The
spread of the coronavirus across the world has resulted in a great deal of
change to the way we interact with each other and how we do business. Since the
virus was first reported, its rapid spread has caused countries to close their
borders and companies and economies to grind to a halt.
Across
the world we face uncertain times. Yesterday afternoon in excess of 461 000
cases had been recorded in 196 countries and territories around the world. It
is crippling economies, disrupting the supply of goods and services and putting
many people on the breadline. This reality makes it clear that we have to
embrace the change that the virus has brought, or be left behind.
Just
to show how fast things have changed, it has been only few days since the last
two cases were announced and already many in our workforce are operating from
remote locations as some businesses have physically closed doors to the public,
while continuing to operate in the virtual world.
Our
tourism industry has been hardest hit. With the airlines scrapping flights,
hotels are virtually empty. That indeed has a ripple effect throughout the
whole economy.
The
fact is tourism is our lifeblood and has been for quite some time. But what
this situation is showing us is that we need to make sure that in the future we
do not put all our eggs in one basket. We must with urgency look to see what
other sectors can be advanced to help earn revenue and valuable foreign
exchange, once economic activity gets going again. Hopefully this is not
wishful thinking, but a real possibility given the exploration expected in our
territorial waters.
In
respect of tourism, the reality is that even if the situation with covid-19
improves in a few months’ time, it will take far longer than that for travel to
get back to its glory days. The fact is; those who will look to come to the
country to spend their vacations, come primarily from Europe. Those
international economies will take time to pick up and then persons must have
the confidence to travel and feel safe doing so, if we are to see arrival
figures as anything like before.
We
thus encourage all to practise social distancing and not gather in groups, we
have seen banks, supermarkets and other retail entities seeking to play their
part by limiting the numbers in their establishments. We have seen the rise of
basic food commodities and delivery services and businesses and entities.
Let’s
hope and pray that we get out this global threat as soon as possible.
“A
life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
Jackie
Robinson
