Shield Insurance Agency Blog | Revenge Travel

‘Revenge Travel’ Will Be All The Rage Over The Next Few Years

Posted on by Shield Agency

‘Revenge Travel’ Will Be All The Rage Over The Next Few Years

With the vaccine rollout picking up pace, Americans are starting to feel more cautiously optimistic about the prospect of traveling again, and it’s called Revenge Travel.

Those in the travel industry are hoping for a surge in bookings in the coming months and years. A sense of wanderlust has been building, after all ― it’s only natural that we’ll want to explore new places after so much time at home. Many are calling this phenomenon “revenge travel.”

But what exactly does “revenge travel” mean and how might it manifest? HuffPost asked travel experts to share their thoughts about “revenge travel” and the future of Americans’ vacation plans.

What is ‘revenge travel’?

“While the term may sound silly, ‘revenge travel’ refers to the idea that there will be a huge increase in travel as it becomes safer and things open back up,” said Eric Jones, co-founder of The Vacationer travel journal and planning guide. “Many Americans and those around the world had their vacations altered or outright canceled last year, so they are all looking to satisfy their travel itch at the same time. The term is also retribution against COVID-19 and how it is losing its power to control our lives, including canceling travel plans.”

If vaccination rates continue to increase and case counts decline, many travel experts predict many Americans will book more trips than they did before the coronavirus era to make up for lost time and to reconnect with friends and family.

“After being confined for a year, ‘revenge travel’ is essentially a slingshot back into the world. It’s a visceral response to pent-up travel demand,” said Mike Kennedy, co-founder of the travel marketplace KOALA.

“While ‘revenge travel’ is the hot new term, it explains exactly what travelers have been saying since the pandemic started,” noted Konrad Waliszewski, co-founder and CEO of the travel app Tripscout. “We are no longer going to take for granted that there will always be a flight tomorrow and an open border waiting to greet us. We will make up for the lost time and experiences with a vengeance.”

Experts are expecting a boom.

“After all the trauma, frustrations, and sacrifices made by so many people throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the sudden surge in vaccinations across the country is trailblazing a sense of urgency, and impatience, to travel once again,” Fyall said.

He noted that there’s already a boom in travel bookings, as people are eager to spend the miles, points, and vouchers that have accumulated and gone unused over the past year.

“We’re already seeing a surge in ‘revenge travel,’ as the vaccine becomes more widely distributed and as people become more comfortable with traveling,” said Carolyne Doyon, president, and CEO of Club Med North America and the Caribbean. “Since the end of 2020, we were seeing a large increase in family reunion bookings for the 2021–2022 holiday season, with a 17% increase compared to the 2019 holiday season. This shows us that families are really looking forward to reconnecting after so much time spent apart and coming together for the holidays, as so many plans were canceled in 2020.”

Jones noted that the TSA has been screening over 1 million passengers most days since mid-February, an uptick from the general pandemic lows.

“Additionally, the TSA is looking to hire over 6,000 screening officers for the anticipated summer rush,” he added. ”The Vacationer’s recent survey also supports the idea of travel picking up. After being largely confined to their homes for an entire year, Americans are ready to experience new places, food, and activities again as it is finally becoming safe to do so.”

People will want relaxation and time outdoors.

“We’re seeing the biggest excitement for post-pandemic revenge travel initially to the sun and sand destinations,” Waliszewski said. “Everyone has had a hard year, so while they’re craving new cultures and adventures, they want to give themselves a much-needed break first. They want to sit on a beach and give a cold cheer to the people they missed most during the pandemic.”

Time on the beach is consistent with another travel trend prediction: continued interest in outdoor adventures due to their safety.

“People are most excited to revenge travel to places where they can spend a lot of time outdoors without a mask,” Jones said. “This includes beaches, places with a lot of hiking such as national and state parks, and camping destinations. COVID-19 is thought to spread far less outside compared to indoors, so a beach vacation or camping trip still allows for adequate social distancing. While it is thought that the COVID-19 vaccines also prevent infection and spreading to others, some people still like the added security that the outdoors provide.” There are some promising early data that suggest COVID-19 vaccines can reduce transmission of the coronavirus, but research is still ongoing.

They will play it safe with their initial destinations.

“Most of the revenge travel in the next few months will likely take place in the United States,” Jones said. “Of the limited number of foreign countries that are permitting United States citizens, many of them have COVID-19 testing requirements that can be quite extensive.”

Alan Fyall, the interim chair for the tourism, events, and attractions department at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, believes the focus will still be on driving destinations like state and national parks and coastlines. However, he added, “The desire to visit friends and relatives will drive traffic to all destinations as families and loved ones reconnect.”

Even those who are interested in going beyond the continental U.S. will probably play it safe.

“For American travelers, the deep desire to get away combined with the looming uncertainty is causing a surge in planning trips to destinations like Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” Waliszewski said. “People want to go as far away as they can get without actually leaving the country.”

