TOGETHER STRONGER – SHARING IDEAS ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
Bore Da / Good Morning and croeso (welcome) from Wales.
The purpose of this blog is to help bring together a global community of tourism professionals and experts. The aim is to share knowledge, experiences and ideas that will help the recovery of travel and tourism in destinations throughout the ravaged world. The objective is to inspire us to create more resilient, sustainable and relevant destinations in the future – relevant for our communities and our guests.
There are already extraordinary stories of strong leadership, creative innovation and inspiring messages of hope and goodwill emerging from around the world. We must share this information. We must forget the notion of competition between destinations. We are all in this together and the solutions will emanate from a collective effort – stronger together.
For so many aspects of our lives the only certainty is uncertainty. However, according to Nigel Green (CEO and Founder of deVere Group) COVID19 will ‘usher in a new era. We expect the recession to be deep and short. The slowdown will be temporary because it is not caused by deep-rooted problems and imbalances in the economy…. But this COVID19 recession is likely to fundamentally shift how we live, do business and invest. Every recession produces a new world. This one will too. The pandemic will speed up the so-called Fourth Revolution… new industries will emerge…enforced social distancing will highlight new ways of how we can remain connected. Most importantly, the disruption and shifts will underscore that we live in a time of great capabilities and great promise.”
I hope we can all contribute fresh thinking via this blog to held achieve these goals.
Imaginative leadership is a necessity. Unorthodox ideas that will serve a larger purpose will be critical according to Robert Grover (www.imaginativecommunities.com) and are we willing to kill the goose that laid the golden egg?
In Wales the Welsh Government, through Visit Wales, has introduced a comprehensive program of support, the same is happening in Denmark, in Ireland: indeed, every country will be doing their best to try to find a way forward.
But what works well? What are the biggest challenges and how are they being addressed? Francis Pauwels from New Zealand (www.karunz.com) writes that this is the beginning of the end of globalisation and the dawn of a new localism. What does this mean in real terms and what has to be done to create a local eco-system to support this happening in the short-term
Information of good practice is already pouring in and showing how our industry is adapting.
VisitOslo has focused on its residents as tourists offering many different ways to explore their city. In Wales, the Bluestone National Park Resort (www.bluestonewales.com) is to become a centre for recovering COVID19 patients and the Oldwall’s Collection (www.oldwallscollection.com) have turned their 5* Fairyhill Country House Hotel into a humanitarian centre with their chefs producing meals for the elderly and for health front line staff. In Denmark, Lars Olsen is reporting on innovative thinkers within the architecture and design community are lending their ways of thinking to the tourism industry.
There are thousands of ideas out there. Can we now share them?
I am heartened by the immense positivity expressed in the communication (23.3.2020) from the wonderful, family-run, GB Thermae Hotels Group in Abano (The Euganee Hills, near Padua: www.gbhotelsabano.it) “Soon we will start welcoming you and pampering you again, taking care of those precious moments. It will be great to rediscover the pleasure of taking care of each other. Now is the goal to win this battle. Together we will.”
So lets use this time to shape a new tourism for the future.
Finally, we must all show solidarity and express our deepest thanks to our leaders and key workers who are working tirelessly providing essential services in these unprecedented times, especially those in front line health care.
Somewhere over the Rainbow
Credit: Terry Stevens