Panelists:
Annie Fitzsimmons, Luxury Travel & Advisor Editor, AFAR
Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio, EVP & Chief Revenue Officer, AFAR
Greg Sullivan, Co-founder, AFAR
Steven Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer, Accor
Helen Hill, Chief Executive Officer, Explore Charleston
Gloria Loree, SVP, Marketing Strategy & Chief Marketing Officer, Destination Canada
Joy Jibrilu, Director General, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation
Joshua Bush, CEO, Avenue Two Travel
———
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Annie Fitzsimmons, Luxury Travel & Advisor Editor, AFAR
Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio, EVP & Chief Revenue Officer, AFAR
Greg Sullivan, Co-founder, AFAR
Steven Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer, Accor
Helen Hill, Chief Executive Officer, Explore Charleston
Gloria Loree, SVP, Marketing Strategy & Chief Marketing Officer, Destination Canada
Joy Jibrilu, Director General, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation
Joshua Bush, CEO, Avenue Two Travel
———
CONNECT WITH AFAR
Afar.com is a digital and print magazine that publishes travel tips, guides, news, and stories: https://www.afar.com
Get updates on the latest articles, travel news, and more from AFAR by signing up for the AFAR newsletter: https://afar.com/newsletters
Follow AFAR on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfarMedia
Follow AFAR on Twitter: https://twitter.com/afarmedia
Follow AFAR on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afarmedia
Follow AFAR on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/afarmedia
Category
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TravelTranscript
00:00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:03 Thank you, guys, panelists, for being here today.
00:00:10 And I'm going to introduce you guys in just a minute.
00:00:12 But just a quick opening here.
00:00:15 Today we're talking about recovery on a far live,
00:00:18 what that actually looks like, and what
00:00:20 and who will travel first.
00:00:22 And we thought this week was the right week
00:00:24 to really dive into this topic because we're
00:00:27 seeing more glimmers of hope than ever before.
00:00:29 There seems to be a huge effort on mapping out
00:00:31 a safe way for people to travel again when we can.
00:00:36 So it seems that there's a lot of preparation happening
00:00:38 right now.
00:00:39 So when borders do open, we can hit Go,
00:00:42 and people can go if they want.
00:00:44 I mean, the number one question we get before a far live
00:00:46 is, when will borders open?
00:00:48 So I'm just going to open and say that I don't know,
00:00:51 and none of us here know.
00:00:52 But there are signs that they will reopen,
00:00:55 and maybe sooner than we think.
00:00:56 So for example, in Europe, France, Austria, Germany,
00:00:59 and Switzerland will allow free movement
00:01:01 between the citizens of those countries as of June 15.
00:01:05 There's no international rules yet,
00:01:07 but I think this shows that they will come.
00:01:08 And we're hearing buzzwords like travel corridors and bubbles,
00:01:13 green zones, immunity passports, all of these things.
00:01:17 Some other interesting things that I've seen lately,
00:01:19 private jet trips are up 40% in May over April.
00:01:22 So we've talked on a far live a lot about luxury travel
00:01:25 coming back first.
00:01:25 It's another good sign there.
00:01:28 Disneyland Shanghai reopened, and tickets,
00:01:30 they were at 30% capacity, but they sold out in minutes.
00:01:33 So with social distancing, temperature checks,
00:01:35 and face masks required.
00:01:37 But you kind of have to wonder how much of that
00:01:39 will work in other countries.
00:01:41 And then today, you guys probably saw this.
00:01:44 Many of you, Iceland will allow tourism as of June 15,
00:01:47 and will pay for all visitors who
00:01:49 want one to get a coronavirus test
00:01:51 so they don't have to do a 14-day quarantine.
00:01:54 The same thing in Austria, although the traveler
00:01:56 has to pay 190 euros to do the test.
00:01:59 And Iceland, it's not free indefinitely, they've said.
00:02:02 So all of these things that are happening,
00:02:06 there's a lot of things happening,
00:02:08 but a lot of it's still confusing,
00:02:10 like temperature checks.
00:02:11 I have a toddler who spikes a fever when she's teething.
00:02:14 How would that work, right, if she has a fever at a hotel?
00:02:16 And what is considered a fever?
00:02:19 Could you show your test results from the airport
00:02:21 and skip the temperature check?
00:02:22 So there's a lot that's still kind
00:02:23 of overwhelming and confusing and questions
00:02:26 swirling around right now.
00:02:27 And then there's organizations, of course,
00:02:29 like the World Travel and Tourism Council
00:02:31 that are coming up with global standards,
00:02:33 saying that with a coordinated approach,
00:02:35 the recovery time frame is significantly reduced.
00:02:38 So we'll see.
00:02:39 We're going to talk about things with our panelists today.
00:02:42 And we like to say the next normal, not the new normal,
00:02:44 which I like better.
00:02:45 So that's where we'll start today.
00:02:48 We have Josh Bush, the CEO of Avenue 2 Travel,
00:02:51 based in Philadelphia.
00:02:53 Thanks for having me.
00:02:55 Thank you for being here.
00:02:56 We have Joy Gibralu, the Director General
00:02:58 of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation,
00:03:01 based in the Bahamas.
00:03:03 Thank you very much for having me.
00:03:05 We have Gloria Laurie, the Senior VP
00:03:07 of Marketing and CMO of Destination Canada,
00:03:09 who's based in Vancouver.
00:03:12 Hi, Gloria.
00:03:13 We have Stephen Taylor, the CMO of Accor,
00:03:15 who's based in Paris.
00:03:17 Bonjour.
00:03:20 We have Helen Hill, the CEO of Explore Charleston.
00:03:24 And then from AFAR, we have Greg Sullivan, our co-founder
00:03:28 and CEO, who's currently in California.
00:03:30 And then we have Ellen Asmodeo, our Executive VP and Chief
00:03:33 Revenue Officer, who's based in New York City.
00:03:37 So I'd love to kind of start with Greg,
00:03:41 because without you and Joe, there would be no AFAR.
00:03:44 So I wanted to ask you to talk a little bit about AFAR,
00:03:46 how things have been, and how you're looking at this,
00:03:49 and how we can help the industry recover and get people
00:03:52 traveling again.
00:03:52 And also, if you can let us know when borders will open,
00:03:54 that would be great.
00:03:55 [LAUGHS]
00:03:57 Well, thanks.
00:03:58 Thanks, Annie.
00:03:59 And yeah, it's really great to be
00:04:01 part of this wonderful panel.
00:04:04 Yeah, I mean, for AFAR, like all of us in travel,
00:04:08 it's been a really tough road.
00:04:11 You probably heard a few people speak the last couple of months
00:04:14 about the Mandarin word for crisis being--
00:04:19 one character meaning danger, and the other side
00:04:22 being opportunity.
00:04:23 And that's certainly the way we've looked at it.
00:04:26 And the danger, of course, very real to our health
00:04:33 and our economic survival.
00:04:35 So we've had to take some tough steps with furloughs, pay cuts,
00:04:39 et cetera.
00:04:42 We did that very quickly in mid-March.
00:04:43 But our team has, gosh, responded so amazingly.
00:04:47 I hope many of you read our emails and our social posts
00:04:49 and all that.
00:04:52 We like to say we speak to the world's best travelers.
00:04:55 And travel and shelter at home, I mean,
00:04:59 there isn't a bigger antithesis.
00:05:00 And so it's a very tough time for our audience.
00:05:04 And so we've approached it with empathy.
00:05:08 We approached the news with how it affects them.
00:05:13 Tried to put humor in it, and of course,
00:05:14 tried to be inspirational.
00:05:16 And we've definitely got our audience's attention
00:05:20 during this time when they're mostly stuck at home.
00:05:24 And I think we've really built up more trust
00:05:26 with that audience, which is an amazing responsibility also.
00:05:33 Business-wise, we've tried to do some things to position
00:05:36 ourselves to be stronger.
00:05:39 One of the things I'm most excited about there
00:05:40 is we built a partnership with Vox Media, a really strong
00:05:45 partnership that enables us--
00:05:46 we already speak to the world's best travelers.
00:05:48 But this gives us so much reach.
00:05:50 We now reach 85% of the US digital audience.
00:05:55 And we can target them by interest.
00:05:57 We can target them by demographics.
