New Year, New Terms, New Hope: Things that Might Matter in 2023
What’s in a Name?
Staycation, bleisure, flashpacking, and glamping. We have become accustomed to our language being mangled, largely by the media and companies trying to achieve headlines for what sounds like a new type of tourism product.
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Holidays, Hugs, and Hope
Hope Springs Eternal
Spring is springing, buds are budding, and crocuses are croaking. The vaccination is about to let many of us off the lead and unleash a deluge of pent-up demand for travel, eating out, and reconnecting with family and friends. So, in what I hope might be the last in this series of crystal ball blogs trying to find a chink of light at the end of a seemingly interminable tunnel of semi-incarceration, here is a bunch of ‘S’es for spring: a bouquet of observations with a scent of hope.
Arrivederci 2020.....and an Apprehensive Welcome to 2021
Arrivederci 2020:…….the year when you had to wear a mask to ask for money in a bank; when the only illegal thing about smoking weed at a family gathering in California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Alaska, Massachusetts and a host of other states, was the family gathering; and freedom of movement was defined more by bodily function than cross-border travel. So, in anticipation of this being the year we all get let off the lead, we have dusted off the Yellow Railroad crystal ball to hazard a guess at the most important influences shaping the resurgence of travel in 2021.
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‘Covid-19 Recovery Strategies for National Tourism Organisations’
Report by the European Travel Commission (Sept 2020)
- Review by Tom Buncle -
This is a timely, well-researched report, with some useful insights, instructive case studies, and robust recommendations: https://etc-corporate.org/reports/handbook-on-covid-19-recovery-strategies-for-national-tourism-organisations/
However, while its moral compass and signposts to a new future are beyond reproach, it doesn’t quite do what it says on the tin. It doesn’t live up to the promise of revealing NTO recovery strategies as fully as might be expected from the title. Nevertheless, this does not detract from its authority. It is a highly cogent report with a resolute sense of purpose and a potent call to action.
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Tourism Post-COVID-19: Brave New World or Apocalypse Now?
On the Cusp of a Global Revolution?
The invention of the printing press, the industrial revolution, the end of two World Wars, and the internet. The COVID-19 pandemic is being tipped by some commentators to precipitate global economic and social change as momentous as these world-altering events. A ‘new normal’ is about to be unleashed.
Is this mere media hype? Or, in talking about a ‘new normal’, are we kidding ourselves about the very concept of normality, which, elusive at best, defies description and is more commonly understood as a setting on the washing machine rather than any discernible pattern of human behaviour?
Can we salvage any nuggets of wisdom or hope from the noise, confusion, fear, and business devastation caused by COVID-19, which might help us plot a way forward? This blog attempts to sort hope from hype and lay down some plausible parameters for speculation about a possible road to recovery for the global tourism industry.
Read more: Tourism Post-COVID-19: Brave New World or Apocalypse Now?