Rick Steves, TV host, author and the owner of Rick Steves' Europe tour group, told Boston Public Radio on Monday as his travel business has been grounded by the coronavirus pandemic, he's taking time to himself, but staying ready for when the world opens back up to travel once more.
"I'm determined to keep (this company) going," he said, noting he's continuing to pay his roughly 100 staffers and provide them healthcare, out of pocket. "My staff is family, they've given their careers to my dream of helping Americans travel smartly and smoothly and economically, and being a connection for European travel.
"One thing I'm keenly aware of is, the demand for travel will not dissipate. I'd think it's going to come back incrementally, Italians going to Tuscany, French people going to the French Riviera, and Swiss people hiking their Alps, and of course Americans will go on road trips and enjoy our country," he said.
But despite all the efforts Steves said he's doing to ensure his company will be able to bounce back in a post-coronavirus world, he worries about what that will look like after we get through the pandemic.
"I think about what Europe's going to look like, and I think about what America's going to look like after this," he said. "I worry that the big corporations are going to have the clout and the economy of scale and the stability for this crisis to survive it, while the smaller mom-and-pops are going to be the casualties. I can't imagine going to Paris and just going to big chain restaurants and hotels. I can't imagine going to Scotland and not saying at a bed and breakfast."
Steves and his staffers have tweaked their business model a bit, and continue to provide online content for viewers, but for now the real life travel will just have to wait.