00:05:59 But most importantly for this subject
00:06:01 is we can target them geographically
00:06:03 because so much of reopening is going
00:06:06 to be about attracting people from nearby originally
00:06:09 at the start.
00:06:10 So I think that's going to be a real advantage to us
00:06:13 as we think about--
00:06:15 as we are building programs and attracting--
00:06:18 well, speaking to the audience in this time.
00:06:22 So reopening, that's-- far we've always taken a--
00:06:29 we've always viewed when there's a catastrophe
00:06:32 a real responsibility to try to support
00:06:34 that destination in recovery, whether it's
00:06:38 hurricanes in the Caribbean, Arab Spring in Egypt,
00:06:44 or wildfires in California, whatever.
00:06:48 It's always about how do we support those destinations
00:06:51 in recovery.
00:06:53 We started afar in the Great Recession, 2008, 2009.
00:07:00 Not the best time to start a business.
00:07:02 But we definitely view it as a business.
00:07:06 We have to make money.
00:07:07 But we did this because we really
00:07:09 believe in the power of travel to enrich lives and make
00:07:12 the world better.
00:07:14 And so that's the way we view everything.
00:07:15 It's like, how can we help our audience?
00:07:18 How can we help individuals?
00:07:19 And how can we help the world?
00:07:20 And so we really view this as the biggest
00:07:24 challenge of our lives is recovery to COVID-19.
00:07:30 When is it over is such an interesting question.
00:07:34 There was a great article in The New York Times on Sunday,
00:07:37 Gina Collada, I don't know if you saw it.
00:07:39 It was talking about the end of pandemics over time,
00:07:43 going back to the bubonic plague.
00:07:47 And it says the ends are never very clear.
00:07:53 They're always kind of fuzzy.
00:07:55 First of all, you've got two ends.
00:07:57 You've got the medical end, when the incidence of the disease
00:08:00 and deaths decrease dramatically.
00:08:03 But you've also got the social end.
00:08:05 When does the epidemic of fear wane?
00:08:09 And they move on with their lives.
00:08:11 And those are two very related things,
00:08:14 but they're not always totally coincidental.
00:08:16 So anyway, we see that unfolding right now,
00:08:20 is because we're all going through this balance
00:08:23 of public health and security--
00:08:25 public health being trying to avoid incidence
00:08:29 of the disease and death.
00:08:32 But you've also got economic, non-medical health,
00:08:34 our economic and personal happiness,
00:08:37 or also on the other side, these competing interests.
00:08:40 And you see all these communities
00:08:42 are now dealing with that.
00:08:43 And I think there's 48 of the American states
00:08:47 that already are in the midst of reopening processes.
00:08:53 There's so much desire.
00:08:55 We have to.
00:08:58 We're not going to be able to shelter in place
00:09:00 until we have a vaccine.
00:09:01 That is clear.
00:09:02 It's 18 months.
00:09:03 That's just not sustainable.
00:09:05 So we're going to have to all behave responsibly as hosts.
00:09:11 Hosts have to be responsible hosts,
00:09:12 and guests have to be responsible guests.
00:09:14 And that's what I--
00:09:16 so from afar, that's our role.
00:09:18 I think we speak to both.
00:09:19 We speak to destinations.
00:09:20 We speak to travelers.
00:09:23 We speak to travel advisors.
00:09:25 And we hope to try to help people,
00:09:27 because these are so new things for all of us,
00:09:30 try to help them balance the interests
00:09:33 and make good decisions and do the best that we can.
00:09:38 So that's an amazing responsibility.
00:09:40 And that's what we get out of the bed trying to do every day
00:09:45 and looking to make this reopening the most successful
00:09:49 that we can for everybody, and also with an eye
00:09:52 towards the other side of the reopening
00:09:54 that we build a travel industry in a world that's even better
00:09:58 than the one we had before.
00:09:59 Yes, absolutely.
00:10:01 Thank you, Greg, so much.
00:10:02 And I mean, I think the hardest thing about it for so many
00:10:05 people is there isn't a one day it's gone,
00:10:08 and then the next day it's back.
00:10:09 It is that phased recovery that's
00:10:11 so difficult and challenging.
00:10:15 So Stephen, I did--
00:10:16 I wanted to kind of move to you for kind of a global view,
00:10:21 because you have more than 5,000 hotels around the world.
00:10:24 Is that right?
00:10:25 That's correct, yeah.
00:10:26 A few of my favorite brands--
00:10:28 Raffles, Banyan Tree, Fairmont, Sofitel, One Fine Stay,
00:10:32 I love, M Gallery, 25 hours, a ton of brands.
00:10:36 And when we talked before, you have your hotels
00:10:39 in Asia opening, reopening, and you
00:10:41 shared some interesting stats.
00:10:42 Can you talk a little bit about that,
00:10:44 and then also what you're seeing as far as who is traveling?
00:10:49 Yeah, of course.
00:10:49 And thank you, Annie, for the shout out
00:10:52 for all of our premium and luxury brands.
00:10:55 I appreciate it.
00:10:57 I mean, listen, I think we're certainly
00:11:00 looking at China when trying to understand what
00:11:04 shape the rebound is going to take.
00:11:08 And I think certainly looking at China,
00:11:10 there is scope for optimism.
00:11:13 I think in April, China occupancy was 35%.
00:11:19 And that's not normally rooms for optimism,
00:11:22 but generally, given where we were even a couple of months
00:11:25 ago, that's very positive.
00:11:27 We have 100% of our hotels now open.
00:11:30 If you look at Labor Day, there was 115 million Chinese
00:11:34 traveling over the four-day period in early May.
00:11:38 And again, that's 40% down on last year,
00:11:42 but it's showing that domestic business is coming back
00:11:47 if we can get this virus to a degree
00:11:50 under control domestically.
00:11:51 And I think looking at China in more detail
00:11:54 allows us to understand which segments
00:11:56 and what travel behaviors are going to return first.
00:12:00 So I think everybody recognizes domestic travel will
00:12:04 return earliest, but really, it's almost hyperlocal.
00:12:07 It's regional.
00:12:08 It's state-specific.
00:12:10 Over Labor Day in China, the average length
00:12:14 of distance people traveled was 136 kilometers,
00:12:19 so very, very close.
00:12:21 So people will be much more willing to drive
00:12:25 than they will to fly in the very near future.
00:12:29 I think certainly another trend was people
00:12:31 are very fearful of crowds.
00:12:33 So they're looking for seclusion.
00:12:36 They're looking to get back from nature.
00:12:38 They're looking to get out of confinement.
00:12:40 They're looking to get into the countryside.
00:12:42 So I think that will certainly talk
00:12:44 to some of the other panelists as an amazing opportunity.
00:12:50 There's also certainly a shift in the demographic of people
00:12:53 traveling after the crisis.
00:12:55 So you're seeing a much younger single audience traveling
00:12:59 in China at the moment than before.
00:13:01 So an example is there was 57% of the people traveling
00:13:05 in China over Labor Day were under 30.
00:13:08 So it just shows you how much that demographic post-crisis
00:13:13 will shift.
00:13:15 And I think, interestingly, probably the last point
00:13:17 for people on the call, economy and mid-scale hotels
00:13:21 certainly have a higher occupancy.
00:13:23 So people are price conscious.
00:13:25 But we did see over Labor Day, with leisure and family travel
00:13:29 returning, half of the hotels booked were premium and luxury.
00:13:33 So people are willing to pay for quality.
00:13:35 They're willing to pay for seclusion, for reassurance,
00:13:39 for peace of mind.
00:13:41 So that's something that the luxury and premium brands
00:13:43 can really play towards.
00:13:46 Absolutely.
00:13:47 Thank you.
00:13:47 And I love hearing all of the stats and analytics,
00:13:50 because it just shows that people are traveling again
00:13:53 and they want to.
00:13:55 And Josh, I wanted to move to you,
00:13:56 because thinking of the hyperlocal--
00:13:58 and of course, we've talked about how
00:14:00 your clients are going to probably be traveling
00:14:03 hyperlocal at first.
00:14:04 But how much does that fear factor kind of
00:14:07 play into your client base?
00:14:09 Where do they want to go?
00:14:11 Yeah, I think, Annie, fear is the key word today.
