Yeoh Siew Hoon
I wanted to wait a couple of days before I wrote about the horrific bomb attack at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok -- to digest, to talk to people, to think about it -- before I added my voice to the cacophony of voices out there.
I understand this isn't the norm these days. We've all become instant communicators because we can. And so after every crisis, there's a massive, instant outpouring of shock, outrage, sorrow, fear, anger, blame.
Cecil the Lion hit hard. A handsome, majestic, beloved animal murdered by a small-town dentist with a love for hunting big game. The hunter became the hunted on social media.
The Erawan bomb hit hard on several levels. One, it came out of the blue. Two, it hit a most beloved shrine among worshippers across Asia. It's my mother's favorite spot when she goes to Bangkok. I know couples who visit it every year because it blessed them with babies. It's a spot that no matter how many times you've been to Bangkok you walk past just because ... And three, it was clearly aimed at tourists.
At around the same time, a bomb blast went off in Cairo but we've accepted that as the norm -- we read the headline and we moved on.
Clearly the Erawan bomb will have an impact on tourism, particularly discretionary travel and corporate meetings. I had friends who've cancelled planned shopping trips and companies who've postponed or cancelled meetings. I saw a notice from the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International that it's postponing its Digital Marketing conference from September to November.
Speaking to hoteliers in Singapore, they've suddenly seen an uptick in business. Truth is, Singapore has been in the inbound doldrums the past couple of months -- China, Australia and Indonesia are down, not to mention Malaysia, fast becoming the basketcase of Southeast Asia, but suddenly, over the last couple of days and this coming week, hotels are full. You can't get a room unless you pay really high rates.
Such is the instant nature of business these days -- one minute down, the next up. We have to get used to it.
Customers' attention span is very short these days. We move from one crisis to another on social media like a herd of wildebeests. There's a mass dump, and then we move on to find the next thing to dump on.
Bangkok can take consolation from this new norm in behavior. Speaking to a Thai friend last night, and we were of course discussing the bomb attack, he said, "I don't know. Yes it's shocking and it's sad but the next day, we are back to normal. Life is back to normal. It's like there's so much happening that you just move on."
So move on, we have. Sad truth is, we as an industry have become so used to crises -- Thailand has had more than its fair share in recent years -- and the response to this one was sure and swift. The comeback too will happen -- surely.
I recall Don Birch, then CEO of Abacus, doing an analysis of crises over the years and their recovery and he found that with each crisis, the recovery period gets shorter.
The other consolation is crises really do unite. That gathering of monks at the shrine a day later was like balm to my soul and summed up what is to me the heart of Thailand -- peace and tolerance -- and yes, a few bad folks would dare to disrupt it but there's more of us than there are of them.
I saw on my Facebook feed my industry friends in Bangkok getting together for a chamber of commerce gathering. It is imperative the industry heals itself and the best way to do this is just to get together, hug each other and talk and to take measures for recovery.
After September 11, I recall making a decision to go ahead with a travel conference when everyone said I should cancel. It turned out to the best healing for the industry. It also helped that we brought in a psychologist to talk about overcoming fear.
Our customers may make knee-jerk reactions because they have a right to. We shouldn't make knee-jerk decisions because we have a responsibility not to.
I can't wait to be in Bangkok early next month to attend the Sabre/Abacus APAC Leaders Summit. Hats off to Sabre for going ahead.