I Cried for Days
In January, we wondered about Covid & Asia and cancelled pending vacations to the region.
In February, I started having complete nightmares of what could happen if the pandemic spread.
In March, we froze when Italy went into lockdown the world started spinning for us. I was nearly crying everyday wondering how we could salvage any of the bookings we had in place and stop the madness.
March 11th, I was packing for Hawaii, Australia and Fiji with a river cruise right after in Southern France when Trump called for a European travel ban. It was like my whole world ended that day as it looked liked our industry would collapse and it did. I thought my life had ended as I watched my business turn to chaos.
For a minute that felt like a lifetime, we worried what would happen…paralyzed by the unknown.
I continued to cry for several nights [and days] as we continued to lose all of our business to cancellations. In our industry, we get paid by the suppliers AFTER you travel. This meant we wouldn’t be paid for any of work for the previous eight or so months. We lost booking after booking, group after group and it was one tidal wave after another as we watched border after border close and covid numbers increase. I feared for our ten independent agents who had lost their travel business as well and how they would survive. Our colleagues in the industry were furloughed or laid off.
Then after a few days, I woke up and spoke up about what I could do as a leader in the industry right now. I mobilized. I strategized and I got down to business.
Two months later….we are stronger than ever! The future is brighter and hope is rebounding! God blessed us with ideas and creativity and we continued to sell through the pandemic [not at the same pace as before but we managed to stay afloat] while others sat frozen.
Last week, marked a turn around as the phone began to ring again, and the emails came with new inquiries. The future will look different, but we are starting to travel again and we won’t take for granted travel opportunities ever again! We are ready for you!