What Do You Value?
Do you feel like giving us some help? We would really appreciate it if you could.
As a society, we are even now being prepared for what happens after we come out of lockdown, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Words and statements such as “unprecedented”, “massive economic impact”, “could be like the Great Depression”, “huge disruption”, litter the opinion pieces on news websites.
I do not doubt that in many cases, the use of these words is apt.
New Zealand will take a huge economic hit, much of this stemming from the collapse of the tourism industry. Tourism in this country employs roughly 10% of the workforce and is the single largest “export” industry.
So what is the outlook?
I have done some research and cite this piece from Arival as my source. The research they have done paints two scenarios, a pessimistic one and an optimistic one. In neither case does the industry recover before 2022. In the optimistic scenario, there is a 70% to 90% recovery within two years, while in the pessimistic scenario, there is a 70% to 90% recovery within closer to four years.
Here is the summary:
With an outlook like this, it is clear many tourism businesses will not survive. Those that do will no doubt have to, at least partially, reinvent themselves.
One good thing about the immediate lockdown is the opportunity it gives to think and research. We, like many business owners, have been doing plenty of this, and one thing has become evident to me. That one thing is that we, that is River Valley, need to establish just what are the things that our customers truly value about their experiences with us.
To survive in a much-changed economic landscape, concentrating on what our customers most value, and trimming the rest may be crucial to our survival.
To answer this question about what you value, we are going to need your help!
In the next few weeks, we will be sending out one or more surveys. We will appreciate your time in helping us by answering what will be a handful of questions.
If we get this right, not only does River Valley survive, but by concentrating on the aspects of what we do that you truly value, we will also improve the experience that you, our guests, will have. We all win.
Thanks in advance.
Brian Megaw
Here is the link. Thanks again. We really appreciate this.
