British futurist Ed Gillespie spoke recently on how things will change in the wake of Covid-19, and one concept he believes will gain traction post-pandemic is relocalisation. This, he says, is a combination of relocalising of economies, shorter food chains (more local and more seasonal), more small businesses, subsidiarity (where empowerment and decision-making happen at the best level to deliver change), and walkable and cyclable neighbourhoods leading to the idea of ‘15-minute cities’. It’s basically cutting down on travel and making things local again; the success of work from home (WFH) is helping to spur this on, but how applicable is relocalisation to South Africa?

Between the enforced WFH and international restrictions on movement, travel has undoubtedly been affected by the pandemic, from commuting to long-haul flights for business and pleasure. As vaccination programmes roll out and the world slowly reopens, there will definitely be less work travel than before the pandemic, says Guy Lundy, leadership consultant and futurist at Spencer Stuart. “Businesses have been forced into the (WFH) situation, but they’ve seen the impact that it has on cost. Even from a sales perspective, you can at least start to develop relationships over video calls, so I definitely see there will be a reduction in business travel. However, that affects everything else as business travel has been paying for the hotels and airlines, so there will be a knock-on effect in terms of making it more expensive for the holiday traveller.”