One of the first and hardest-hit industries by the pandemic has been travel. As worldwide lockdowns grounded business and leisure travellers alike, the sector may be undergoing permanent changes as people rethink flight safety, business travel, and their holiday destinations of choice.

We might need an immunity passport to travel: The future role of “immunity passports” — a certificate proving that you’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus — may well become a necessity for future travellers. The airline industry, decimated by the pandemic, has become a vocal supporter of the idea. The industry’s global trade association, the International Air Transport Association, is working to introduce a similar sort of scheme dubbed the Travel Pass Initiative, which would enable governments to share testing and vaccination information and travellers to use an app to verify they have been tested and vaccinated against the virus.

For now it remains unclear how widely adopted immunity passports will become. The World Health Organization has delivered confusing messaging on the subject, saying they won’t be recommending them while collaborating with countries such as Estonia to set up their own program. Airlines will no doubt require them regardless of departure point and destination while rights groups have raised issues over data privacy, and called for providers to build protection into the technologies. It is also likely that the market will fragment as the IATA and others join travel health app CommonPass, a pioneer in the field that displays whether users have tested negative for covid-19.

The future of business travel is up in the air: If nothing else, the pandemic has taught professionals the expediency of a video conference over a long-haul flight for business meetings. While the chiefs of major airlines optimistically claim international business travel will return to normal, other prognosticators like Bill Gates say nearly half of it will remain a thing of the past. A WSJ analysis with industry experts suggests anywhere between 19-36% of air travel simply won’t be coming back. Business travel has a history of slower recovery than leisure travel after economic downturns, with regional travel and in-person client meetings returning first. Unfortunately, fares for corporate travel subsidize leisure travel, so the pain felt by one will impact the other.

Staycations could be here to stay: Booking firms are already adjusting to a new reality where holidaymakers are less likely to look to far-flung corners of the world for their holidays in favor of destinations closer to home. Most people in the US are opting for vacations at home, holiday booking sites in the UK have seen a surge in searches for domestic destinations, and the Australian hospitality industry has received plenty of new business from locals forced to cancel overseas holidays. Some are turning to local wellness trips and engagement with local communities, and purposeful skill learning during time off is also on the rise, and the environmental consciousness of these efforts is an added bonus. So dig out that local map, and find that gem that’s just around the corner.