Sounding Off: Try as you may, you can't escape reality

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered by PhocusWire that week.

What a difference that six months can make - a saying that rings true at any point in the history of a company.

But what a difference the last two quarters for any business have been once it emerged that the outbreak of the coronavirus was not going to be a distant memory by the time the northern hemisphere's summer had kicked in.

It was an admirable decision of sorts by GetYourGuide in April, when it claimed to have a strategy in place to avoid any of the layoffs that numerous other brands across the industry had quickly implemented once many countries around the world had finally succumbed to lockdown the previous month.

Bold, perhaps smart, certainly lucky to be "reducing expenses, adjusting forecasting and conserving cash" in a bid to preserve the fabric of the company from a workforce perspective.

It was, some might argue, a typically ballsy move by GetYourGuide - a company that had defied the inherent skepticism that competitors and pundits have had on numerous occasions over the years with its ability to grow and raise huge sums of investment capital.

But the coronavirus didn't ever really go away at all and a vaccine hasn't arrived to help mobilize a decimated travel, tourism and hospitality sector.

The harsh reality of Q4 2020 is this: as dark as that March to June period (for most) was for people, travel brands and society, companies need more than a ballsy approach to ensure their survival as COVID-19 carries on.

The period of hedging one's bets is perhaps over.

It is time for the industry to accept that a recovery is largely not going to be backed by states to any meaningful scale; that many travelers are going to be hunkering down (either by their own decision or by restrictions imposed on them) for some time into 2021; and the way we experience the process of travel and destinations is going to be very different for years to come. 

It certainly a time to be thinking smaller and smarter.