Kennedy echoed this sentiment, predicting that people yearning for true international travel will likely turn to Mexico and the Caribbean.

“It reconciles that sense of wanderlust we’re all feeling without taking too much risk. Flights that aren’t much longer ― or in some cases shorter ― than domestic flights,” he said.

Travelers may feel more inclined to splurge.

Click here for the rest of the story

Read More
shield insurance agency how to get more energy in the morning

Want More Energy In The Morning?

Posted on by Shield Agency

Want More Energy In The Morning? Try This Easy Science-Backed Method.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could magically turn yourself into a morning person? This doesn’t have to be just a dream: A group of sleep researchers developed a method that could very well transform the way you feel during the wee hours of the morning — or at least help you get more energy and feel a little less sluggish in the a.m.

The science-backed process ― called the RISE-UP method ― was created a few years ago, but it’s especially helpful now. The pandemic has made sleep inertia — the transitional state between sleep and wake, marked by grogginess, impaired performance, and a desire to return to sleep — more common, said sleep researcher Kate Kaplan, a clinical instructor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Adjusting your morning habits using the technique may help reverse some of those effects.

“I think we’re living in very unique times from a sleep perspective,” she said, adding that as our schedules are drifting later, our sleep inertia might be getting stronger. Commuting to school or work, the acts of packing lunch and getting dressed — these are all helpful for “decreasing sleep inertia and helping reset our biological rhythm,” Kaplan explained. Those routines have been cut short or annihilated for many of us, so it makes sense that we’re feeling more tired than we did in pre-pandemic days.

Kaplan and her colleagues devised the RISE-UP method in 2018 to help people get up in the morning. After rounds of research and testing, they ultimately developed the strategy to combat sleep inertia. With the new (slower) pace of our work-from-home mornings, the technique may prove to be more useful than ever. The RISE-UP method consists of six principles that can help minimize the experience of sleepiness. Here’s what each letter stands for:

  1. R – Resist the urge to hit the snooze button
  2. I – Increase your activity for the first hour
  3. S – Shower (or wash your face and hands with cold water)
  4. E – Expose yourself to sunlight
  5. U – Upbeat music
  6. P – Phone a friend

Every principle of the RISE-UP method is a bit more nuanced than it is prescriptive, so let’s go through all six individually.

R: Resist the urge to hit the snooze button

Click here for the rest of the story

Read More
Shield Insurance | construction industry

How technology is transforming the construction industry

Posted on by Shield Agency

In today’s construction industry market, there’s little doubt that technology holds transformative power.

Not only have new technological advancements led to greater efficiency in day-to-day operations, but they’ve also created new opportunities for companies to gain a competitive edge and focus on strategic growth.

There are several ways technology is making positive impacts on key priorities within the construction industry, including workforce, safety and risk management, and operational efficiency.

Finding solutions for construction industry labor challenges

Labor shortages in the construction industry remain significant and widespread. A new survey by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) found that 80 percent of construction companies report having a tough time filling hourly craft positions, representing the bulk of the construction workforce. On top of that, 56 percent also are finding it difficult to fill salaried positions. According to AGC, preparing, attracting, and re-skilling the future workforce are necessary steps in reducing that figure – and technology can help bridge the gap.

How can technology help with labor shortages? First, investing in cutting-edge approaches can help recruit and retain more young adults from tech-savvy generations into construction careers. Second, technology can streamline labor needs. By adopting tech methods to reduce on-site work time, such as using virtual construction tools like Building Information Modeling (BIM) and automating inventories and the ordering process, a contractor can better manage productivity levels and its workforce.

Addressing construction industry safety and risk

According to the latest Construction Technology Report by JBKnowledge, almost 50 percent of today’s contractors now have dedicated IT departments, and more construction companies are using technology solutions to internally manage workflows like estimating, project scheduling, and project management as well as to improve safety. Here are some of the ways technology is helping with efficiency and safety:

  • Wearables.

With wearable technology’s popularity and growth in consumer markets, the construction industry is now considering how to use different features to improve worksite safety. Some potential applications for wearable technology include monitoring an employee’s movements or vitals and providing real-time alerts if work conditions become dangerous. Smart helmets, for example, turn traditional hardhats into on-the-ground safety systems that can detect a worker’s level of fatigue or a worksite’s carbon monoxide level or temperature.

Smart helmets turn traditional hardhats into on-the-ground safety systems that can detect a worker’s level of fatigue or a worksite’s carbon monoxide level or temperature.

As another example, gear like augmented-reality glasses can provide workers with real-time guidance and detect errors before an accident, which, along with the proper training, could help improve productivity and safety.

Plusses like these will likely fuel more experimentation with wearables and research on their effectiveness at improving safety. Nearly two-thirds of insurers, for example, expect wearable technologies to have a significant impact in coming years, according to a survey of more than 200 insurance executives.