00:14:15 It's fear to make sure that, one, me and my family,
00:14:19 we're safe.
00:14:20 And number two, am I doing my role and responsibility
00:14:23 in protecting my community and not spreading to others?
00:14:27 And so that's one of the things that where I think people
00:14:31 are going to be concerned.
00:14:34 And what we found from our own research
00:14:36 is that that has divided our client base
00:14:43 into others who might be more predisposed to it.
00:14:48 Second are the on the fencers.
00:14:49 And third are what I like to call our intrepids.
00:14:56 Those are the ones that are willing to get
00:14:58 the best values that are out there and the best travel
00:15:00 deals and to take advantage.
00:15:03 But that being said, I totally agree on the domestic market
00:15:07 and on the drive market.
00:15:08 That's what we're going to see sooner rather than later.
00:15:11 As Greg said, 48 of the states already
00:15:14 have plans to start to open up.
00:15:16 We're going to see our clients hopping in cars
00:15:19 and driving, again, 100 miles, 150 miles.
00:15:23 The other thing that we're having a lot of inquiries on
00:15:26 are private modes of travel.
00:15:28 We were talking before about private jets.
00:15:31 We're getting a lot of inquiries for private jet charters.
00:15:33 And then one of the other things that was really interesting
00:15:35 is we had one client just this week talk about,
00:15:39 how do I charter not just an RV, but I want a rock star bus,
00:15:44 something that they go on a rock tour with,
00:15:46 and I'm going to take my family cross country
00:15:49 and be able to see the states that way.
00:15:52 So we're going to see a lot of domestic travel.
00:15:55 We're going to see a lot of national parks.
00:15:56 We're going to see a lot of places
00:15:57 that are socially distant.
00:15:58 And boutique hotels, hotels with smaller amounts of rooms,
00:16:03 are going to do far better than those
00:16:04 that are really, really large.
00:16:06 Wow, I love that because I'm always
00:16:08 looking for travel trends, Josh.
00:16:09 So that's very, that's good.
00:16:11 The rock star--
00:16:12 Private travel is what the majority of the inquiries
00:16:15 that we're getting right now.
00:16:18 Thank you for that overview.
00:16:20 Very interesting.
00:16:22 Joy, you have dealt with crisis before,
00:16:26 being in the Caribbean, of course,
00:16:28 mostly all weather related, I assume.
00:16:31 But why is the Bahamas in a good position post-COVID?
00:16:34 Because it really is a domestic, part of the domestic market,
00:16:39 I think.
00:16:40 What are you seeing and feeling?
00:16:43 So good afternoon to everyone, and thank you
00:16:45 for having me as part of this panel.
00:16:48 Ordinarily, I'd like to say hello
00:16:50 from a warm and sunny Bahamas.
00:16:52 But in fact, it's overcast, and we're actually
00:16:55 preparing for what could potentially
00:16:57 be the first tropical storm of the hurricane season.
00:17:01 So a couple of weeks early.
00:17:03 And I think it speaks to the fact
00:17:04 that we always have to be in a state of readiness
00:17:07 to deal with some crisis.
00:17:09 As you rightly said, most often weather related.
00:17:14 But one of the things I want to say for people who may not
00:17:17 know, tourism is the cornerstone of the Bahamian economy.
00:17:20 In fact, it accounts for approximately 50% of our GDP.
00:17:25 And so with an event like COVID-19,
00:17:28 what we're experiencing, the impact
00:17:30 on the economy of the Bahamas is just incredible.
00:17:35 Of course, we know that the impact on the global travel
00:17:38 and tourism industry as well.
00:17:40 And so this is a crisis the likes of which I think
00:17:43 certainly my lifetime, my parents' lifetime,
00:17:46 and for many of us, we've never, ever seen.
00:17:49 So how do we deal with it?
00:17:50 As I said, we're used to dealing with crisis,
00:17:54 normally weather related.
00:17:56 We're just coming off the heels of Hurricane Dorian.
00:17:59 And at the time, we thought that that was perhaps
00:18:03 the most extreme event that we would have experienced
00:18:06 in our lifetime.
00:18:07 That's only six, seven months ago.
00:18:09 Category 5 hurricane that rested for two days over two
00:18:14 of our islands, and then straight onto the heels here.
00:18:18 But there are lessons learned from having
00:18:20 been through so many hurricanes, having
00:18:23 to communicate to the world that we're not decimated,
00:18:26 that the whole Bahamas is not wiped out.
00:18:29 And key to that is messaging, communication.
00:18:33 The audience is looking for transparency
00:18:35 in that communication.
00:18:37 And included in that, one of the things we talk about
00:18:40 and always have to do is educate our audience
00:18:44 about the geography of the Bahamas.
00:18:46 700 islands, we market 16 of them.
00:18:50 And yes, while a hurricane may hit one or two,
00:18:53 others are open.
00:18:54 So, Cindy, with COVID-19, I liked what you said.
00:18:58 The next normal, not the new normal, coming out of this,
00:19:02 we think we're well-placed.
00:19:03 Similarly, and hearing what the other persons who spoke
00:19:08 just before me said, having 16 islands to choose from,
00:19:13 the majority of which are uninhabited, secluded,
00:19:17 boutique properties, luxury, we think
00:19:21 that we are so well-poised.
00:19:23 Yachters, we're a haven.
00:19:25 We know, well, sorry, let me preface that or change that.
00:19:30 Research is showing that yachters from the United States
00:19:33 certainly are perhaps reluctant to go
00:19:36 across to the Mediterranean.
00:19:37 So we are well-poised to capitalize on that.
00:19:41 So taking advantage of our 16 island proposition,
00:19:45 offering secluded beaches,
00:19:47 social distancing will not be an issue,
00:19:50 and all the other things that have been mentioned
00:19:53 that are just key part of what we promote and market.
00:19:57 - Thank you.
00:19:59 I think messaging and trust, right?
00:20:00 Those are key buzzwords, absolutely.
00:20:03 Helen, you're in Charleston,
00:20:08 and you guys have reopened or are reopening
00:20:12 much of the city, is that right?
00:20:14 - That's correct.
00:20:15 - And what have you learned so far?
00:20:17 You know, Charleston has a very trustworthy reputation.
00:20:19 In the past couple of weeks,
00:20:21 what kind of learnings are you taking away from reopening
00:20:24 and what visitors are looking for?
00:20:27 - Well, first of all, let me tell you,
00:20:28 thank you so much to Afar and Greg, thank you.
00:20:30 Y'all have been such a great inspiration
00:20:32 to everyone who could not travel during this whole time.
00:20:35 And it's really been a pleasure to enjoy those things.
00:20:38 And we're at about 70% reopened,
00:20:41 and we have never been more proud of our industry
00:20:45 than we are right now,
00:20:46 because they have really taken the cornerstone
00:20:48 of health and safety and put that first.
00:20:51 And particularly when you're dealing
00:20:53 with many small luxury properties and non-branded hotels,
00:20:57 they were really willing to not only take the guidance
00:21:03 from the US Travel Association,
00:21:06 and then the guidelines from the state of South Carolina,
00:21:08 and put those things in place
00:21:10 to make people feel comfortable when they travel.
00:21:12 So we're off to a good start.
00:21:14 Yesterday, Wild Dunes Resort on the Isle of Palms opened.
00:21:19 And as you predicted, Afar,
00:21:22 the close in travelers came first.
00:21:25 We laughed and said that they came
00:21:28 from other parts of South Carolina
00:21:30 to enjoy some time on the beach.
00:21:32 So it's sunshine and 70 right now.
00:21:34 So I think they made a good decision.
00:21:37 - I love that.
00:21:38 And I wrote this in an email to you,
00:21:40 but it's a 12 layer coconut cake, right?
00:21:42 (laughing)
00:21:44 - It is.
00:21:45 I'm sorry I didn't have that
00:21:46 for you to be enjoying right now.
00:21:47 - I know, all the way in London,
00:21:49 that would be quite a trip for that cake,
00:21:51 but one day I will be back.
00:21:53 So thank you.
00:21:55 And that's good to hear that you're welcoming people again,
00:21:59 even though they live close by to start,
00:22:01 and then kind of moving out from there.
00:22:03 Gloria, when we talked,
00:22:05 you know, the biggest word is trust right now,
00:22:08 but you had some points that stuck with me.
