The new normal.

Over the years the popular culture in movies, series and stories have given us a regular dose of the worlds end game. From War to climate change to aliens and pandemics we have been entertained and intrigued by the imagination of a few. For this time, the virus won over the others to bring the world to a standstill.

The winter chill was just breaking away and the ball was set rolling for all the summer plans, different plans for different people - that holidays, the protest, product launches, house renovations and many others. All of it were stonewalled by a virus. A highly contagious pandemic was upon us. It is like the world just suddenly stopped spinning. Being homebound we had to adjust to a new culture of working from home. With being at home and working from there coupled with the fears of getting the virus will change the travel behaviour for years to come.

The service industry of travel, tourism and hospitality is very resilient. This sector has seen off economic recessions, civil unrest, and world wars in the past. This time around it was not the lack of demand or a global economic recession that made everyone cancel their well-deserved holidays but the threat of contracting a virus and the fear of spreading it, among others. There are so many different contradictory theories of how the future will pan out by experts. There is a theory of pent up demand that after being indoors for so long it is only natural that everyone wants to break free and go for a relaxing holiday. There is the theory about this virus triggering an economic recession which will take us years to overcome. The fact is that tourism sells on the discretionary spending and when there are an economic meltdown people would but naturally curtail all unwanted expenses.

Adversity is the mother of innovation and the best companies and professionals among us will come up with incredibly unique products and services that will drive demand and growth. Every company small and big are back to the drawing board working out new strategies and product lines to stay in the game. Emphasis is on cost cutting and tiding through these tough times and coming up with attractive services to drive sales.

Bridgetown Hospitality has always been a small company and in this crisis some advantages that we have are related to being small. Our overheads were already exceptionally low, and we were so used to boot strapping since inception so we are more aligned to spend lesser and this will be a big bonus in seeing this though times through. The world would have discovered working from home lately, but we were much ahead of the curve. We have always been working from home, we have never rented or leased space for office. Being a small scale of operation means we could personally attend to our guests and vendors both of whom are the most important aspects of this business.

After close to 100 days of living the new normal in India we still have more questions than answers, we still cannot convincingly place our bets on future trends and business. One thing we know for sure is that we are here for the long haul, we will have to adapt, innovate, and reskill for the new era. All plans, projections and competencies that has taken us through the years may not carry us along to the future. The starting line has been drawn again and we are ready to take the plunge into these uncertain times only this time we are armed with our experience. The decade and a half of our entrepreneurial journey has enriched us, sharpened our resolve and the learnings from our successes and failures of running a travel business in the highly competitive market is our most treasured asset. We are anxious but confident and we are working on some new projects and offerings that will be relevant in the post Covid era.

The game has changed, the rules have been altered and we hope all of you find ways to stay in the game and better your play to make the World a better place.

Stay safe and hopefully this too shall pass soon enough.