SOLAS | A year on, the story so far!

March 2020 was a tough month for those living in the UK, we entered the very first lockdown, following that of other countries. With the increase in COVID-19 related cases, and everyone scrambling to ensure that we had enough bread, milk, and toilet rolls (of all the things to be sold out), the price of hand sanitizer was increasing daily, and the thought of having to wear a mask was a novel idea, considering that only those in the far east wore masks on a regular basis. Little did we know that a year on from that initial lockdown, we are facing a multitude of variations. Countries are entering a 3rd wave of COVID-19 cases, countries are fighting over the vaccine. Global industries are coming to a standstill, with a glimmer of hope to remerge, although we have been in that situation before. So we are very much walking on egg-shells!

At a rate that was unsee before in early 2020, my network of friends and colleagues within Hospitality, Travel & Tourism, started to see business drop and come to a complete stop. With friends stranded on remote islands, to those sailing to nowhere on the seven seas. The boom in online / virtual meetings started to take place and phrases such as, working from home, home schooling, Tier 1 -5, you are on mute, stay home, wear a mask, through to our Thursday night celebration of front-line workers. For this we made as much noise as you can on your doorstep, in the distance the sounding of cruise ships horns miles away who were laid up in port. Celebrating with our neighbours over the garden wall. We where ever hopeful that all of this would be over as quickly as it started. This was not to be the case, as a year on, we are still battling through, and today is our ‘National Day of Reflection’.

We emerged from the initial lockdown with a newfound freedom, supporting of our local businesses, online shopping becoming a daily task, battling to get a delivery for food shopping, setting the alarm to check through tout the night if any slots had become available, for the all-important loo roll!  The ability to meet friends, colleagues and clients started to fade, and we found ourselves spending more time at the laptop working or staying connected with our loved ones who although close by, unable to see or spend time with.

I went from the ability to travel, explore, and work with teams on site, through to online meetings, webinars, with participation at virtual global events. Even those within education found themselves, having to adapt and create a whole new world of online virtual learning. So, what happens when, your industry is on its knees and the ability to work starts to fade away, we can either sit back and watch in disbelief that it is happening, and hope that it will returning to some level of normality. Others took up new jobs with industries that they had never even looked at or even considered before. Taking the opportunity to share information, knowledge, and experiences throughout my career, saw the start of the SOLAS (Stories of life at Sea) enabling our contacts, to have access to a wealth of knowledge and experience, that individuals, may not have had access, or experienced before. Thus providing a range of guidance, support and downloadable documents to assist.

So, from our SOLAS, through to our weekly ‘transformational experiences’ it has most certainly been a year, that has presented many obstacles, and we are still facing them each day. It is how we / you take these challenges, and whether you see them as an opportunity to learn, grow, diversify, help others or to keep your hand in at a job that you are enjoying doing. What kept me going, was knowing, that the work I did was helping others who were on the front-line, or just needed those few moments to be taken away to a different world. Receiving a random ‘thank you’ from someone who had received a SOLAS story, who I had never met before, to receiving a personal thank you from governments / organisations we had supported – most certainly made it worth while, and still does.

I was extremely fortunate to travel towards the end of 2020, and 3 months later found myself heading back to the UK, after a very productive time overseas. It was not all glitter and glamour, on this assignment, however the opportunity to work with people onsite was greatly appreciated and gave me a new sense of energy and hope that we will come out of this in the coming months. It will take time to recover, and this may take a few years to accomplish. Yet it will happen, and we shall see redefined experiences for both our teams, customers, clients and guests.

Certain countries have reopened borders for travelling, and as predicted, many are traveling the moment they can, which is obviously great news, although very much with the air of caution. As an industry, how do we know that people are safe to travel, how do we know that from a guest perspective it is safe to travel or stay! These questions, still need to be answered by many industries yet, to reassure and mitigate the risk factor

Calmer waters are in sight, yet we still may have some storms to sail through to reach those calmer shores and be able to return to some form of normality and a renewed sense of belonging.  At times, these periods of uncertainty help us to realise what our focus should be and, in some ways, to challenge the way things used to be, and how we change them for the better. However ultimately enabling us to deliver something new and exciting for our guests / customers and even ourselves. The appetite for travel is starting to appear, along with frustration from those who want it to just be all over! Some may say that it is now a political game, and one that many of us are over. 

Personally, avoiding the news is the best thing ever, and enables me to have a clear focus on the journey ahead, and to tackle each obstacle that I encounter as something to move on from, having learned a new lesson!

So, as we celebrate one year, with a national day of reflection and also a year since I started writing SOLAS, and sharing knowledge, I would like to thank you all for reading them, I hope that they make you smile, laugh and it is OK to shed a tear or two. Until we meet in person, to share a story over a piece of cake, or glass of wine, stay safe and well.

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