00:22:10 One is that there's gifts in a crisis,
00:22:13 and that you think people will be kind of less
00:22:15 about the bucket list and more about a value exchange.
00:22:19 How are you talking to your partners in Canada
00:22:21 and thinking about opening it up when you can?
00:22:24 - Hi everybody, and thank you for having me.
00:22:31 You know, it's really interesting,
00:22:35 the value exchange and something
00:22:37 that nobody has really touched on just yet
00:22:40 is the idea of community.
00:22:42 And we talk a lot about the travellers
00:22:46 and then industry stakeholders,
00:22:47 but there's that third sort of really important piece
00:22:52 to that triangle for what we're seeing is the communities
00:22:56 and how communities are really starting to appreciate
00:23:01 the value of tourism as it relates,
00:23:03 not just to the economic benefits,
00:23:05 but the social and cultural benefits
00:23:07 that really make up the DNA of a community.
00:23:12 And so if you think about,
00:23:16 and this is why I really have appreciated AFAR,
00:23:20 not just in terms of your messaging through this period,
00:23:24 but from the outset, which is this real aspiration
00:23:28 and understanding of how there's a reciprocity
00:23:31 when travellers come into a community.
00:23:33 And they're not just dropping some money
00:23:37 and taking pictures and leaving,
00:23:39 but really truly understanding
00:23:41 that idea of transformational travel
00:23:43 where there's knowledge exchange.
00:23:45 And perhaps when people leave
00:23:46 beyond the set of Instagram shots they might have,
00:23:51 it's really is the new perspective that they gain
00:23:54 by being exposed to a particular community.
00:23:57 I point to when I think about the sort of
00:24:02 very progressive culture that I experienced
00:24:06 a number of years ago in Portland,
00:24:07 that made me think about my own city in Vancouver
00:24:09 where I live a little bit differently
00:24:11 and start to appreciate my own local makers
00:24:13 and artisans even more.
00:24:15 And I think when you,
00:24:18 we look at what is happening
00:24:21 and if this re-emergence continues,
00:24:24 because we don't believe the progress will be linear
00:24:32 and there may be dialing up and down,
00:24:34 what you see when you get hyper-local
00:24:36 and into your own backyards
00:24:38 is you really start to appreciate what you have.
00:24:41 I don't wanna be like Dorothy, Wizard of Oz,
00:24:43 kind of it was always here,
00:24:45 but you know what?
00:24:46 Every corner of our states,
00:24:48 every corner of our provinces and countries
00:24:50 has gems and amazing people who make it so.
00:24:54 - I love, love, love that.
00:24:57 And I think it's also our responsibility
00:24:59 whenever we do go to a place to carry it with us, right?
00:25:02 And kind of feel responsible for those people
00:25:05 and those businesses in a way
00:25:06 because we had a chance to experience that
00:25:08 and those connections of people.
00:25:10 Thank you, Gloria, for that.
00:25:13 To kind of move a little bit in a different direction,
00:25:18 questions about safety.
00:25:20 And again, we've talked about
00:25:21 how there's different kinds of people
00:25:22 and everyone's threshold is different.
00:25:24 But Steven, in particular the hotels,
00:25:29 how do we ensure that hotels will kind of stay cool
00:25:34 and not so weird with all of these new regulations?
00:25:36 That's been a question I've been getting a lot.
00:25:38 - Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean,
00:25:41 there is a huge emphasis now on making sure
00:25:44 that we reassure customers
00:25:46 and that they feel that hotels are safe.
00:25:50 And we're putting in a very significant amount
00:25:53 of new cleanliness and prevention measures
00:25:57 to make sure that guests do feel reassured
00:26:01 when they do start to travel.
00:26:04 The challenge is, of course,
00:26:06 you don't want a hotel to necessarily look like a hospital.
00:26:10 And you don't want customers to feel like
00:26:14 they're gonna have to turn up and dress like an astronaut
00:26:17 or a medical patient to actually stay in a hotel.
00:26:22 So, no, I think, I mean, it's always about trying,
00:26:25 I spoke to my team about this today,
00:26:28 we're pulling plans together of how do we actually ensure
00:26:31 that the attitude of the brand,
00:26:34 the values of the brand, the brand aesthetic comes through
00:26:37 and doesn't get smothered by an array of sanitary equipment.
00:26:42 So that can take many different forms.
00:26:45 It could be branded masks that we use
00:26:49 and design to bring to life the Sofitel French DNA.
00:26:54 I mean, plexiglass feels like it's gonna be universal,
00:26:58 but then how do you make sure that that's not just functional
00:27:01 but actually integrated into the design
00:27:04 in an artistic manner of the hotel?
00:27:06 How do you look at amenities
00:27:08 and don't just do what you've always done,
00:27:11 but maybe look at immunity boosters
00:27:13 and things that actually talk to the needs
00:27:16 of your customers at that moment?
00:27:18 So it's gonna, we're looking across the customer journey.
00:27:22 I think the industry is naturally responding
00:27:25 extremely strongly to the concerns of customers.
00:27:28 And it's the job of the brand teams that we have
00:27:32 and the branded organizations to make sure
00:27:34 that when we do do that, it's brought to life
00:27:36 in a really sophisticated, premium, surprising manner
00:27:41 that makes our guests feel special.
00:27:43 - Yeah, I love that.
00:27:46 And definitely don't wanna be in an astronaut suit
00:27:48 or a hazmat suit on a beach or in a restaurant.
00:27:52 So thank you.
00:27:55 I mean, the rest of you too, Joy, Gloria and Helen,
00:27:58 are you guys working with anyone?
00:28:00 Are you aligning with anyone as you come up with standards
00:28:02 or are you just kind of shifting your messaging?
00:28:05 Are you looking at surveys, data,
00:28:09 government advice, all of it?
00:28:11 - Yeah, absolutely.
00:28:12 For us, we started with the US Travel Association
00:28:15 and then doing some more broad guidelines
00:28:18 that gave categories.
00:28:20 And then through the state of South Carolina,
00:28:22 we did it on down to the city of Charleston.
00:28:24 And I think that's been really helpful for us.
00:28:26 And two things we found is one,
00:28:28 that perhaps the average visitor doesn't already understand
00:28:32 what our hotel and restaurant partners already do
00:28:35 on a daily basis.
00:28:37 Because we had some funny conversations about,
00:28:40 are you cleaning a hotel
00:28:41 with what you may clean your home with?
00:28:42 They might not have known
00:28:45 that we already had rigorous things in place.
00:28:49 But also doing things in visual clues,
00:28:52 in terms of doing some of those things
00:28:54 that used to be more back a house,
00:28:55 maybe doing those the right way in front of the guest
00:29:00 to ensure that confidence.
00:29:01 Sort of yesterday, Katherine and I had a beautiful lunch
00:29:05 at Hall's Restaurant in Charleston
00:29:06 and they had on the edge of their table,
00:29:09 this organic hand sanitizing spray with lavender.
00:29:14 And the server put it on when they came to our table.
00:29:16 And when she left our table,
00:29:18 almost like a doctor walking in and out of the office,
00:29:20 but it was very refined and it made you think fine dining.
00:29:23 And it was correct with their brand.
00:29:25 And I thought, wow, they do that all the time,
00:29:28 but I saw it and I felt it.
00:29:30 - I love that.
00:29:32 And we've been having a lot of conversations too about,
00:29:34 like you said, a lot of our,
00:29:37 the places that we travel already have these standards.
00:29:40 So how much further can you go?
00:29:43 It's more about kind of telling that story
00:29:44 and maybe doing it a different fun way.
00:29:46 I love that and I love lavender.
00:29:48 Joy, what about you?
00:29:49 - You know, it's amazing.
00:29:53 If you looked at where we were two months ago
00:29:56 and where we are now, we've already started to adapt.
00:30:00 We're already taking so many of the changes
00:30:03 that have come about as normal.
00:30:05 For us in the Bahamas, as around the world,
00:30:07 we wear face masks.
00:30:09 Everybody is washing their hands
00:30:10 in a way that they did not do so,
00:30:13 or to the extent that they did so perhaps a few months ago.
