“CAN you believe it? Today’s the day WHO called Covid a pandemic a year ago,” said my caller this morning (March 11, 2021).
At this stage I am ready to believe anything. Well, not everything because there’s a lot of mixed reality out there – there’s someone’s truth and then there’s the truth, and it seems the divide is getting wider between fact and fiction.
It’s not fiction though to say that most of us have not travelled for a year. It’s not fiction to say that millions have lost their jobs and livelihoods because of that, and it’s not fiction to say that more will leave travel and related sectors because it’s just taking so long for things to restart.
I feel a bit like Samuel Beckett in the play, “Waiting For Godot”, in which he says, “Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful.”
It’s awful what’s happened to the airlines with their flying machines that used to bring us places at the drop of a price. It’s awful what’s happened to the millions of workers who rely on tourism in their destinations. In particular, it’s awful what’s happened to social enterprises who rely on tourism to fund their good deeds.
Take the example of the Phare, The Cambodian Circus, which was started by Serey Bandaul to address the devastation to the country’s people and arts after the Khmer Rouge genocide. It spent years trying to reduce its dependence on individual donors by creating a circus social enterprise. But with performances closed down for more than nine months in 2020, Phare lost 60% of its annual operating budget – $600,000.
According to this article, “Education and arts programmes were cut to the bone and staff took large voluntary pay cuts, but still the NGO is short of $250,000 for 2021 in order to keep educating some of Cambodia’s most disadvantaged children.”
But it got creative and last week, it attempted to set a world record for Cambodia with a 24-hour virtual circus performance – cheered on by more than a million fans online – and in the process managed to raise funds.
Said the report, “In just three days, thousands of Cambodians have donated, with more than $25,000 raised already. Two online galas for a global audience also raised more than $60,000. People can donate at https://phareps.org/donate/ or ABA number 000784673.”
I think the year of no travel has sparked such creativity from all of us and it shows travel is unstoppable, as Timothy Hughes, vice president, corporate development, Agoda declared at our WiT & TravelDaily Virtual event today. He shared a chart that showed that whenever there was news of some lifting of restrictions around travel, bookings picked up almost immediately.
After a year of no travel, you can almost touch the pent-up demand building up and up. Look at the bookings that happened in the UK soon as news came out that Britons can travel from May 18. I spoke to my contractor this morning (my home needs a lot of work on account of me being in it all year) and he told me he’s been on three cruises to nowhere since January. A regular cruiser and traveller, he said, “cannot stand anymore (Singaporean patois meaning can’t take it anymore).”
So on this day, a year after the pandemic was called out, I decided to ask a simple question of my friends in travel. After a year of no travel, what have you learnt?
Here are some of the lessons.
Sarah Wan, general manager, Singapore, Klook
• One thing I’ll never take for granted again: standing on an unknown street in another country and taking in a deep breath of air.
• Nothing beats the quality of face to face interaction.
• I haven’t met someone who has told me they don’t miss it, regardless of how frequently or infrequently they used to travel before. Everyone is waiting in anticipation – and when the recovery boom comes, it will be immense.
Lynette Pang, assistant chief executive, marketing, Singapore Tourism Board
• That staying home can bring new discoveries.
• But the anonymity of being a stranger in a strange land, I miss.
Timothy Hughes, vice president, corporate development, Agoda
• How much I need dogs.
• How much I miss my family.
• Just how critical a top quality customer care organisation is.
Baidi Li, head of growth initiatives, Magpie Travel
That travel is essential yet our industry is vulnerable; we could adapt to a completely new way of living; when you can’t travel ten thousand miles, reading ten thousand books can keep you sane.
Ross Veitch, CEO & Co-founder, Wego
I’ve learnt that I miss travelling a lot! Especially the experience of dropping into a new place & culture for the very first time.
Laurent Kuenzle, managing director, Asian Trails
Love and appreciate what is closest to you. Be thankful for what you have. And keep dreaming about future travels!
Fritz Demopoulos, CEO, Queen’s Road Capital
• Hong Kong has exceptional things to do.
• Spending time with family is amazing.
• We wasted a lot of time on business travel.
• Without the pressures of travel we can still connect with people globally and see an array of new, unique and interesting experiences.
Louise Daley, CEO, Future Now Capital
• Life goes on.
• Digital is ok for meetings, but personally you lose something in the interaction.
• Animals are essential.
• People are craving holidays and are improvising on how to get their relaxation fix.
• We are only just starting to see mental health impacts.
• Without travel racism and intolerance take hold.
• I still want to buy a new suitcase.
As for mine, there’s only one thing I’ve learnt – I was born to travel. Godot, hurry up.
• Featured image: Bowie, the stay-at-home Golden Retriever