By BRUCE Piper
COVID-19 continues to change the world, and it just doesn’t seem to be getting any better. With Victoria in lockdown and the brave attempts by some cruise lines to relaunch now stymied by new infections it just seems the light at the end of the tunnel is getting further and further away.
Individually there’s nothing we can do about the situation, so personally I’m trying to focus on the positives — such as the extension of JobKeeper — in contrast to the situation in NZ where the government has basically decided not to support travel agents at all.
There’s also the fact that we live in a beautiful country, there is food on the table and the sun still rises and sets each day. It seems clear the industry as we know it will undergo significant change, so let’s roll with the punches and make the best of this new reality.
It may not feel like it now, but there will be new opportunities once this is all over. The extreme measures imposed by Daniel Andrews are clearly necessary and let’s hope they pave the way to recovery.
There are 40 days and nights left of the lockdown — the same length of time that it rained on Noah — and after that seemingly never-ending deluge the first thing to appear was a rainbow.
MEANWHILE I’m not at all convinced that Helloworld Executive Group GM John Constable is likely to stay with the business long term following his return to the UK for “personal reasons”.
The move was revealed in an update from CEO Andrew Burnes, who said due to border closures Constable would remain in London, adding: “I am confident he will do as great a job there as he has in Melbourne”.
It should be noted that this news came right in the middle of HLO’s $50 million capital raising, when such a senior resignation may have spooked investors.
I may be wrong, but my bet is that Helloworld will sooner or later announce Constable is stepping down because working from the UK with a 12-hour time difference is proving just too difficult.
