What I Learned from Working in Tourism During the Covid Crisis.
By: Casey Halloran
Tags: Covid Diaries, Leadership, Travel, Costa Rica, Tourism

Costa Rica’s Majestic Osa Peninsula

I moved to Costa Rica after university and co-founded a Costa Rica travel agency. The past 20 years have been a wild, bumpy ride: 9/11, The “Great Recession” of 2008, and that pesky Zika mosquito in 2015. But overall, the past 2 decades have been good. I built a team I love working with, made friends, and learned passable Spanish. Best of all, I found a Latina wife who tolerates my manic entrepreneurial spirit. I’ve enjoyed a blessed existence doing work I enjoy in a country filled with kind people.

Then Covid hit.

I wasn’t prepared for the chaos that the pandemic wrought on the travel industry, my company or my life. The early weeks were awful, a combo of customers, providers and teammates experiencing cascading panic attacks. It felt as if some invisible hand tipped over the game board — all rules out the window. I had sleepless nights pondering the extinction of my beloved organization.

In 11 months that followed, my team rallied brilliantly to stave off what felt like near-certain demise. The crisis isn’t over, but we are starting to see the other side. We’re told to search for silver linings in these events. I’ve had a few insights I thought worth sharing:

Goodwill is THE Intangible — The stress of the early days of the crisis drove the tourism world crazy. I witnessed airlines, cruise ships, tour operators and hotels play hardball with customers and suppliers. Understandable I suppose, we were all battling through survival instinct and adrenaline…but some of those moves just felt wrong. I won’t claim to be proud of every decision we made in this crisis. But while studying our bloody balance sheet at the onset of Covid, something occurred to me: GOODWILL is the one asset we cannot discount.

So we made a big bet, one that went against the counsel of financial advisors. We stretched our limited resources in order to treat our customers, staff and suppliers as fairly as possible. Too soon to say if our bet paid off financially, but it feels good to do the right thing, especially when it’s hard.

Pura Vida is Real — Costa Rica is known for “Pura Vida”, a mystical, feel-good notion on how to live a full, present life. Pre-Covid, I was skeptical of this slogan. But I have come to appreciate how Costa Rica’s tourism industry organically evolved into a unique, sustainable economic model. I believe that Pura Vida can be seen in the balance between the traveler, tourism industry, local community and nature. When in balance, it’s the ultimate tourism fair trade. When out of whack, a tourism destination lacks authenticity, is disconnected from local culture and economically detached from local people. For the better part of 40 years, Costa Rica has been a model for sustainable tourism for a reason. I believe the invisible glue that holds it together is Pura Vida.

In Crisis, Female Resilience Shines — Some of the strongest people I’ve observed in these stressful times are women. Witnessing that unique female ability to comfort, protect and lead with heart is amazing. Many women on my team and in my industry have demonstrated incredible crisis leadership. On the home front, I have been fortunate to have a wife who juggles work and motherhood effortlessly. Without her supporting me, emotionally and financially in this mess, I might have folded.

Work From Home Sucks — While it has been nice to see more of my kids, I miss the physical separation of home & work, the camaraderie of my team, and the magic whiteboard moments when smart people ideate on the same problem. If WFH is the future of work, count me out.

Fight for your Teammates — In the crisis, I’ve found a few sources of higher motivation, but #1 is fighting for my team. Many of them could have bailed for easier or more lucrative industries. But for the “ride or die” crazies who stuck with us, I feel obliged to fight until my last ounce of energy and dollar.

Courage is Contagious — Watching teammates, industry colleagues and old friends encourage each other has been a great joy. Here’s a neat trick — if you’re feeling down, give a pep talk to somebody else. It does wonders for your outlook.

THE TAKEAWAY

They say pain is the best stimulus for adaptation. For many, this crisis has been plenty painful — and many of us have adapted. None of us knows when this pandemic will end. But I hope that the lessons we learned won’t fade from memory when better times do return.