Driven by a collective concern about how the tourism industry can most effectively start recovering from the devastation brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of tourism veterans with decades of experience are joining forces to ‘give back’ to the industry they love.
Brought together by Ralf Garrison, mountain travel, and tourism veteran, the initial group includes individuals from a variety of specialty niches. Their stated goal is to help any destination-related tourism business create a plan based on updated data and best practices to navigate a path to whatever the new normal will be for the tourism industry. Recommendations will be based on the ever-changing and emerging guidelines for operating a variety of tourism-related businesses in this new environment.
Initial efforts are focusing on quantifying the economic impacts of the pandemic—specifically on the travel and resort industries and their communities, establishing a set of metrics to track the return to economic viability and establish best practices for re-opening. Ultimately, the plan is to establish and test a set of assumptions about the new realities that consider consumer confidence, comfort, and financial security in the months ahead.
Plans also call for a resource center that will be provided free of charge and contain a data library contributed, an information table collated by independent tourism specialists; and the first results of various polls conducted and provided by a market research firm.
From the data gathered and analyzed by the Insights Collective Team, a destination transition strategy will be developed for more individualized reporting and consulting using a new platform under development to navigate for the new normal in leisure travel. This more advanced and targeted guidance will become a commercial venture.