00:30:17 And certainly in the Bahamas,
00:30:18 what we're looking at is when we look at travel
00:30:21 through airports, where were we pre 9/11
00:30:24 and where are we now?
00:30:25 And we take it for granted.
00:30:27 And so, yes, we're working collaboratively.
00:30:29 We have, in fact, a tourism readiness
00:30:33 and recovery committee that encompasses
00:30:35 every touch point of the tourism sector,
00:30:38 working on looking at global best practices,
00:30:40 looking at what's being done from IATA,
00:30:44 airports, ports, cruises, you name it,
00:30:47 to come up with standards that will be universal.
00:30:50 Also looking at that in a regional capacity
00:30:53 for the Caribbean.
00:30:54 And so hopefully what we come up with when we reopen,
00:30:59 the big question that we're all dealing with,
00:31:02 is that it will be uniform to what's happening
00:31:05 across the world and so will be the norm
00:31:07 as opposed to the weird and wonderful.
00:31:10 - Yeah. (laughs)
00:31:12 I like that.
00:31:13 And Gloria, are you guys aligning with anyone
00:31:15 or how are you looking at the kind of the health
00:31:17 and safety protocols?
00:31:18 - Yeah, so our job at Destination Canada
00:31:21 really revolves around marketing, communications
00:31:23 and research.
00:31:24 So we defer to our partners,
00:31:26 whether it's Transport Canada to ensure
00:31:29 that our industry members know what their guidelines
00:31:31 are saying and how they need to work together.
00:31:34 We work with the Hotel Association of Canada
00:31:36 and I really loved, Helen, that you acknowledged
00:31:39 how much hotels already do and that people
00:31:41 may perhaps not have known the kinds of measures
00:31:45 that the properties across the country already take in hand.
00:31:50 I think one thing that's new for us
00:31:52 that we weren't paying as much attention to before,
00:31:56 and this speaks to my earlier comment,
00:31:57 is we're actually monitoring community sentiment.
00:32:00 Because if people aren't going to feel welcome
00:32:02 into a community, just because the health
00:32:05 of that community is still very fragile,
00:32:09 then we wanna make sure that that's appreciated
00:32:12 and understood.
00:32:13 Canadians are known for being friendly and nice,
00:32:15 and we wanna make sure that people understand
00:32:17 that nice might mean that the elders in Haida Gwaii,
00:32:21 for instance, need to really protect that fragile community
00:32:25 where the health services wouldn't support an epidemic
00:32:28 and that they need to protect that forest
00:32:32 and that special place even longer.
00:32:34 So we're monitoring community sentiment
00:32:38 by community from community,
00:32:40 and we're actually cutting it down to,
00:32:42 and trying to understand it as in,
00:32:45 are people happy to welcome folks
00:32:47 from their own neighborhood, their own province,
00:32:51 other provinces?
00:32:52 And what we're watching and seeing and observing
00:32:55 is this growth in a welcoming of people
00:32:59 from a little bit farther away,
00:33:00 but as you get farther and farther into international,
00:33:03 people still aren't comfortable yet.
00:33:05 So that's kind of, I think, an interesting,
00:33:08 a really important piece for us to be paying attention to.
00:33:13 - Very interesting.
00:33:14 And you guys are nice, but you're not pushovers.
00:33:16 So that's a key differentiator.
00:33:18 Shift gears a little bit.
00:33:22 Greg, you've been traveling.
00:33:24 - Can we hold on just a quick second?
00:33:25 Can we go back real quick?
00:33:27 I think there's a huge opportunity here
00:33:29 for us to communicate and to educate.
00:33:32 It's all about those guests and clients
00:33:34 that are on the fence.
00:33:36 And we need to make sure that there is an opportunity
00:33:39 for competitive advantage for hotels, cruise lines,
00:33:43 suppliers to be able to tout what they're doing
00:33:46 on beyond what they already have been doing.
00:33:48 I've seen so many hotels start to partner with hospitals
00:33:51 and third-party companies in order to kind of over,
00:33:54 win over customers with a good housekeeping seal of approval.
00:33:59 But I'll tell you, there's one company that's out there
00:34:01 that I'm really impressed with.
00:34:03 It's a digital healthcare company called Sharecare.
00:34:06 And they've aligned themselves with the Forbes travel guide.
00:34:10 And what's really unique about them is that
00:34:12 here's a medical company that is now getting
00:34:14 into the hospitality space and providing them
00:34:17 a turnkey, comprehensive, medically-based solution.
00:34:20 So they'll come in and do a complete assessment
00:34:22 of your hotel.
00:34:23 They'll train all of your housekeeping.
00:34:25 They'll put that implementation in place.
00:34:28 They'll certify the hotel.
00:34:29 They'll continue to go back to that hotel
00:34:31 and make sure that everything is up to snuff.
00:34:34 And they've got these ongoing guidelines.
00:34:37 And the other great thing is that they're providing
00:34:39 a lot of the answers and the information,
00:34:42 not only just for guests, but for travel advisors as well.
00:34:45 It's probably the most extensive program
00:34:47 that I've seen out there that really combines medicine,
00:34:49 science, and hospitality, kind of an all-one direct solution.
00:34:53 And for my team that is getting these questions
00:34:56 all day long, and we're trying to convince that
00:34:59 30% on the fence, that's really what's helping us
00:35:02 kind of give that peace of mind to clients.
00:35:04 And again, that's what our hoteliers need right now
00:35:06 is to be able to have that first to market
00:35:10 and to be able to do that communication,
00:35:11 do that education, and those are gonna be the ones
00:35:14 that are gonna be able to capture that extra 30%
00:35:16 that we're not getting.
00:35:18 - I'm gonna ask Josh to follow up with that too.
00:35:20 Go ahead.
00:35:22 - So I just wanted to say to Josh,
00:35:23 I think that's such a great idea,
00:35:25 but I think we have to look at this holistically.
00:35:28 The whole travel journey, and as hoteliers,
00:35:30 obviously the focus will be in hotels,
00:35:33 but we need to know, and it would be great if there is,
00:35:37 or there are companies that are dealing with it
00:35:39 because your traveler wants to know that they are safe
00:35:42 from they get into your airport, get on a taxi,
00:35:45 take an excursion, and that's something,
00:35:48 I guess some of us who are in destination management
00:35:51 that we're having to look at.
00:35:52 - And Joy, that's what's so exciting about this
00:35:55 is that now we're seeing this kind of,
00:35:56 this blend of medical and technology and hospitality
00:36:01 all come together that we didn't necessarily have before
00:36:04 to try to create some of those standards
00:36:06 and put those things in place
00:36:07 and to help people answer those fears.
00:36:09 I mean, I've just recently come across this company,
00:36:11 Sharecare, and there's so many other third-party companies
00:36:15 that are now looking at how do we diversify
00:36:18 in this time of crisis,
00:36:19 as Greg was talking about opportunity and crisis,
00:36:21 we're getting these melds that we hadn't had before.
00:36:24 So by all means, this definitely applies to DMCs,
00:36:27 to cruise ships, to airlines, to all of tourism.
00:36:30 Yeah. - Yeah.
00:36:31 I would agree with that.
00:36:33 I mean, I think there is a huge focus
00:36:35 in the hospitality industry
00:36:37 and the travel industry in general
00:36:39 in partnering now with a variety of,
00:36:43 let's say hygiene certification organizations
00:36:47 to try and essentially prove that you're going above
00:36:51 and beyond and reassure consumers that are on the fence.
00:36:55 An example, again, from China is an OTA there,
00:36:58 Meituan, indicated that a hotel that had a label,
00:37:03 a cleanliness label, some kind of certification
00:37:06 from that OTA was 1.6 times more likely to get booked
00:37:11 than those that did not.
00:37:12 So it really talks to the number of consumers
00:37:15 that have a concern for their safety
00:37:19 and want to be reassured.
00:37:21 I do think there's a great role for travel advisors
00:37:23 in this future as well,
00:37:25 because we used to talk about greenwashing
00:37:28 where every organization was talking about
00:37:31 the environmental impact and it could be good
00:37:33 for the community.
00:37:35 Now we're going in for a different type of washing,
00:37:37 but related to cleanliness.
00:37:39 So I think travel advisors can really help
00:37:42 peer through the forest of pledges that are now going on
00:37:47 and actually check which ones are really taking
00:37:50 a scientific and thorough approach
00:37:52 that benefit the guests.
