Rajeev Nangia, Chief Operating Officer, TRAC Representations takes a pragmatic look at how the COVID-led year of 2020 has taken the world by surprise, and how despite the uncertainty, one needs to do one's bit to keep the wheels of life moving.
He shares his thoughts in a simple and forthright manner:
Today, when we look at The Year 2020, we think when will this year come to an end. But six months back, the Year 2020 also started with a Big Bang and brought in a lot of hope and positivity. While celebrating the arrival of Year 2020, we had hardly thought of a pandemic and many other issues related to the same and otherwise. We were all hopeful that there will be new opportunities and there were talks of man reaching frontiers where no one has gone before.
However, the reality is that the world has faced a Lockdown, and travel and tourism along with many other businesses have almost come to a standstill as humanity continues to struggle to find a cure. Simultaneously, we are learning a new way of life, a new normal while practising physical distancing, wearing a mask and adopting various other sanitising rules.
While some businesses are yet to start and some have started moving the wheels, the process of restarting and recovery seems at a slow pace and almost everyone is looking for solutions to increase the pace. But we have to
continue to live with the hope that we will not only survive but the pace will also increase. To achieve the same we all need to keep doing our bit, irrespective of the circumstances. In these times, one also needs to be truthful to oneself or we can continue to live in a fool's paradise.
The situation is without any doubt challenging and times are tough, but as they say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. So let’s keep our hope and positivity going during these tough times and not only will we survive but we will also get to thrive.
The new normal does not only imply social and hygiene norms but also to our business norms. Innovation will continue to be the key for a long time.
So friends, travel and tourism will revive. Most of us are restarting the engines of our businesses and sooner rather than later, we will be reigniting consumer confidence in the 'new normal' travel.