Ooof. That was a tough newsletter. I recently heard a podcast that covered Intrepid that didn't have much to say about any of this. It's incredibly complicated and until consumers say they don't want these tours, I don't see much changing.
Australia should be off the menu for tourist travel. Most of the long distance trains have been privatised and are now ridiculously expensive and only go once or twice a week. The Brisbane to Sydney and Sydney to Melbourne lines are still daily passenger trains and, I think, lovely trips mostly through great scenery, so if you want to see the country that is the way to go.
I like to go to Melbourne on the train, sitting up overnight one way and in daylight the other, going from the centre of one city to the centre of the other, no messing around waiting, keeping luggage light or working out how to get from the airport into the city. Recently that has become difficult. The line needs a lot more maintenance and is very slow in places and becomes inoperable too often. Recent flooding ( climate change again) hasn't helped. I tried for a couple of months to do the trip and rebooked three times as trains were cancelled and replaced by coach (I did that once a few years ago, but 13 hours on a coach is a bit much for me these days). In the end I accepted a trip that stopped in Albury at 5 in the morning and transferred to a coach (another 4 hours), then had to cut my trip short to come back all the way on the train as other trips were replaced by coach.
We are often told in Australia that we should travel here rather than overseas but to do so sustainably is hardly possible.
I did that Intrepid trip some years back. I opted for an *additional* flight because I was ill and did not want to spend a day on the bus overland with a bad gut and a fever. I'd have happily traded that to do the Danang segment by train given the option to do so.
Some years back it became quite difficult to find a smaller car in the US. Manufacturers made all kinds of excuses -- the market doesn't support it, consumers don't want them -- but they didn't give us a chance, not really. Now Ford -- FORD?!?!? -- makes a successful line of surprising well rated electric vehicles and has one of the first trucks. I'm not exactly convinced Ford has seen the light, rather, they have seen a market sector they can exploit and are going into it. They're reactive, not proactive.
Travel is the same. Consumers won't [fill in the blank]. Consumers demand [fill in the blank]. Bullshit. First, as critical as we like to see ourselves in travel, we're a luxury item. Are the margins really thin? Yeah, but let's not fool ourselves we're "helping" by keeping environmentally destructive business practices in place.
Personally, I'm in a really different place than I was pre-Covid on travel. We saw the impact of the reduction in flights and now we're all, "That was inconvenient, so ...nah, let's just go back." We also saw the impact in public health -- just this week a cruise docked in Sydney with 800 active Covid cases. 800! It's very hard for me to justify the old model of consumer holidays right now, no matter how badly I want a sunbreak vacation. It's also hard for me, a person who has had amazing adventures in her life, to deny that to others, to say they shouldn't have those opportunities.
Meanwhile, the 1% are still taking air cruises. And good lord, how many planes flew in for COP? Why wasn't it virtual?
Ooof. That was a tough newsletter. I recently heard a podcast that covered Intrepid that didn't have much to say about any of this. It's incredibly complicated and until consumers say they don't want these tours, I don't see much changing.
Australia should be off the menu for tourist travel. Most of the long distance trains have been privatised and are now ridiculously expensive and only go once or twice a week. The Brisbane to Sydney and Sydney to Melbourne lines are still daily passenger trains and, I think, lovely trips mostly through great scenery, so if you want to see the country that is the way to go.
I like to go to Melbourne on the train, sitting up overnight one way and in daylight the other, going from the centre of one city to the centre of the other, no messing around waiting, keeping luggage light or working out how to get from the airport into the city. Recently that has become difficult. The line needs a lot more maintenance and is very slow in places and becomes inoperable too often. Recent flooding ( climate change again) hasn't helped. I tried for a couple of months to do the trip and rebooked three times as trains were cancelled and replaced by coach (I did that once a few years ago, but 13 hours on a coach is a bit much for me these days). In the end I accepted a trip that stopped in Albury at 5 in the morning and transferred to a coach (another 4 hours), then had to cut my trip short to come back all the way on the train as other trips were replaced by coach.
We are often told in Australia that we should travel here rather than overseas but to do so sustainably is hardly possible.
I did that Intrepid trip some years back. I opted for an *additional* flight because I was ill and did not want to spend a day on the bus overland with a bad gut and a fever. I'd have happily traded that to do the Danang segment by train given the option to do so.
Some years back it became quite difficult to find a smaller car in the US. Manufacturers made all kinds of excuses -- the market doesn't support it, consumers don't want them -- but they didn't give us a chance, not really. Now Ford -- FORD?!?!? -- makes a successful line of surprising well rated electric vehicles and has one of the first trucks. I'm not exactly convinced Ford has seen the light, rather, they have seen a market sector they can exploit and are going into it. They're reactive, not proactive.
Travel is the same. Consumers won't [fill in the blank]. Consumers demand [fill in the blank]. Bullshit. First, as critical as we like to see ourselves in travel, we're a luxury item. Are the margins really thin? Yeah, but let's not fool ourselves we're "helping" by keeping environmentally destructive business practices in place.
Personally, I'm in a really different place than I was pre-Covid on travel. We saw the impact of the reduction in flights and now we're all, "That was inconvenient, so ...nah, let's just go back." We also saw the impact in public health -- just this week a cruise docked in Sydney with 800 active Covid cases. 800! It's very hard for me to justify the old model of consumer holidays right now, no matter how badly I want a sunbreak vacation. It's also hard for me, a person who has had amazing adventures in her life, to deny that to others, to say they shouldn't have those opportunities.
Meanwhile, the 1% are still taking air cruises. And good lord, how many planes flew in for COP? Why wasn't it virtual?
What a mess. I'll show myself out.
Interesting that this article came out on the day we passed 8 billion in global population. There is another elephant in the room too.