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Post Number One

I Guess We Are Back To Semi/Somewhat Normal?

I Guess We Are Back To Semi/Somewhat Normal? Having worked in San Francisco hotels for 30 years, I personally witnessed all manner of tragedies which affected travel and tourism in my city by the bay. Wars, recessions, 9/11, earthquakes, have all befallen hotels in San Francisco. But somehow, they managed to survive. I remember the mood in the city after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and how air travel stopped, and hotel occupancy went from 100% to 1% in the span of a few days. Through clever scheduling, making staff use vacation time, and other tricks to stave off massive layoffs, few hotels had to close. Tourist-destined areas like Fisherman's Wharf were also hit hard when air travel stopped, but few of those businesses closed their doors forever.

Powell Street, San Francisco

If you were a mid-level front desk or food and beverage manager in a popular destination like Las Vegas or Hawaii, it would not have been beyond the realm of reason that you may have lost your job due to the after-effects of the 9/11 terrorists attack, or the 2008 recession. But it was also possible to move to a different city and find work in your field, despite the disruption to your life. The pandemic of 2020 upended hospitality the world over, like nothing I'd ever seen. From Cape Town, South Africa to Anchorage, Alaska there was not one corner of this planet where hospitality was not devastated. You couldn't just pack your suitcase and move to another city because every city's hotel business was decimated. Airline and car rental agencies are industries dependent on travel and tourism, yet somehow managed to stay afloat. However, I can't think of an example of an entire industry shutting down so completely. Then we got the vaccine and the boosters. Infection and death rates fell. We were ready to stop wearing sweat pants, turn off the Hulu, and return to normal. Since so much of the city is dependent on conventions and international travel, it was clear that those visitors were not coming back anytime soon. But in July of 2022, the tourists started to return, and it filled my heart with joy to see the cable cars humming again. But this rush to get heads in beds didn't take into consideration that, although the hotel business was ramping up, the infrastructure to support those tourists are still devastated. The Hilton and Hyatt may be open again, but not the snow globe/T-Shirt shops next door. Or the high-end retail which visitors tend to only frequent when they travel. Even though they have the same kinds of shops back home. Walking down the first three blocks of Powell Street, one of the most (if not the most) popular thoroughfares for visitors to San Francisco, I counted no less than ten boarded-up storefronts. It is a macabre ghostly sight to see lines of people waiting to ride the cable cars, in front of block after block of vacant shops. And it speaks volumes to me that whatever normal is, we're not there yet, and I don't know when (if) we ever will. Not the normal I remember from 2019, anyway.

-Peter