Destination Golf Global (Summer 2020) | Page 37

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 37