Jeff Clause, St Francis Links
how it might have been taken for granted.
No one is yet sure of what the new normal might look like
and in one of my recent columns, Robert Jasper the GM
of Tsogo Suns’ Sandton Sun and Sandton Towers hotels
in Johannesburg commented, during our discussion about
constrained budgets and anticipating the ‘new normal’,
that:
“I anticipate that those with broader revenues’ bases
will fare better. Just to go back to the ‘new normal’ we
referred to earlier, this might see business travel on the
move first, but we shall need to watch this given the
increase in the use and popularity of on-line meetings
that has taken off during the lockdown. However,
vacation travel might be slower to get off the mark as
the restrictions and we do not fully understand these
yet, coupled with a natural caution might slow down
this sector’s re-emergence.”
In this same context, Peter Dros at Fancourt, Damian
Wrigley from Pearl Valley, Steve Shewell from GolfVistaSA
and Ryan Dodds and Jonathan Menteath at Avalon and
Heritage in Mauritius all face the additional challenge
posed by their exposure to regional and international
travel and this sector being fully reopened.
Our lexicon is also changing. While discussing content
and timings recently with Ian Sadler, the sports-editor at
Business Day, he closed the call to me with a “goodbye”,
adding the wish that I “stay negative”.
Golfers, dream of being ‘under par’, but with COVID-19 still
stalking the semi-rough, this concept has taken on a highly
unpleasant alternative meaning.
I am no stargazer, but I am sure of one thing – we had all
better get used to queuing!
Should 2 metre social distancing remain in force for any
length of time, the queue to go up the Eiffel Tower will
probably start in Fontainebleau.
In fact, as this will apply to everything we do on vacation,
it will probably take a 12 months’ vacation just to fit in
what could have done in 2 weeks prior to the pandemic!
Contact:
John Cockayne -
Mobile: +27 73 8967931
Email: [email protected]
Volume 5 • Issue 52
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