A hotelier’s guide to travelling during the pandemic

As travel restrictions slowly begin to ease, Fox Resorts shares some tips on how to stay on the move whilst keeping safe and following precautions:

Try to take your own transport as far as possible, avoiding public transport. This way, you can also travel around safely once you arrive at your destination. Using your own vehicle when you're out sightseeing will help reduce the risk of exposure. Be sure to avoid crowded places like museums, markets or places of worship during busy hours. Take your meals and snacks with you, to avoid unnecessary contact when purchasing food and drinks.

Smaller, boutique resorts or villas are ideal places to stay during a pandemic, as there will be fewer visitors and fewer guest cycles.

• Stay at certified hotels that ensure they practise and follow appropriate safety and sanitary guidelines
• Check the COVID case count at your destination prior to booking hotels
• When going out on excursions, have your hotel provide you with packed food items in order to minimise exposure to people outside your hotel
• Prior to booking, ensure that your hotel provides a flexible cancellation policy. In these uncertain times with unpredictable travel restrictions, you may need to cancel at the last minute

Hygiene

Keep several bottles of sanitizer with you at all times. Make sure to avoid touching your face, eyes and mouth without cleaning your hands. Always use a good sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol.

• Disinfect your hands after touching common contact points such as door handles, money, credit cards or even table tops. It’s best to keep your personal belongings such as your phone, wallet and keys in a bag or in your pockets when navigating through common areas like rest stops or restaurants

• Avoid taking unnecessary things in your hands, such as receipts for purchases, unless it is essential
• Avoid using cash and try to make card payments as far as possible. Sanitize your card after a purchase before returning it to your wallet. Spray sanitizers are the best for this!

• Keep a two-metre distance from anyone other than your immediate traveling companions at all times

Masks

It's extremely important to make sure you have plenty of masks at hand. Disposable masks tend to get lost often and it's best to not use them twice!

If you are someone who prefers reusable masks, make sure to have a couple of extras that you can rotate them. While these are more environmentally friendly, high-quality KN95 disposables provide the greatest degree of protection. If you are using cloth masks, be sure to have one made from a thicker fabric with multiple layers. Remember, the thinner the mask, the lower the protection.

Double mask if you need to! Putting a KN95 or blue surgical mask over your cloth mask will add protection while allowing you to have a soft layer of cloth against your skin.

Vaccinations

Avoid travelling unless you and all of your travel companions are fully vaccinated. It is also best to carry your vaccination card with you, as you never know when you will need to produce it to authorities.

Medicine

You could carry a thermometer in case you need to monitor yourself. If you think you have symptoms of COVID, isolate yourself immediately and continue to monitor your symptoms. Hydrate well and don’t overthink your symptoms. Consult your physician immediately to understand what steps you should take next.

As always, hydrate frequently.

Support local vendors

We encourage you to continue to support local vendors along the way and at your destination when possible, while keeping in mind the best practices of minimised contact and sanitary guidelines. These merchants rely on their daily sales for their daily living, and have been greatly impacted by the pandemic. Collecting a few travel souvenirs to enrich your trip provides them with much-needed business, and you with great memories. You can safely support them in a few ways:

• Dedicate an area in the boot of your car for shopping
• Sanitize your hands before and after transactions at shops and stalls and be sure to maintain your distance from other people
• Do not touch things in shops or stalls unless you’re buying it. If you just want a close look, ask the shop keeper to show it to you whilst maintaining distance

Wearing disposable gloves is an option, but please ensure you have a dedicated bag for garbage, so you don’t have to litter