00:37:54 - I think Helen hit the nail on the head earlier
00:37:56 when she said, what was once hidden
00:37:58 should now be front and center,
00:37:59 as far as our cleaning goes.
00:38:02 That's the new luxury is to,
00:38:04 whenever you wipe down the door
00:38:06 as soon as you walk into property
00:38:08 or clean off the front desk at check-in,
00:38:11 we want to see those staff members front and center
00:38:15 following up behind us,
00:38:16 and that's gonna give people, again, that peace of mind.
00:38:19 - And Josh, to ask you too, kind of on the flip side,
00:38:21 we had a question in the chat here,
00:38:23 and I want to start with you because of your clients,
00:38:25 you knowing your clients,
00:38:27 views of kind of the medical testing,
00:38:29 like the temperature checks that I talked about
00:38:31 at the beginning, do you think people will accept that?
00:38:35 And for how long?
00:38:38 - I mean, I think the most recent point in history
00:38:42 is post 9/11.
00:38:45 I think that we were very understanding,
00:38:47 we were very appreciative of having TSA and longer lines
00:38:51 and doing what we needed to do in order to be safe
00:38:54 and to make sure that when we got on planes that we're safe.
00:38:57 I think that will be a trend that we'll see probably today
00:39:00 through the end of this year,
00:39:02 as things start to subside
00:39:05 and our patience starts to wear a little bit thin,
00:39:09 but right now it's too soon to tell,
00:39:11 it's still novel, it's still new.
00:39:12 I think that people have an understanding,
00:39:15 and they're gonna want those extra measures and hurdles
00:39:18 to get through to make sure that they're being safe,
00:39:20 that they will wear masks on planes,
00:39:22 they will load the plane from the back to the front
00:39:25 and give up status or automatic upgrades.
00:39:28 Some of the things that we're so used to traveling,
00:39:31 that we're gonna be in line for a little bit longer.
00:39:34 But I think that that patience
00:39:36 will probably last a good six to nine months.
00:39:38 And if we get to a point where we have seen the virus subside
00:39:45 and antibody testing come into play,
00:39:47 and now you almost see your own clear fast pass area
00:39:50 for people with immunity passports,
00:39:52 as you were talking about before.
00:39:54 That's some of the things that I think are in the future,
00:39:58 but for the most part, I would imagine the public
00:40:02 is gonna be just appreciative to get out of their house
00:40:04 and travel again.
00:40:05 - Yeah, I think, I mean, everything you're saying
00:40:06 is that people will do whatever it takes, right?
00:40:09 They wanna get out and they'll do what they can
00:40:11 for at least, like you said, six to nine months.
00:40:13 Helen, do you agree with that kind of
00:40:15 on the hotels there?
00:40:16 Is that?
00:40:17 - Absolutely, as a matter of fact,
00:40:18 I just went and got for y'all,
00:40:20 you can see with our, we're very fortunate
00:40:22 to have the Medical University of South Carolina
00:40:24 in Charleston.
00:40:25 And so they were our first partner.
00:40:27 And so you're gonna start seeing
00:40:28 these white gloves certified.
00:40:30 Again, helping people know that the hotel
00:40:33 is going above and beyond all standards
00:40:36 to ensure your safety.
00:40:38 - I love that, the stamp of approval.
00:40:41 Annie, I think medical coverage is gonna become
00:40:43 or medical support is going to become important,
00:40:46 certainly for international markets as well.
00:40:49 And that's something we're hearing for our customers.
00:40:51 And something we're working on actively
00:40:54 is how do we actually reassure customers,
00:40:56 not necessarily they're going to be not just safe
00:41:00 and that the hotel is clean,
00:41:01 but if the worst happens and they do fall ill,
00:41:05 then we as a hotel group, as a global hotel group
00:41:08 can actually bring some partnerships to bear
00:41:11 that actually makes ensures
00:41:13 that they will get medical supports
00:41:15 wherever, whenever they are.
00:41:17 So that's something we're looking at very closely as well.
00:41:20 - Well, and that's--
00:41:23 - Wellness travel takes on a whole new concept these days,
00:41:25 not just about yoga and going to the gym,
00:41:28 but it's, how is my whole health picture taken into play?
00:41:33 - Well, actually that brings up an interesting question
00:41:35 'cause we talk and this is also in the chat
00:41:38 for you, Josh, about clients booking city
00:41:39 versus places and hotels that are kind of in rural areas,
00:41:44 but maybe you're not as close to a good hospital
00:41:47 at that point.
00:41:48 I mean, is that something that you think
00:41:49 will be a factor for people that they're--
00:41:52 - Well, I think, our trend,
00:41:54 what we're seeing is primarily domestic
00:41:56 and that most of our clients are gonna have
00:41:59 a good sense of feeling that,
00:42:01 if they're within the United States,
00:42:02 they're very close to good medical care.
00:42:06 And so that they would be leaving some of the risk
00:42:10 versus reward of being isolated
00:42:12 and in a not so dense population area outweighs
00:42:17 that need to access emergency medical facilities.
00:42:22 And again, given the nature of this particular virus,
00:42:27 it's usually not something that is so rapid onset
00:42:30 that you need to be at a hospital within minutes,
00:42:34 that sort of thing.
00:42:35 So again, I think that we're seeing people
00:42:38 taking that social distancing aspect
00:42:41 and for the very nature that we have been
00:42:44 in the same four walls for the last two or three months,
00:42:47 we wanna be outside, we wanna enjoy nature,
00:42:50 we want sunshine, we want fresh air,
00:42:51 we want birds chirping.
00:42:53 And I think that that's really where
00:42:55 that impetus is going.
00:42:56 But for me, quite frankly,
00:42:58 I'd love to be in a restaurant with other people
00:43:00 and be back in that city life, but that's--
00:43:02 - Me too, I know, and that's where it comes in, right?
00:43:04 Everyone's different, right?
00:43:05 And if you've lost someone--
00:43:08 - But the overwhelming trend more, I think,
00:43:10 is to be in a less dense population area.
00:43:14 - Yeah.
00:43:15 Gloria, I wanted to ask you first,
00:43:18 'cause I wanted to shift a little bit,
00:43:19 we've touched on a little bit,
00:43:20 travel is a force for good,
00:43:21 which was our theme for Far Live a couple of weeks ago.
00:43:24 But when we talked, you had some interesting things to say
00:43:27 about DMOs and kind of re-imagining
00:43:30 how they can be more focused on travel
00:43:33 as a force for good economically, culturally,
00:43:35 environmentally, can you talk a little bit about that?
00:43:38 - Yeah, sure.
00:43:41 I don't know if everyone understands
00:43:45 how different marketing organizations work,
00:43:47 but a lot of them for cities,
00:43:49 especially in the US and Canada,
00:43:51 they rely on hotel tax and/or at the state
00:43:56 and provincial level, they can rely on a combination
00:43:59 of hotel taxes and rental car tax pass-throughs.
00:44:03 And so it's a pretty singular focus
00:44:07 when you look at where the source of revenue comes to then,
00:44:10 their membership.
00:44:11 But as all those DMOs have lost their basically,
00:44:16 their revenue and their budgets,
00:44:18 they're really thinking about their role
00:44:20 and more understanding and looking at the resilience
00:44:24 of marketing organizations and development organizations
00:44:28 that are ground more in development agencies.
00:44:31 So economic development agencies.
00:44:33 And I don't know if everyone's,
00:44:36 I'm just gonna give you an example to illustrate what I mean.
00:44:40 When it's all about a hotel tax
00:44:42 and you can't then have staff or promote,
00:44:45 you can't talk about all of the,
00:44:47 you just don't have the resources
00:44:50 to do your job essentially.
00:44:52 So if you think about a different model
00:44:53 for the funding piece, but also appreciating
00:44:55 and understanding what tourism brings to community.
00:45:00 And so little old PE Island, Canada's smallest province
00:45:05 in terms of geography,
00:45:07 has a very famous fictional character, Anna Green Gables.
00:45:10 And they have a musical in their theater there.
00:45:15 They have a lot of experiences that relates
00:45:20 to just this idea of the gentle island.
