protocols as standard, our seamless contact-less approach to travel, our on-demand flexible approach to travel – and of course the significant time-saving our door-to-door chauffeur service offers – compared with the delays and increased checks using commercial options such as flights. For example, we’d expect a Munich to Berlin trip via our luxury chauffeur limousine service to save two hours over the now-limited commercial flights”.

Redefining essential business travel

Whilst most recently zoom, virtual-events and webinars have changed (perhaps for ever) the way we work, our embracing of technology has opened us all to a sense of travel-proportionality.

We are likely to see the ad-hoc frenetic travel we have all endured replaced by more focus on planning, efficiencies and longer duration trips. These may be in the form of business-sprints of 2-3 intensive days to achieve specific goals – rather than one-off single meeting business trips.

Existential leisure travel

If the past two months of lock-down have given us one thing – perhaps it’s the opportunity to think more existentially about who and what we want to be. Thus perhaps less ostentatiousness and more luxurious-soulful travel will be the new world order.

Luxury concierge and private travel firm Cevalon’s Executive Services Manager Roberto Colantuono explains:

“It’s no longer enough to understand what luxury means to a particular traveller – it’s about knowing what luxury means to that traveller right now. As consumers become more discerning, and as markets mature, materialism is less important, while time and enrichment are key”.

Fraternal travel

For the average business traveller with a gold BA card, a linked-in network of 1000 plus and a similar number of Facebook friends – it’s likely that after this period of reflection we’ll be seeking a small set of more fraternal contacts to reconnect with – no matter how far and wide they may be.

Familial travel

Perhaps lastly we may all be recalibrating a more-balanced mix of friends, family and work travel. With the virus expected to be with us for the mid to long-term private travel in larger family groups for leisure looks like a potential trend set to stay.

Towards a new-normal

So as the coronavirus pandemic destabilizes the entire global travel industry, we ask how can the travel industry respond?

First and foremost of course is the imperative to keep safety and security as the top priority. Luxury private travel and concierge firm Cevalon is taking ten-step protocol series of measures to ensure the highest standards as follows:

1. Double clean sanitization as standard – cars to be cleaned before and after pick-up / drop-off
2. Contactless Travel – to ensure touch-free travel the chauffeur will open and operate doors and windows
3. Baggage to be sanitized with UVC Light Germicidal Wands on request
4. Face Coverings, Sanitization Wipes, Tissues, Hand Sanitizer provided as standard
5. Chauffeurs will wear face covering and gloves
6. Air con set to extract – not to recirculate
7. Social Distancing will be maintained opening doors / luggage, etc
8. One car one chauffeur policy – to eliminate sharing vehicles
9. Temperature tests of chauffeurs as required
10. Lastly, touch-point sanitation will be conducted with high alcohol disinfectant

Second, firms which embrace innovation and creativity see the pandemic as an opportunity – not just to survive but thrive by shaping the future of luxury travel.

Luxury concierge and private travel firm Cevalon is responding in this spirit with a measured approach of thoughtfulness, personalization and a focus on rarity and purity.

Thoughtfulness

As Managing Director Manfred Spies explains:

“Core to our response is thoughtfulness; we get offered so much, so regularly these days that it can be quite easy to lose track. It used to be all about ‘uniqueness’ but if you are working with a company that demonstrates thought, that they are really thinking about you, and through that thought results in giving you back something important like time – this creates ‘perfect time’ when you travel – this is the true sense of new luxury”.

Rarity

On rarity, Cevalon’s Executive Services Manager Roberto Colantuono quotes:

“With diminishing resources, people are going to be more mindful about what they consume. One of the trends we are focusing on is the idea of finding destinations that aren’t yet exposed to tourism and discovering places that are unusual, memorable and experiential”.

Purity

On purity Manfred Spies explains: “We live with so much white noise’ so one of our aims will be finding exceptional places, including in a few years time space travel, that protects the ‘purity of silence’. We believe this elemental, pure offering will be high in demand – whether that is stillness, silence, air, water or the clarity of the night sky”.

Personalisation

Lastly on personalisation. Roberto Colantuono quotes: “We believe that extravagance and opulence is being replaced by discreetly personalised and meaningful luxury. With this in mind we are bringing a lot of great contacts and partners together, united by an unrelenting desire to bring personal service to life for the benefit of our discerning clients”.

About Cevalon

Headquartered in Munich and Cevalon is a luxury concierge and private travel business offering the following core services:

– Chauffeur Service Munich
– Private Jet Charter Service Munich
– Yacht Charter Services Munich
– Private Concierge Service Munich
– Lifestyle Management Services Munich