Comment: We must pull together as an industry to emerge from this crisis

Chris Lewis of Travelogix says firms must support each other

Founder and chief executive of data and insights firm Travelogix, Chris Lewis, says all firms in travel should think about how they can help clients amid the COVID-19 crisis

We are facing an unprecedented challenge to our health, our finances and our businesses.

Many are calling the coronavirus outbreak the worst crisis in living memory and for businesses in travel, few would disagree.

This is not something we can control. The global situation, the government advice to stay at home, the emergency laws being introduced with lockdowns and countries closing their borders are all alien to human nature.

We are social animals, we’re curious and we like to explore and experience. For now, we can do little or none of these things and we have no idea how long the situation is going to last.

At times like this we see how resilient and supportive people are.

Communities rally round and we hear stories of people coming together – checking on neighbours, shopping for those who can’t get out, local WhatsApp groups and more.

Giving support and help where we can, will get us all through this crisis and in business it’s no different.

For most businesses, the foundation of the company, whether large or small, is care for the client.

It’s part of a company’s core values and there has never been a more important time to remember that.

Every business has a responsibility to contribute back to its clients, so think about what you can do to help yours.

We recently moved the majority of our development team to focus their efforts on developing a temporary platform that will provide clients with up to date information relating to COVID-19 outbreaks.

We work exclusively with TMCs, so as a specialist in data management we asked our clients how we could help them.

It became apparent that information per country with updated news relating to any travellers that have been to, are in or due to go to each country would be extremely useful to them.

So that’s what we are doing, and we are providing this information free of charge.

So, think about how you can help clients at this time, either through technology, services or perhaps something else. Whatever you can offer will be welcome right now.

It’s not just clients that we should be thinking about right now but also other businesses that we may be working in partnership with now or perhaps sometime in the future.

Think about what your business can do to help them or perhaps what can you do together to help others, especially if you’re in a tech related business.

We are going to need to support each other when this crisis is over, and people start travelling again so you will want to be prepared.

We will get through this by coming together and when we do we’ll be a much stronger and more cohesive industry.