15 THRIVE Edition 2 7 So here we are in 2021, looking ahead to what was supposed to be a wonderful upcoming end of year holiday season, and looking ahead into 2022. And here’s what we’ve got to do – we have all got to learn to be more adaptive. We’ve got to learn to live and work and make decisions and come up with strategies and survive when it is not clear what happens next. Of course, the big issue in the system is COVID-19, and that is the immediate crisis we are facing. But even if COVID-19 was not in the system, I would probably deliver the same message because if we look ahead into the 2020s, we need to expect serious disruptions to come our way, however long COVID -19 takes to get out of the system. If we are just looking at other potential disruptors for Tourism and Hospitality as an industry, climate change is going to be an absolute disruptive force. This will likely change where people live and where they choose to travel. We can think about geopolitical instability, for example changes to Brexit and how they impact on Tourism. We can also think about digital transformation and the impact of technology. It is not just the Covid crisis that we need to mindful of, we have got to learn to deal with disruption. The Travel, Tourism and Hospitality is going to be hit by disruption, after disruption for the foreseeable future. So, what do we do? Ideally, we would like to be able to predict those disruption, get ahead of them and have a plan. Nobody has a crystal ball that can predict the future. However, to begin to make sense of the disruption, we need to build adaptability into our DNA. We need to not just change our plans; we need to be more responsive – more adaptable. There is no doubt that the Covid crisis has been devastating for travel, tourism, and hospitality. I truly hope many businesses do survive. Yet, now that we know that more disruptions in the future are headed our way, the key words I can leave you with is don’t just rebuild, reimagine. Let’s use this opportunity as hard as it is to look at how we can unlearn and re-imagine the future of this sector. By Graeme Codrington,Futurist, Expert on the Future of Work, Unlearner “Covid-19 is the biggest disruptor in a generation, and yet it won’t be the last disruption your organization and industry will face in the next few years” Same Planet Different World To build this adaptability, here are a few points to think about: • Overcome inattentional blindness • Rethink and unlearn • Experiment more
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