  • Mobile devices.

The importance of mobile capabilities has soared, the JBKnowledge report shows, with 83 percent of firms surveyed saying mobile is “important” or “very important” to their operations vs. just 59 percent who thought so in 2012.

The daily use of laptops in the construction field also has increased, from 64 percent in 2015 to 78 percent in 2017. And the use of smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices is quickly streamlining much of the construction process, from creating and approving blueprints to post-construction monitoring.

In terms of safety benefits, the adoption of mobile technologies enables real-time communication with all members of a construction team as well as faster incident reporting and injury documentation, all of which can help reduce the risk of injuries and the cost of worker’s compensation claims.

Boosting worksite efficiency with labor-saving strategies

Click here for the rest of the story

Read More
Shield Insurance Agency organizing a home

8 Easy Steps to a More Organized Home

Posted on by Shield Agency

An Organized Home: Even small efforts to declutter can lead to tidier spaces

En español | We love to think about decluttering and having an organized home. But we don’t always love to do it.

Last year, people binge-watched The Home Edit on Netflix to see pantries and bookshelves organized in a rainbow of colors and messy garages and bedrooms transformed. In the past, people have Marie Kondo–ed their closets and drawers by tossing items that don’t spark joy.

It can be hard to get around to decluttering in real life, even when people are spending more time at home because of COVID-19. But a few small steps can help jump-start the effort and may even improve your mental health just as much as your home.

“The more clutter you have, the less happy you tend to be,” says Joseph Ferrari, a professor at DePaul University, who along with his research partner has studied the negative impact of all that stuff. “The more you have, the less life satisfaction people report.”

Decluttering for an organized home made simple

After Beverly LaZar went through a divorce and began contemplating a move, she assessed what she wanted to take with her. LaZar, 52, from Cedar Crest, New Mexico, realized her family had “accumulated a great deal of stuff” after living in one place for 24 years. Much of it was squirreled away in boxes in her garage, barely looked at.

She’s decided to tackle organizing what’s accumulated in those boxes. “I do not wish to move all of these things across the country,” she says.

Simple Ways to Declutter Your Spaces

  1. Start by removing trash.
  2. Begin by choosing one small area to organize — like a drawer.
  3. Sort items into three piles: Keep, donate and toss.
  4. Find a specific home for everything you intend to keep — for example, a hook for your keys.
  5. Group similar items together, instead of storing them in multiple places, so you always know where to find them.
  6. If you buy something new, pledge to get rid of something else to limit items in your home.
  7. If you’re holding on to items to pass to the next generation, ask your heirs if they want the items. Be prepared for them to say no, and be gracious.
  8. Don’t try to do everything all at once. Schedule limited amounts of time to work on decluttering and organizing on a regular basis.

The older you get, the more mugs, memorabilia, furniture, books, papers, and accessories seem to pile up. So where to begin when it comes to organizing and decluttering?

“I always suggest starting with removing the trash first,” says Nikki Bell, a professional organizer in Houston. “Grab a trash bag and just walk through the space throwing away anything broken, damaged, or actual trash.”

Cardboard boxes can take up a lot of space, so removing them changes the way you view a room, Bell says. After that, pick one small area to tackle, like a drawer, to ease yourself into the work.

To start her decluttering project, Sabrina Hamilton, 52, of Colorado, picks one room, assesses the clutter, and starts sorting, using a system many professional organizers follow.

“I create three piles: what I’ll keep, what I’ll donate, and what I’ll throw away,” she says. “With each item, I’m considering, I decide if it’s meaningful, useful, or useless.” Meaningful items get to stay, useful items that she no longer wants are passed along, and useless stuff goes in the trash.

From there, Andrew Mellen, a professional organizer in New York City, encourages people to start organizing. He suggests following what he calls his “organizational triangle” — “one home for everything; like with like; and something in, something out.”

That means:

  • Everything has a spot where it lives. For example, “your keys have a home and they’re either in their home or they’re in your hand unlocking something,” Mellen says.
  • Like with like involves organizing your belongings so that “all like objects live together — not most of them,” Mellen says. That means storing all tools in a toolbox and not leaving a stray screwdriver in a junk drawer.
  • Something in, something out helps manage the number of items in a home. If you buy something new, something has to be donated, given away, or trashed.

Letting go of items can be hard

Click here for the rest of the story.

Read More

Tips for Motorcycle Road Trips

Posted on by Shield Agency


Foremost Insurance Group

Before heading out on motorcycle road trips, make sure you and your bike are ready!

Read More
How To Save Money on Renters Insurance

Save money on renters insurance

Posted on by Shield Agency

Top ways customers say they’ve saved money on renters insurance

Buying renters insurance isn’t always considered a priority by renters. Some might not even consider it if the rental agreement doesn’t require it. The good news is that renters insurance is generally very affordable and easy to obtain.

