Paddington Tucker, CEO of Travel Advance, has written this message of hope for the travel industry during this time of unprecedented disruption:
"To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries," wrote Aldous Huxley.
The Corona pandemic has dealt a vicious blow to our industry. We sit at home in a state of paralysis having received what feels like a knock-out punch. Now we are down, it is a good moment to consider our true standing in the world. We are a giant - a trillion-dollar industry that employs up to a fifth of the world?s population ? and overwhelming force of good in the world.
In recent years we have been criticised. We have been too successful, and our crowds have ruined certain spots of the world for locals. Our need to fly has contributed to climate change. Until low-carbon planes come into mass use, we are guilty as charged here, though it?s worth noting the carbon footprint of aviation and maritime shipping combined is less than that of the fashion industry.
But notwithstanding our excesses, we do more good than harm. We bring prosperity. Tourism is a vital export business for many countries across the world. Significant proportions of countries? GDP are generated through inbound tourism: 72% of Macau, 33% of Iceland, 21% of Thailand, 14% of Spain (Knoema data for 2018).
Tourism is good for the fabric of a society - it employs a wide range of people thanks to its multi-faceted nature, requiring many different jobs to fulfill its needs. We engage gardeners, revenue managers, pilots, chefs, joiners, security guards, masseurs and countless others. We are human resources-heavy and distribute our profits far more evenly than most industries. That the tourism dollar is spread so widely is actually a disadvantage when it comes to lobbying governments to promote our interests. Profits in the mining and pharma industries are controlled by a relatively small group of people, who can use their power to influence policy - and this not always in the public interest. Our industry in contrast ranks among the best for empowering the disadvantaged.
The travel industry is one of the best guardians of our environment. We generate a demand to experience nature, which means it is in everyone?s interest to protect nature. Without us I have no doubt there would be no lions left in the wild (even with us the numbers are precariously low), and national parks would be much more vulnerable to pressures from mineral exploitation and farming. We provide the economic rationale for conservation.
And we nourish the soul. When you are 87 you will have forgotten that sofa or plasma TV you bought forty years earlier, but you will doubtless remember that glimpse of Mount Fuji from the bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka, or the time you drank coffee with that mysterious stranger on the backstreets of Bogot?, or scrambled up the banks of the Zambezi whilst being accosted by a troop of baboons. St Augustine was right to say: ?the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.?
As we huddle dazed on the floor after this blow, we should remind ourselves that we play an important role in the equilibrium of the modern world. We bring richness to the human condition; we generate economic and spiritual well-being. Our governments may need reminding of this when they start to reopen society. We are a force to be reckoned with.
(Travel Advance, a destination marketing consultancy agency with offices in Prague, Warsaw, Budapest and Bucharest.)
