Journalists tend to keep an eye on the years after a major event. It's a useful practice that allows us take a period of time everyone remembers and show its impact — both the waves as well as the ripples.
How did it change the course of history? How did it affect people in their everyday lives? Where were you when it happened?
We've all had too many of those moments lately, but the upcoming one — in the U.S. at least — is the five-year mark for what we consider the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's a somewhat easy one to remember given that it started in 2020, and five-year anniversaries tend to stand out a bit. It's still pretty recent but there's also enough distance to give more room to reflect on it.
What's more difficult than remembering it is actually believing that it's been five years. It feels both so recent and so long ago.
As much as we would like to move beyond it, it still lives with us. Much like the virus, there are long-lasting effects from the pandemic, it's own kind of long-haul COVID, if you will.
In the hotel industry, we're seeing demand levels normalize, including leisure's return from its revenge travel boom and group and corporate coming back up.
We also continue to see the hotel industry struggle to attract and retain talent, having taking a hit to its reputation as a stable career option when so many companies laid off and furloughed employees during the early days of the pandemic.
I don't think I need to say much about how frustrating inflation is and that everything continues to cost so much more than we'd like it to. There also doesn't appear to be many indicators that's going to change much either.
Much like back then, however, we shouldn't give up hope. Though much of those factors are out of our hands to varying degrees, we're not completely helpless. There are things we can each do individually, steps we can all take, to try to improve things for ourselves and those around us.
So, as we approach the fifth year since the start of the pandemic, take some time to think about what has happened in the years since, what that time has meant to you, both personally and professionally.
If you're interested, about two years ago HNN conducted a series of recorded interviews with industry leaders about the pandemic and what lessons they learned from it. You can most of them here.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com as well as on LinkedIn.
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