It’s being called the “normal-normal” – that is, the state of things beyond post-pandemic and its subsequent “new normal.” Back to where things were (travel-wise) before COVID. And that may be. But what about when normal includes the threat of pandemic as more than a one-off; never-ending and escalating wars; raging wildfires and drowning floods; tourism – and tourists – under siege by the locals; endless industry strikes; and plane parts (from Boeing at least) literally falling from the sky?
If that’s “normal,” is it time to get off the bus?
“You kind of have to be crazy to work in travel,” laughs Transat Distribution Company (TDC) general manager Karine Gagnon, who acknowledges the litany of obstacles and concerns for travellers (and the advisors who serve them) in the world today.
Yet, she observes, “it’s kind of always been that. There are just so many external factors that we cannot control that can happen, and that have happened.
“And is there more? You kind of have to wonder today – sometimes it feels like its one thing after the other after the other.”
At the same time, the TDC exec sees little evidence that travellers are being turned off by the new state of affairs, rather that it may be quite the opposite thanks to hard-won experience.
“You know, (many say) ‘we’ve seen this, we’ve lived this; okay, we know this is going to happen and we know this is a chance.’ Look at COVID – is that not the worst crisis we’ve ever known in our lives? And look what happened after that – people went nuts and they all wanted to travel.”
And this despite a sentiment that there was “a risk for my health, perhaps my life.”
But Gagnon says she will “hang on to that version where even something as big as COVID that lasted (seemingly) forever, people reacted the way they did, and we are more resilient than ever as humans.”
She adds, “When I think back to pre-COVID, who ever would have thought something like this would happen? But when you live things this big, you’re kind of ready to take a certain risk…”
And that, she believes, extends to other factors, even if less dire than the pandemic.
“Look at the (lowly rate of Canadian) exchange, the (cost of) fuel, the inflation; it’s the same, to a certain point,” she says. “I think humans, not that they forget, but it kind of becomes normalcy – which comes back to redefining what normalcy is today. It certainly isn’t what it was five years ago.”
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