On this August long weekend, as I sat by the window watching it rain, I couldn’t help but think about how we usually spent this precious summer long weekend in the past. What a different world! The COVID-19 pandemic has brought travel to a standstill. Do I feel the void? Am I ready to travel again?

I am certainly not alone in feeling that way, as revealed by about 800 in-depth interviews we conducted recently at Nexxt Intelligence. We send our chatbot, inca, to conduct interviews regularly as part of our on-going R&D operations building our NLP (Natural Language Processing) models. In our May and July studies, we asked Canadians and Americans “What needs to happen before you’ll feel comfortable vacationing again?”.  Pictured below is an emoji mood board generated by inca on what our research participants told us in May and July respectively:

In May, we detected two dominant emotions. The big no-no emoji indicated how travel-averse many consumers were as vividly exemplified by the quote referenced above: do absolutely nothing! The ‘Okay’ emoji was in fact hypothetical approval, according to the verbatims: travel will be OK once things are under control.  

Fast forward 2 months, those sentiments stayed, but were joined by two more emotions. While it’s exciting to see that people were ready and wanting to vacation again (the ‘Sunglasses’ emoji), it is, however, balanced by lots of precautions (the ‘Mask’ emoji). 

Challenging times for travellers, aren’t they? For marketers as well. In our June study, we showed some ads as stimuli to gain feedback from consumers on communication. One bright, picturesque ad from Jamaica proclaimed: “Even though we are many beating hearts, in times like these, our hearts beat as one. Let’s all remain safe until we see you again.”

We reviewed those results with a client from the tourism sector last week and had a heart-felt discussion on empathy. In difficult and uncertain times as such, empathy is needed even more so than ever. In the years to come, we will see truly inspiring marketing case studies from industries that get hit the hardest by the pandemic. Those case studies will show us how to build resilience and excellence through real understanding and emotional connection.  

Before I finish, I’d like to mention what inspired this blog. It was a random post our designer Salisa shared last week about Window Swap, “a place on the internet where all we travel-hungry fools share our 'window views' to help each other feel a little bit better till we can (responsibly) explore our beautiful planet again.” That’s just such a beautiful idea and it immediately made me think of the magical window view that I woke up to on the first morning of my trip to Venice last year. While we might be doing less of what we typically enjoy doing, we certainly encounter extraordinary new experiences such as Window Swap created based on understanding and empathy. 

Methodology: 

Nexxt Intelligence conducted engaging one-on-one interviews led by inca, our chatbot specifically designed and trained for research and feedback purposes. Insights included in this post are based on three studies conducted in the spring and summer of 2020 (approximately 50:50 split between Canadians and Americans for each study): 

• Study One:  N=206, May 18th – 20th

• Study Two: N=286, June 6th – 8th 

• Study Three: N=314, July 20th – 22nd