The travel industry is well known for combining words to express a new trend or experience – think of bleisure, glamping, babymoons, etc. Covid-19 saw new words like ‘social distancing’, ‘self-quarantine’, ‘super-spreader’ and ‘contact tracing’ added to the dictionary. So, it stands to reason that a whole new slew of terminology has been added to the travel lexicon to describe the innovations and processes borne from the pandemic. Here is a list of the five top travel terms that every travel manager should know.

1. Nonessential travel – The definition of “nonessential travel” is self-explanatory but worth adding to the list as travel re-opens. Basically, travellers need to prove that they are travelling for an “essential” reason as listed by the country they are visiting. Equally, for a business, Travel managers need to show what value a trip contributes towards meeting the company’s goals. The starting point is to define what constitutes necessary business travel. The decision to take a trip should consider traveller wellness, risk mitigation and cost.

2. Travel Bubble / Corridors – In the hopes of revitalising travel, neighbouring countries relax their travel restrictions via an agreement that allows their citizens to travel freely within the zones and requires no mandatory quarantine on arrival. Travel corridors are most common in Asia, while many other countries have a multilateral approach, using a traffic light or similar scoring system. 

3. COVID-19 Information Hub– This tool houses real-time information on constantly changing rules and procedures for travelling during the pandemic. Most Travel Management Companies have implemented this to assist travellers. The COVID-19 Information Hub features country risk levels and requirements; hotel and airline information, including cleaning protocols, testing requirements, necessary health certifications, quarantine rules and more; information detailing vaccination percentage complete by population by country; information included for airlines participating in digital health document trials; and multi-language functionality.

4. Digital Health Pass– Digital health passes (DHP) have been developed with the primary goal of restoring safe cross-border travel. The DHP confirms that someone is healthy enough to travel while supporting travellers with the information needed for a seamless journey.
   
   Various organisations have developed digital health, so when planning a trip, travellers can find out what digital health pass their airline is using in the Airport & Travel Supplier Policies section of our COVID-19 Information Hub. 

5. Track & Trace apps– Applications, services, and systems that identify and notify people who come into close contact with someone who has COVID-19. Most apps claim to take care with the user’s personal data, relaying only encrypted information and not releasing any personal details. Locational information should be automatically deleted after 31 days.