As noted, it is now frequently a requirement to show proof of an active renters insurance policy when you sign a lease agreement.

Even though renters insurance coverage is very affordable, you still want to make sure that you’re getting the best price for the coverage that you need. If you want to know how to save on renters insurance, this post has some valuable tips from the best source — renters themselves.

Clearsurance looked at reviews and compiled this list of the top ways customers say they save money on renters insurance. These renters insurance tips from actual customers can guide anyone who is looking for cheap renters insurance for apartments or other rental properties.

Tip 1: Ask about renters insurance discounts

There are a lot of discounts available to renters, including some that you might not even realize can help you save money. For example, when you move into an apartment, you might think that the sprinklers or other fire suppression systems in your apartment are there to protect your landlord’s property, such as the building structure.

However, since these systems are effective at putting fires out quickly, they protect your personal property too, so many insurers will discount your renter’s insurance if your apartment or rental unit is equipped with them.

The same goes for other systems that may be installed by your landlord, such as security systems and alarms.

Even information such as the building’s construction and the materials it is made from can make you eligible for discounts, so don’t be afraid to ask your insurance company about discounts.

Here’s what one customer learned about Lemonade renters insurance:

“Best customer service ever! My lemonade policy barely costs a fast food meal a month. It’s so cheap. My property required renter’s insurance (which I really did not want at the time – I thought it was pointless, what could happen to me – right?!) I found lemonade online and chose them due to their great rates. I got a lot of discounts because I have a security system in my apartment and my complex has fire sprinklers in every room, fire alarms in every room, and smoke detectors in every room.” – sam1, Lemonade Customer Reviewer (Read the full review here.)

Tip 2: Regularly review your pricing

Click here for the rest of the story

Read More
Health Care for the Latino population with Shield Insurance Agency

Healthcare.gov Encouraging Latino Enrollment

Posted on by Shield Agency

HHS Announces Partnerships to Encourage Latino Enrollment through HealthCare.gov

Today, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra announced commitments from national organizations to support Latino outreach and enrollment efforts during the current Special Enrollment Period (SEP) made available on HealthCare.gov by President Biden due to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. As part of the Latino Week of Action, April 18 – 24, these organizations and HHS will share information with Latino consumers and use social media to encourage them to enroll in affordable, quality health plans through HealthCare.gov.

“Helping communities take advantage of reduced costs on quality health care coverage is a priority for this Department. In addition to putting our money where our mouth is, we are partnering with key organizations representing the Latino community to engage their knowledge and network to promote enrollment in quality, affordable health insurance coverage during this Special Enrollment Period,” said HHS Secretary Becerra. “To the many Latinos who may have lost health care coverage during the pandemic, I am here to tell you that ‘help is here.’ Health care coverage is more affordable for people and assistance is available if you need help finding a health plan that best meets your needs.”

To read the HHS press release in Spanish, visit:
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/04/19/hhs-announces-commitments-from-partners-to-encourage-latino-consumers-es.html

To read the HHS press release in English, visit:

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/04/19/hhs-announces-commitments-from-partners-to-encourage-latino-consumers.html

Health Insurance Marketplace sent this bulletin at 04/19/2021 02:05 PM EDT

Contact Carlos Garcia, Health Insurance Specialist with
Shield Insurance Agency if you need assistance signing up.

  • Health Care for the Latino population with Shield Insurance Agency
  • Health Care for the Latino population with Shield Insurance Agency
  • Health Care for the Latino population with Shield Insurance Agency
Read More

Shield Insurance Gift Card Winners!

Posted on by Shield Agency

Every week, Shield Insurance Agency draws a winner from its clients and social media followers. Be sure to LIKE our Facebook Page to get yourself entered to win and see who the winners are!

  • Gift Card Winner from Shield Insurance Agency serving Michigan, Ohio and Illinois
  • Dennys-dinner-on -shield-insurance-agency
  • Panera-Bread-Winners-Shield-Agency-1
  • Shield Insurance Gives Away Lowes Gift Card

Read More
Community Minded Referral Program

Shield Referral Program Introduces Roslyn

Posted on by Shield Agency

Shield Referral Program

Your referral can make a difference for Roslyn. Shield Insurance is helping Roslyn by donating $25 for each non-client who gets a quote from us! No purchase necessary! CLICK HERE to get a quote and we’ll donate $25 to her! (Be sure to mention Roslyn in the comment section!) You can also call or text the office and one of our agents will take a few minutes of your time to offer up a quote. Don’t forget to mention Ros!

“The highest compliment we can receive is the referral of your friends, family & business associates. Thank you for your trust!”

Meet Roslyn
Roslyn and Shield Insurance Agency Referral Program

More great stories featuring Roslyn…

Read More