"Clean and safe tourism" will undoubtedly become a key marker of identity in the coming months.
"Clean and safe tourism" will be the slogan that destinations and accommodations will champion. Destinations and accommodations eager to receive travellers looking forward to enjoying a well-deserved vacation.
And we ask ourselves, what are the guest expectations in a clean and safe destination?
Indeed, we will all strive to disinfect, clean, ionize, ozonize and scrub every corner of our hotels and our villages to offer that degree of security that the occasion requires.
This is not far from what we have always been doing, in the great majority of establishments in this country. But beyond this, we ask ourselves, what should we demand for clean and safe tourism?
This new scenario, in which we are all immersed involuntarily, is allowing us to observe our surroundings carefully. Many of us may not be able to see beyond our neighbour's wall and others, luckily, can enjoy natural spaces. But we are all capable of observing a cleaner environment very different from what we were used to living in.
In these past weeks, we have seen many times in the news how grateful the Earth is for this forced truce. Those of us, fortunate enough to live in the countryside, can appreciate brighter colours, a brighter light and outlines in the horizon that we have never seen so clearly before.
It is also easy to see wild animals roaming peacefully in front of our eyes, because they surely feel safer now and less threatened by the continuous and uncontrolled presence of visitors in their natural environment.
"Clean and safe tourism" should be the purpose and reflection of all of us who are willing to travel again. We all should think over our habits and how we are going to relate with Nature again in a very short time. Nature that is waiting for us, cleaner and safer today than yesterday.
Certainly, our footprint on the destination has to be minimized to preserve a clean and safe future. Our actions must preserve a clean and safe Earth for new generations.
Respect for nature and our people with a responsible behaviour will allow us to be a standard bearer in this country, a country that demands "clean and safe tourism".