MORE ABOUT "THE NEW NORMAL"

4 November 2021

"what a complete pile of delusional nonsense ..  what does this so called "NEW NORMAL" actually mean?"

Please add a little water to whatever you are drinking!

"New normal" means the changes in how we live due to the virus, that look like becoming permanent. 

For example, most people in public enclosed spaces will continue to wear a mask. Another example: we replumbed the Internet so people could work from home (WFH) and where that's been an improvement (less journey time, less costly office space, for an improved productivity), it's likely to stay.  Some jokingly call it "living at work".

For the travel and tourism business, looks like passengers will expect temperature-checking, infection testing, more safety and hygiene at airports, on flights, no meals, controls on how you can use spacewhat, 

a more eco-conscious mindset, no more 9 to 5, more tech supporting change (as always) eg online application for e-visas.

Not all changes will stick because the success of vaccine programs will mean we can return to the old normal, how things used to be. E.g. planes won't be flying half empty anymore.

And there are other motors for change going on at the same time - climate-change & net-zero, Wokism - that mix in with changes in our behaviour introduced by covid - eg people will holiday nearer home, more interference from governments in citizens' freedoms, higher taxes to pay for the fight against the virus.

Change is constant, but covid, climate change and the woke are fast changing how we do things...and these changes look like being here to stay. These new ways of daily living are called "The New Normal".

The TAT is trying to understand these changes so as to adapt Thai tourism. 

One big big change is to recognise that visitor numbers are likely to be permanently down. If tourism's contribution to GDP is to return to the old normal, each tourist must spend more (that'sthe Thai way of thinking). Hence a move from mass tourism to millionaire tourism.

Will plans for millionaire tourism work out? Or are they, as you suggest,  "delusional"? That's a good question!