00:45:24 Well, their festivals and events are being canceled
00:45:26 as a result of the lack of ability
00:45:29 for people to cross provincial borders,
00:45:31 nevermind international borders.
00:45:33 And so if you think about it, it's more about looking,
00:45:36 and I love the language that New Zealand uses
00:45:39 in the way that they're viewing the circular economy
00:45:42 within their own country.
00:45:44 And that can pass through to any country, state,
00:45:46 or even small community, which is,
00:45:49 are we building something just for people from away?
00:45:53 Or are we really appreciating how the place
00:45:57 is really reflective of the people?
00:46:02 And we have a wonderful board member from Fogo Island.
00:46:08 She's founder of Fogo Island Inn,
00:46:09 and she talks about community
00:46:11 as being the human response to geography.
00:46:14 And so if you think about that,
00:46:15 and that human response to where people live
00:46:18 and how they are in their community.
00:46:21 And so thinking about these places that we have
00:46:24 with their specificity and the response to where they live
00:46:29 is really an interesting new way,
00:46:31 I think this next way of appreciating the value exchange
00:46:35 when you're in for travel.
00:46:37 And perhaps we should be thinking of new models
00:46:40 in the way that we set up the marketing organizations
00:46:44 and make sure that we are helping people understand
00:46:48 social, cultural, economic,
00:46:50 and environmental benefits to travel.
00:46:53 - Absolutely, but I don't believe you
00:46:54 that Anne of Green Gables is fictional.
00:46:56 (laughing)
00:46:58 - You know what?
00:46:58 There are some visitors who actually have been reported
00:47:03 to cry when they get to Prince Edward Island
00:47:06 and find out that Anne is not alive.
00:47:08 (laughing)
00:47:10 - She's there, I know she is.
00:47:12 - Yeah, she's, you know, the Japanese,
00:47:14 and as an example, love Anne of Green Gables.
00:47:18 They are a surprisingly huge market for Prince Edward Island
00:47:23 - Thank you for that.
00:47:25 And I'm gonna move into some questions.
00:47:27 So if you guys feel, whoever feels like they wanna answer,
00:47:30 please jump in first because we have so many of them.
00:47:34 But someone said too funny how it seems only COVID-19
00:47:38 is the only medical issue.
00:47:39 There've always been medical concerns while traveling.
00:47:42 Are hotels and destinations,
00:47:45 thinking of providing emergency medical contact information
00:47:48 to travelers as they arrive,
00:47:50 connecting travelers with medical assistance
00:47:52 in the destination, maybe like a card or something.
00:47:55 - So, was that for Helen?
00:47:59 - I'll start with Joy and then I'll go to you, Stephen.
00:48:03 - Okay.
00:48:04 - Yeah.
00:48:05 - Yes, definitely.
00:48:06 So just to answer very simply, quickly,
00:48:10 it's something that we are definitely considering
00:48:13 having signage with all the key information
00:48:16 and that's going to be a part of it.
00:48:18 - Yeah.
00:48:19 Is that definitely too Stephen or?
00:48:22 - Yeah, I think I mentioned it before.
00:48:24 Medical coverage is something that certainly
00:48:27 when you're traveling out with the US,
00:48:29 the medical support and with your home country
00:48:32 is coming across very large from our customers
00:48:35 that they want support for.
00:48:36 So we're looking to put that in place for all consumers
00:48:40 or all guests rather in the coming year ahead.
00:48:44 - I did wanna ask 'cause this was asked a couple of times too
00:48:47 about how, because so many, like I said,
00:48:51 people have already been sanitizing and clean
00:48:52 for a long time.
00:48:53 Something we have to consider is sanitizing
00:48:55 with less impact on the environment and health.
00:48:59 How many types of chemicals are, you know,
00:49:01 might be potentially harmful for guests and employees.
00:49:03 Is that something else you guys are thinking about right now?
00:49:06 Any else, anyone who wants to answer.
00:49:14 - So if I could address it,
00:49:15 even if it's something that's being discussed,
00:49:19 we've not seen anyone dealing with it to say
00:49:22 these are products that are going to be good
00:49:24 for the environment.
00:49:25 So I'll use the Bahamas, the Caribbean,
00:49:27 any beach destination as an example.
00:49:29 We all now know that suntan lotion,
00:49:33 the impact that that has on the oceans.
00:49:36 And so we don't want to see this now
00:49:38 becoming another problem.
00:49:39 So certainly we're discussing it.
00:49:41 I don't have an answer or solution.
00:49:43 So delighted to hear from the rest of the panel
00:49:46 to see how the hoteliers are dealing with it.
00:49:49 And maybe they have best examples as well.
00:49:51 - Again, at the moment, we're very focused.
00:49:57 Again, we're still very early in this crisis.
00:49:59 So I wouldn't say necessarily we're focused on the impact
00:50:04 that the new measures has on the environment.
00:50:08 I think the candidly, the initial focus
00:50:11 is just making sure that our consumers were safe.
00:50:14 Certainly, as you mentioned,
00:50:16 the measures that we're putting in place
00:50:19 are building on policies and programs and protocols
00:50:22 we've had in place for years.
00:50:24 So it's not like we are introducing new harmful chemicals
00:50:28 to our guests or to the environment.
00:50:31 Really, I think as Helen mentioned,
00:50:33 a lot of this stuff is perhaps just making it more visible,
00:50:37 increasing the frequency of what we're doing,
00:50:41 but it's really not necessarily unloading
00:50:45 a bunch of new chemicals onto the environment
00:50:49 or to our guests.
00:50:50 - All about messaging.
00:50:51 I know I kind of cringe 'cause you read sometimes,
00:50:53 it's like, and then it'll get sprayed down again,
00:50:56 or, you know, and just kind of message words like that.
00:50:59 We don't wanna hear that.
00:51:00 But there could be an opportunity for someone to come out
00:51:04 and be like, we are sanitizing
00:51:06 and it's with seventh generation or whatever brand
00:51:09 you wanna use.
00:51:11 - And I think this is something that's so topical
00:51:13 and so important to so many of today's travelers
00:51:17 that they want to make sure that you're not doing anything
00:51:19 to harm the environment.
00:51:21 And to Steve's point, though, but to add to it,
00:51:25 the frequency with which we're now going to be cleaning.
00:51:29 So while there were established cleaning protocols,
00:51:32 I think the increase in frequency is much greater.
00:51:36 And so this is something that will have to be considered
00:51:39 for those of us who are in very sort of,
00:51:43 well, small island developing states
00:51:45 where environment is such a huge concern.
00:51:48 - Yes.
00:51:49 Helen, were you trying to jump in or?
00:51:51 - Yeah, I was gonna say, one of the fun things
00:51:54 about being in the South of the United States
00:51:56 is the whole Southern hospitality thing.
00:51:57 And you always get your door open for you.
00:52:00 And one of our bellmen at one of our wonderful hotels
00:52:02 is now he is wiping down the door for you, right,
00:52:05 as you walk in, in addition to opening your car door.
00:52:08 And so just those things, again, back of house,
00:52:10 things coming to front of house to be the visual clues,
00:52:14 things we've always done,
00:52:15 but now are gonna do more frequently and more visually.
00:52:19 - I love that, just shifting it
00:52:20 and changing the messaging.
00:52:23 How important will contact tracing and testing
00:52:27 be to getting people on the road again?
00:52:31 Josh, you think?
00:52:33 - I mean, I don't know how much of a role
00:52:37 we can play in that.
00:52:39 I mean, I think that that's pretty much,
00:52:42 we're gonna see that more at a government level
00:52:45 in working with others.
00:52:47 Obviously, there are countries that are not as free
00:52:52 as the United States and are gonna be able
00:52:53 to have a little bit more access to some of that data.
00:52:55 And perhaps we can utilize some of the models
00:52:58 that they do to see how that works here.
00:53:01 And then from an anonymous standpoint,
00:53:04 you've already started to see some of the tracing models
00:53:06 of cell phone usage on large scales and contact groups.
00:53:11 But I think that you will see,
00:53:15 if you want to travel foreign to other countries,
00:53:19 there are gonna be registrations,
00:53:21 there is gonna be tracking,
00:53:22 there is going to be giving up of,
00:53:24 and registrations of giving up of certain freedoms
00:53:27 that we might be used to here for that very thing.
