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Ashish gives us an insight into how Pinterest trends have been affected by the pandemic, as a self-confessed at-home tourist with a family, he understands what people have gone through and exactly where they're coming from. Some such examples from the start of the pandemic are a 200% increase in home office ideas, a 50% increase in homeschooling schedules, and the 12x searches for food storage solutions.

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When coming to the end of initial lockdowns, there was an interesting shift from users. With a 60% rise in road trip essentials, 3x as many simple wedding ideas being looked up, and a 521% increase in camping essentials, users were becoming aspirational again.

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Through Pinterest, we are able to directly interact with a user's change in perspective on the current situation. Trends are being made every day and Ashish further explains that there is a clear pattern.

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He outlines four phases in understanding users during this turbulent time:

• Triage and Information - users are disorientated. People are overwhelmed and getting situated.
• Empathy and Relevance - users are worried. The loss of the situation was settling in, and people wanted to help.
• Escapism and Optimism - users are restless. Boredom lead onto escaping from the present and seeking to find control.
• Recovery and Rebound - users are rebuilding. People are reestablishing their teams and branding stronger for the future.
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This leads to Ashish's 5 tips for helping rebuild the user experience in the last legs of the pandemic:

1. Help travellers imagine their future, instil their ideal experience.
2. Reassure their safety and trust, build confidence between you and the user.
3. Inspire travellers to boost demand in your destination. 50% of travellers remain undecided on their destination, it's your job to give them travel ideas.
4. Help move them from dreaming about their ideal journey to actually booking. Help them visualise the experience so they retain that confidence.
5. Cultivate a passion to personalise the traveller's experience. Try to understand what travellers want in particular when they visit.