“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”. Karryon founder Matt Leedham shares his thoughts around how we, as an industry, need to band together to get through the current uncharted times.
If you’ve taken the time to click this story (thank you), I don’t need to tell you where we’re at with the state of the travel industry right now here in Australia and globally.
Put simply and brutally – and excuse the expletive, but I think we can all agree that things are “totally shit” right now.
The unprecedented chaos keeps coming in by the hour to our Karryon news desk, and we’re as gobsmacked as no doubt you are at the rapidly changing and concerning landscape.
Our mission (as always) is to do our best to keep you informed of the facts and information you need to know and continue to arm you with the expert tools you need to help your clients.
Hopefully, our daily rolling updates are helping make a difference while our other stories and social media activity is still managing to put a smile on your face and give you plenty of travel products to inspire your clients.
It’s important to remember that there’s still some good stuff going on regardless.
We’re desperately trying to steer away from sensationalism as always (we’ll save that for News Corp), but some facts are just too hard-hitting and extreme to avoid – Italy’s lockdown yesterday being a prime example.
But enough about that.
How and what as an industry are we going to do to help each other through to the other side?
We’re no doubt in for a bumpy and long road trip, so let’s all buckle in and create the kind of uplifting playlist that will get us all singing along, hopefully to the same tunes.
To our Partners and Suppliers
We’re here for you.
Please keep us abreast of all your product and contingency updates – including the positive stories and good stuff. Plenty of laughs and some light is also welcome, honesty even more appreciated.
For all your news, we’ll add daily to our: CORONAVIRUS LATEST: Rolling Travel Industry News Updates
Now is the time for ethical and responsible PR, not head in the sand promo PR that is irrelevant to what agents and clients are seeking.
It’s ok to talk about coronavirus, and we need to talk and be honest about it. It’s well and truly happening (no-one can deny that) so, please don’t shy away from it. Let’s work with it and turn it into an opportunity.
Please send us your deals (Hello travel deals of the week!) and incentives both to consumers and trade so we can publish them for you.
Please send us all your info to editor@karryon.com.au
To you! Our awesome community of readers
Firstly thank you for your kind and amazing comments and feedback.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the number of you out there in our awesome industry community sending us stories, insights and feedback on where you are at with it all.
This fantastic letter written by 1000 Mile Travel Group agent Ivona Siniarska in Melbourne to her clients or this sage perspective from TIME board member Ollie Tams are just two examples of sharing for good.
READ: GUIDANCE & GRATITUDE: An Agents Perspective On Coronavirus Travel
READ: WORDS OF WISDOM: An Open Letter To My Industry By Ollie Tams
Sharing your personal take and stories makes all the difference for everyone else in the industry. You may think your opinion isn’t valid. It is! And actually, it probably echoes what others are thinking anyway but are too afraid to say.
We’re already into a new era where we need to do things differently and more sustainably in the industry. We need more creativity, flexibility and collectivity – but it’s only people (us!) that can make the change.
So I invite you to get involved, share any ideas you have, share a story, a concern, a challenge to be solved or just your state of mind. Talk to your colleagues, and your peers and well, keep talking in general.
I’ll leave you with the below from Charles Dickens legendary ‘A tale of two cities’, which talks about a time of chaos, conflicts, and despair, as well as happiness.
While the book was written in 1859, for obvious reasons, it feels relevant as ever right now.
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
Charles Dickens, A tale of two cities
If there’s one thing I do know, it’s that this industry is the best in the world and probably one of the most resilient.
But we’re stronger together and always will be. So let’s get through this together in travel.
Please email me at matt@karryon.com.au, and I look forward to hearing from you.