TORONTO — Post-COVID-19 predictions from Roger Dow, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, as well as hotel and CVB executives joining Dow for a webinar-style panel discussion this morning, are relevant not just for the U.S. but for the travel industry at large.

Presented live from sunny Florida, from the grounds of the Boca Raton Resort & Club, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, the panel discussion focused solely on the coronavirus crisis and featured keynote speaker Dow along with John C. Tolbert, President and Managing Director, Boca Raton Resort & Club and Jorge Pesquera, President & CEO of Discover the Palm Beaches. Bruce Himelstein, the moderator, is founder of The BJH Group and a former CMO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company & Loews Hotels.

Roger Dow, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association (left), John C. Tolbert, President and Managing Director, Boca Raton Resort & Club (centre) and Jorge Pesquera, President & CEO of Discover the Palm Beaches (right)

Dow, a familiar figure for many in the Canadian travel industry thanks to his presence at IPW every year, says any predictions about the demise of the travel industry post-COVID-19 are way off the mark.

“I remember after 9/11, people said they’d never get on a plane again. And we watched as international travel grew wildly,” said Dow. “And I remember during the 2008 financial crisis, people said they saw real problems for the travel industry in the years ahead – and we went on to have our best 10 years ever.”

The COVID-19 pandemic and its border closures and travel restrictions are unprecedented, but they won’t beat the travel industry, says Dow. Rather, “we will be a better industry because of this.”

Dow and top level travel and tourism executives have met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, to talk about “the huge and disproportionate damage to the travel industry,” as Dow notes. “We were there to ask for money, quite frankly. And we got it, we got $250 billion.”

Here’s a look at the highlights from this morning’s discussion…

MARKETING STRATEGIES

Discover the Palm Beaches President & CEO Jorge Pesquera says his CVB “had to pivot in a huge way” in its messaging, as just about every industry did in the immediate wake of the coronavirus crisis.

“We shifted to a message of empathy, and trust,” he said, adding that DMCs have to become a trusted and transparent source of information amid the pandemic.

The CVB’s strategy for staying in front of consumers and trade partners includes everything from direct outreach to webinars. The key, says Pesquera, is “always delivering a message of hope, and showing the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Dow says the USTA already has its eye on marketing strategies post-COVID-19. “We’ve got to come out with a huge promotional campaign when this is all over,” said Dow.

CLEANLINESS AND SAFETY STANDARDS

Everyone on the panel agreed that safety and high standards of cleanliness, and getting that message out to the travelling public, are paramount for any travel product, be it air, hotel, cruise or a destination, to come back post-COVID-19. “We have to do everything we can to let people know they can trust the product,” says Pesquera. “We need to meet that need to feel confidence in the product.”

The industry needs to work together on this one, says Dow. “It shouldn’t be a case of ‘my hotel is cleaner than your hotel’. We need a set of industry standards when it comes to cleanliness and health. We should have control of our own destiny rather than have our destiny controlled by someone else.”

Dow says the USTA has been part of summit discussions that include airlines, hotel companies, cruise lines and the like. “I’ve never seen the associations talk to each other as much as they have in the past six weeks.”

High standards of cleanliness have particular importance for the MICE market, with large gatherings part and parcel of that side of the industry. Tolbert says his property has been in discussions with everyone from doctors to organizational behaviour specialists to find a workable way forward for large gatherings, conferences and major events at the hotel. New measures ensuring health and safety may be in place for quite a while.

Are buffets done for? Says Tolbert: “I think buffets do go away for a period of time. We’re looking at hybrid solutions for everything. Everything will have to be reinvented.”

‘THE NEW NORMAL’ & THE ROAD AHEAD

No one knows if wearing masks 24/7 and avoiding large gatherings will be the new normal coming out of this, but one thing’s for sure: for at least the immediate future after the pandemic is contained, people will want “sanctuaries and safe havens,” says Boca Raton Resort & Club President and Managing Director Tolbert. “This is an unprecedented pandemic and we have to realize the seriousness of the situation.”

All predict that staycations will come back first. “It will be like concentric circles for your destination,” says Pesquera. “Initially it will be staycations. People will want to feel comfortable, they will want a defined environment, one that’s clean and sanitized.”

The drive market will be huge, he adds, citing a recent survey that suggests 70% of travellers are ready to travel “as soon as possible” after the pandemic is contained.