Stepping Back from the Edge

The date was January 23, 2020. I was invited to be a part of a meeting by our Global Security team to talk about our response as a company to something called the "Novel Coronavirus". I had seen a couple of blurbs online about this oddly named virus that was growing out of control in China. I will admit it gave me pause. Maybe I had seen too many movies about the next plague or read 'The Stand' by Stephen King too many times, but I got the feeling this was going to be bad. Soon after our company office in China was in lockdown. A week later I canceled my 2 week vacation for the middle of February to Hawaii out of abundance of caution. People looked at my like I was crazy. "It's only in China". As the days passed and the cases began to spread to other countries, the concern began to grow and my company started closing more offices around the globe. Then on March 12th the memo came that all of our offices were closing down and that everyone would be working from home for the next couple of months. As I packed up my laptop and grabbed my car keys that night, I looked over my workspace and I thought to myself, "I have a feeling I may never see this place again". Then began the big adjustment of working from home, of wearing a mask everywhere I go, of shunning friends and family for fear of contracting the virus, and of battling the storm of emotions that some days would cast a dark cloud of depression and despair over me. By May came the stark reality that this virus was doing more than making people sick and in some cases taking lives, but that the very industry that I have built my entire professional career around was being brought to its knees. First it was furloughs, then it was layoffs and early retirements, and then came the bankruptcies, mergers and then closures. I have lost count of how many of longtime travel colleagues have lost their jobs since March. Airline reps, travel agents, hotel sales managers, car rental account mangers, travel managers, and on and on and on they go until it seemed there was barely anyone left.

Now here we are at the end of this year that has tested us all beyond anything we have experienced before. The virus is still spreading unabated. The number of infections are skyrocketing, the ICUs are full, and sadly the morgues are filling up. My company is still working remote until Q3 of next year. Dozens of hotels are teetering on the edge of foreclosure, some airlines are talking more layoffs, and travel management companies are looking at further cuts to survive. The stark reality of the situation is that this is going be a long dark Winter for most of us. Even with the hope of the vaccines it will be a slow road to recovery for business travel. Some analyst say business travel may never fully recover from this and that the landscape has forever changed. Perhaps they are right to some extent. Perhaps companies have learned that a lot of the meetings and day trips were not really needed to close the deal. Now that so many companies have gone virtual or virtual-hybrid full time, you have to think that this is going to impact business travel and meeting travel, too. The travel industry has survived a number of setbacks over the last 40 years and each time it has adapted and bounced back. This time the industry is really being tested, but in the end it will adapt to the "new normal" and it will come back. It may be years upon years before it recovers, but it will in one form or another. That is the beauty of the human spirit. It may seem we are standing on the edge of destruction and that hope is lost, but as long as the Sun rises tomorrow there is hope. Where there is hope there is a new tomorrow.

"You are not alone"

I want to wish all of my travel industry colleagues and all of humanity peace and strength this holiday season. There will be a tomorrow and we will get through this together. Stay safe, be well, and know that you are not in this alone. Cheers!