Proudly Contributed by Weerasak Kowsurat
Thai Senator
Former Minister of Tourism &Sports of Thailand
Tourism organizations have organized many discussions rounds during the last 8 months addressing when and how can recovery be seen for this industry.
While COVID 19 infected rise at the rate of 200,000 each and every single day certainly tell us that industry recovery is still far from horizon Aviation industry has never been before hit this hard ever.
Planes grounded in every continent may not be as depressed as seeing the airline’s stocks taking head dive to the floor or in many cases through the floor already into the abyss 20 have gone bankrupt and hundreds are looking at consolidation.
“It’s expected to take at least 3 years from now to see the last plane take off from runway after a long parking from this global pandemic ” quoted by global aircraft manufacturers like Boeing.
European airlines are expected to wait until 2024 before they can be as busy as 2019 again. BUT because road rail and ports systems in Europe are well established before any other regions, EU travellers can resume their travel habit as soon as they are confident. But countries that made on island or being further away from the mainland continent and those remote destinations will find it difficult to re-access.
Lack of carriers to bring traffic in and out of each location can leave an even deeper and longer impact on many economies of small and remote places. Regardless of any vaccines found effective against the ever mutation of viruses nature this or next year. This will still be another challenging task to distribute the vaccines to those that need.
Therefore, 2 years is perhaps a minimum waiting time to see busy airports back in operations. If target is the recovery of travel and hospitality industry then a” trusted in industry future” is the key.
Trust should bring in “credits ” and credits brings in a loan that will carry and develop infrastructure both on hardware, software and humanware to hold their breathe long enough and able to reappear on the other side of the tunnel better equipped to better compete when the international travel return to full or even half speed.
The same may also apply to aviation industry supply chains. So, do we have that trust…or do we just only have “hope” in this industry. Hope doesn’t bring in credits…that’s perhaps why we don’t see loan moving the amount and speed expected
What else do we want to recover…
If we want to recover sustained business ecology then the word “risk management “should be the buzz word in every page of the business plan. If we want to recover the sustainability of human activity and nature, then the word “responsible tourism” is the least to include in any part of the plan. This shall also apply to the wish to recover the sustainability of “peace “in a multicultural world of tourism.
Because we have now learned that crowd that is either too big or too loud or too eager to see can cause the locals to feel insecure and in many cases around the world, shout back at visitors either by sounds or by signs.
If we want to recover the “pride “of the hospitality industry. The keyword should be “fair practice” of actions, this should include the ability to give “accessibility “to people who need. The industry is now trying to boost a spirit of all domestic travelable for tourism.
It is then fair to also ask for” tourism for all” concept as well in return. If we want to recover a better distribution of wealth so that disparity issues can be better dealt with
Then the word “marketing for the poorer” in less known target has to be developed creatively.
Ask ourselves quietly and calmly what else are on the list of recovery we would like to have after you turn off the last device before you turn in tonight.