00:53:30 And so I think that that's gonna be something
00:53:31 that we're talking about the patient,
00:53:33 having the patience of being in line and being scanned,
00:53:35 and there's gonna be some of those hoops to jump through.
00:53:38 And as a result of those bureaucratic necessities,
00:53:41 that's gonna create delays,
00:53:43 and in some cases, inconveniences of being turned away.
00:53:46 And that's an expectation we need to start to set
00:53:48 with some of our clients for the short term, unfortunately.
00:53:51 - Absolutely, but I still think people will take
00:53:53 a lot of that on to be able to travel.
00:53:56 So I wanted to quickly kind of do a round table,
00:54:00 and I love to kind of get inspired about travel
00:54:03 and dreaming about travel,
00:54:05 because we wanna be traveling.
00:54:06 So I wanna ask each of you kind of a hidden gem
00:54:08 or a favorite spot in your destination
00:54:10 that you would recommend to everyone on the call.
00:54:12 I will start with Joy.
00:54:16 - Very, very easy.
00:54:20 Bahamas, 700 islands, as I said, 16 we promote.
00:54:24 The Exumas, there are 365 keys
00:54:28 that make up the Exuma chain of islands.
00:54:30 Once every day of the year.
00:54:32 Astronaut Scott Kelly said,
00:54:34 "The most beautiful place on earth."
00:54:36 I invite you to come and experience it yourself.
00:54:38 I cannot wait.
00:54:39 It will be my first trip,
00:54:41 just supporting domestic tourism
00:54:43 and ensuring that our local economy keeps going.
00:54:47 But I also look forward to inviting everyone else as well.
00:54:50 - Someone just said they're rebooking some clients
00:54:53 for Exuma in October right now.
00:54:55 - Thank you.
00:54:57 - Josh, what about you?
00:55:01 - Well, there's nothing more socially distant
00:55:03 than being on a game drive at Londolozi in South Africa
00:55:06 and chasing some leopards.
00:55:07 And if somebody sneezes,
00:55:09 you can always push them out of the vehicle
00:55:11 and let the lions deal with them.
00:55:13 (laughing)
00:55:15 - Perfect.
00:55:16 Greg, what about you?
00:55:17 I mean, it's hard to pick one of your,
00:55:19 one in New York or San Francisco or Arizona.
00:55:22 What about like a hidden place that you love
00:55:24 or favorite destination?
00:55:26 - Oh, well, I mean,
00:55:28 if you're just saying in California where I am now,
00:55:30 I love going up to Humboldt
00:55:34 and just experiencing the redwoods
00:55:37 in the upper part of the state and getting away.
00:55:41 And I'm very anxious to do that.
00:55:43 - Yes, as soon as possible.
00:55:44 Helen, what about you?
00:55:47 - Well, you can imagine I have a lot,
00:55:48 but just with Wild Dunes reopening,
00:55:51 I just see myself sitting at the Grand Pavilion
00:55:55 on the edge of the ocean with a cocktail.
00:55:57 I know, Helen, that shocks you.
00:55:58 As the sun goes down and I'm gonna do it as soon as I can.
00:56:04 - I'm sure Helen would join you with that.
00:56:07 Or has.
00:56:09 Gloria, what about you?
00:56:10 - I'm sure Greg is thinking I'm gonna stay
00:56:13 at the beach at Tofino 'cause he knows I love it there.
00:56:16 It's my place. - I know you do.
00:56:19 But I'm gonna give a nod to Stephen
00:56:22 'cause I was also reading that one thing
00:56:26 that Canadians and Americans,
00:56:28 but even more Canadians are missing so much are patios.
00:56:32 And so when I think about a couple of iconic patios,
00:56:36 oh my gosh, think about being
00:56:38 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
00:56:40 or in Quebec City on the patio looking out
00:56:43 over La Belle Provence.
00:56:46 Those are pretty spectacular properties to be in
00:56:50 where you can just really--
00:56:52 - I think I'm packing right now.
00:56:53 - Yeah, they're so beautiful.
00:56:55 You can just picture them.
00:56:56 So anyway-- - I'll join you there, Gloria.
00:56:59 Socially distant, of course.
00:57:01 - With a mask.
00:57:03 And Stephen, what about you? - I'll take up on it.
00:57:04 It's a deal.
00:57:05 - In Paris or wherever, I guess.
00:57:08 - I'll say Paris.
00:57:10 I mean, the Hotel Molitor in Paris is stunning.
00:57:13 It's next to Roland Garros.
00:57:15 It's a converted public bath,
00:57:17 so it has an outdoor swimming pool, a rooftop terrace.
00:57:21 So you look out over the clay courts
00:57:23 and the Parisian sunshine, and it's beautiful.
00:57:27 And it's also a hotel that's been doing a lot of good
00:57:30 for the community by creating thousands and thousands
00:57:34 of lunches for the healthcare workers of Paris.
00:57:36 So the Hotel Molitor in Paris.
00:57:39 - We need to go thank them personally.
00:57:41 - Yes. (laughs)
00:57:43 - You're all welcome.
00:57:45 - In person, thanks.
00:57:46 Ellen, what about you in New York?
00:57:48 And then I'll let you close.
00:57:49 And someone just said they have to move on
00:57:50 to their next webinar.
00:57:51 So thank you guys again for joining us.
00:57:54 And Ellen, I'll leave it with you.
00:57:56 - So I have had the Central Park in front of me,
00:58:00 so I'm gonna talk about my hidden gem today,
00:58:02 not when I'm able to leave,
00:58:04 but I go into the park on occasion
00:58:07 and I have found Bethesda Fountain
00:58:09 with that beautiful angel sculpture
00:58:11 that I watched it go over in New York City
00:58:13 to be a solace for me right now.
00:58:15 And I bring a nice cooler with ice and champagne
00:58:19 and some cups and then a few friends can come in
00:58:22 with masks and socially distance.
00:58:25 And that's been my hidden gem
00:58:26 since I walked out of the apartment and went into the park.
00:58:29 So Central Park has been such a solace for me right now.
00:58:33 So I will continue to go into it
00:58:35 as I can freely float in the coming months,
00:58:40 even though I'm gonna be on a plane
00:58:42 because I booked my first air ticket this week.
00:58:44 (laughing)
00:58:46 Because I can't help doing that.
00:58:48 But anyway, this has been so amazing.
00:58:52 You are an incredible panel
00:58:54 and I'm grateful for all of you.
00:58:56 And Annie, once again, very, very honored to have you
00:59:00 as part of the epharmaly.
00:59:01 Greg, you talked about the opportunity
00:59:05 that's coming out of this.
00:59:06 And many of us spoke about the power of travel
00:59:09 and travel is a force for good.
00:59:11 And we know that that will be one of the residual effects
00:59:14 is that we take better care of our places.
00:59:17 And Glory mentioned that a lot as did Joy and Helen
00:59:20 and each of you.
00:59:21 But trust is something that's resounding that we hear a lot.
00:59:25 We had our advisory board meeting a week and a half ago,
00:59:29 which Josh sits on and trust to the audience that we have.
00:59:34 And Greg mentioned that trust in your destinations
00:59:39 to make your guests feel secure and confident,
00:59:43 as well as the communities.
00:59:45 Trust in how we interact with each other
00:59:48 and the fact that a core will make sure
00:59:51 that they're trusted when someone comes.
00:59:53 I think this is gonna be the biggest factor
00:59:56 is how do you gain trust?
00:59:57 And certainly the advisor community will help
01:00:00 as far as doing their part as you all are.
01:00:03 So I am hopeful and confident that we will emerge
01:00:08 in a better place.
01:00:09 And I appreciate all of you today.
01:00:11 Next week, Thursday, we're gonna focus on something
01:00:15 that we've talked about a lot at afar
01:00:17 and now is even more important, destination stewardship.
01:00:21 And that again, goes right back to how travel
01:00:25 is a force for good and how we take care of not only
01:00:28 our travelers, but our communities and the earth itself.
01:00:32 So I look forward to seeing you all next week.
01:00:34 And thank you again to everyone.
01:00:36 - Thank you. - Be well.
01:00:37 - Appreciate it.
01:00:38 - See you in person sometime.
01:00:40 - Yeah.
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