How Vacation Ownership Companies Can Survive the Big Freeze in 2020
History is filled with episodes of early American pioneers who found themselves arriving in a new land but when winter arrived, cut off suddenly from resources to sustain life.
It has been reported that Jamestown settlers in the 1600’s referred to the winter season as ‘Starving Time’.The winters were long, hard and fierce, without the modern conveniences were even deadly.
Life was disrupted, and there was no telling if the people who survived it would survive it again. Many did not.
With a name like “Starving Time” it was clear that our early ancestors had the harshest of disruption to their normal way of life.
Most of us have grown accustomed to creature comforts such as indoor heating, nearby convenience and grocery stores, electric blankets.
Winter has been mastered by time, technology, science and strategy
Hard times. Cold nights. But we found solution over time.
Fast forward to the year 2020 when we have everything we need, almost, to survive the elements.
Yet, we do find ourselves in a new type of ‘Starving Time ‘with the Pandemic.
The New Normal.
REALLY?
Most tourism companies are going through this ‘Starving Time’ now, and in particular the Vacation Ownership and Travel Club enterprises.
Why?
The pandemic has made many organizations say goodbye to 70% or more of their top sales and marketing teams, leaders included. Think of it like a captain having to throw crew members overboard just to survive a storm.
So much for the ‘Family Culture’ right ?
Disastrous.
Without a steady flow of tourism, ‘new prospects or tours’, which were steadily streaming into destination areas such as Orlando, Las Vegas and others, meaning they were/ are ‘the source’ of much needed customers (revenue) to attend presentations to generate front line cash flow, well, the very idea of generating new sales seems… futile.
In other words, the Vacation Ownership industry, which in 2019 exceeded 5 Billion USD in first sales revenue, is going through ‘Starving Season’ until the coast is clear.
Take as much time as you need to let that sink in.
Whenever.
Of course, some of the bigger goliaths have a lot of staying power, or stocked up resources, including their own customer base that they could cannibalize to survive, as had happened in 1626 Jamestown, to prevent starvation.
The Vacation Ownership /Travel Club industry can choose to wait until the Pandemic has been solved, a vaccine is accepted and the fear of dying because of a vacation goes away and is long forgotten… or…
…Or, as some are waking up to, they can choose to deploy new ways to connect with their clients.
Long overdue are new distribution channels that truly cost effective.
Think Digital.
One wonders how key executives were ever able to explain to shareholders why they had payed between $500.00 to $1,000 just to have the privilege ‘to present’ the product without any surety of them ever doing any business together.
This year, WebinarSafari.com has acted as an advisor, mentor to several companies and their consultants looking to create their own messaging to their clients to reach them through live webinar platforms.
