How Coronavirus Killed The Travel Industry

How Coronavirus Killed The Travel Industry

I have been blogging for years, writing columns about the travel business for the past 2 years and self-published my memoirs of my nomadic life in 'A Modern African Nomad' in 2016 so the next logical step was to start a travel business. After careful research I found a host agency called '58 Stars Travel' in Bothell, Washington started training to become an independent consultant (IC) in January 2020. I liked the fact that they did not charge their contractors for training and they were part of 'Travel Leaders' one of the biggest luxury travel consortiums in the world. I was part of 6 freshmen ICs, 2 from out of state on conference call, to be trained by Mike Salvadore, a former ad exec and  co-owner of the agency. It took me almost 2 hours and 2 buses each way to get to 58 Stars in Bothell from Bellevue. The first time I went to meet the team, I took time to explore Bothell, a small town where the highlight is the delightful Anderson School, an old schoolhouse which houses 3 restaurants. Classes were once a week and it became a joke that every time I went out there, it was pouring with rain. I was unfamiliar with the buses and took the wrong bus back the first couple of times so I got home feeling cold and miserable but I was determined to learn the trade. Classes were fun and Mike was a font of knowledge. ICs were invited when hotel owners and travel suppliers came to present at the agency. In February took the opportunity to attend a one-day seminar with Virtuoso, the leading luxury travel consortium, in New York City, at 'The Pierre' hotel. It was great to visit my favorite city, meet with other travel industry veterans and IC hopefuls. The lady who was running the event actually knew Mike Salvadore and tried to recruit me but Virtuoso charges for training and I appreciated even more that I had a good deal with Mike at '58 Stars'. I have such an awesome weekend with my friends in New York City and I am glad I had gone when I did because the world was about to change.

Almost as soon as my profile went live on the 'Travel Leaders' website, as an Africa destination specialist, I started getting queries for group trips to Africa. I had a family reunion going to Ghana, a couple of missionary groups going to Nigeria, vacations to South Africa and people in my US network wanting to go back home to Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, etc. I also planned a group trip to Paris, Versailles and the champagne region of France for Easter which was getting a lot of interest. I started broadcasting 'The Africa Travel Show, on Channel A TV and started the Seattle Travel Meetup then hosted a fun happy hour at the W hotel in Bellevue to meet potential clients. I am a news junkie so I had been following the Coronavirus crisis in Wuhan closely and it started to come up in the trade emails from the travel agents' groups. One by one all my groups going to Africa canceled their plans. It was the worst time to enter the travel industry. I don't do cruises but I felt for those agents that book cruises because they were the first to get hit. Meanwhile, our travel training had become bi-weekly and the last time I went to the agency was for a marketing session from New Frontiers, a destination management company from Durban, South Africa. It was so awesome to meet travel professionals from Africa and we exchanged details.

I had take a job with H & R Block in January to give me the flexibility to train as an IC and the manager was pretty understanding when I needed time off to go to Bothell but on the days I worked, I would work up to 12 hours a day to make up for the low pay. One morning I had just started work when I got a call about an emergency at my house in South Africa. I let my manager  know that I had to travel to Africa urgently, bought a one-way ticket on South African Airways (SAA) for that night because I didn't know when I would be coming back and spent the day packing. Seattle was already the epicenter of Coronavirus cases in the US and the number of cases was growing. On SeaTac my Uber driver was complaining that business was down so he was happy to get an airport run, I flew Jet Blue to JFK, landed on a beautiful morning and felt sad that I could not go into New York City to see my friends. At that point everything was normal in the airport  and all the airport shops were open when I connected to Johannesburg. The red-eye flight from SeaTac to JFK takes 6 hours, plus the 3 hour layover then the grueling 14 hour flight to Johannesburg so this was not an easy trip. The SAA flight felt endless and I was a zombie by the time I arrived only to be thrown into the chaos that I had gone to solve. South Africa is a very difficult country and I realize that now I can't live there anymore. When you live in the US, people in Africa think you are made of money and they try to scam you at every turn. There were some bright spots, like when I reached out to 'New Frontiers' and they organized a tour of the new Victoria Yards creatives' venue, which I live-streamed on Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157309631397695&id=676762694. For the first time ever I was staying in short-term housing at Sandton Executive Suites, not my own house, which was sad.

With my niece and nephew in Johannesburg

I had not been to Zimbabwe since I left on 31 March 2019 so I took the opportunity to go to Harare and see everyone. I stayed in an Airbnb in Mt. Pleasant with a friendly young guy. Harare was still lovely and sunny but people are clearly facing hard times. Everyone was looking a bit worn out but cheerful. It was a great visit, it was good to see friends and family, I even saw my dog, Bronxie, who is as playful as ever, with a toy in mouth. I went back to Johannesburg for 2 more challenging days. This time I stayed with an old friend who I had not seen for a while so it was great to catch up with her. Everything in those 2 days was a struggle; from the car that was coming to meet me which broke down to my phone completely crashing because of the power surges to us arriving at Makro wholesaler after it had closed on a Sunday. I was at the Maslow hotel in Sandton, getting an Uber to my friend's when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa came out on TV to announce that the country was taking emergency measures to combat the spread of Coronavirus. They had a few cases of people who had come back from China and there were South Africans teaching English in Wuhan who were stranded there. The next day I was leaving but I had a hectic day driving around with the electrician buying solar equipment for my house then I was dropped off at the airport. The cheapest one-way ticket back to Seattle I found was $900 on Turkish Airlines so this whole trip had cost me $2000 for flights alone. The ground staff where confused by new regulations from the government which said that anyone who had traveled to China, the EU or Iran within the past 14 days could not leave South Africa. Why they would want to stop infected people from leaving their country? I was almost stopped at the gate until I showed that I had flown in from JFK, not Europe. This time most passengers were wearing masks as we boarded the flight. When I had worn mine on the way out of Seattle, people had looked at suspiciously but 10 days later, it was the norm. The flight to Istanbul was easy and the layover short. I collected my luggage at JFK and took the train to a different terminal. I wore my mask but New Yorkers are way too friendly. They kept coming close to me and talking. This time most of the shops in the airport were closed but nobody was social distancing at the burger joint or the bar as they chatted away to each other in close proximity. I waited 20 minutes for a takeout burger, called friends in New York then headed to the gate for my flight home. I arrived back to find Seattle a ghost town and soon after the governor announced a two-week shut down which has since been extended until 4 May. I am grateful that I got the chance to visit South Africa and Zimbabwe again because who knows when we will be allowed to start traveling again? Right now there are no flights allowed in or out of South Africa and Zimbabwe. I have a Zimbabwean friend who stuck in the US who can't go back home and I know several people who are stuck in Zimbabwe who can't get back to the UK. A private jet company from Mauritius, Vimana Jets, had a jet flying out of Harare last week and I think Ethiopian Airways was the last commercial airline still flying into Harare. If I had waited one more day I would have been stranded in South Africa right now. I am so glad that I am social distancing in Bellevue, WA, in my own home.

It will take a long time for the travel industry to recover and the world will never be the same but eventually people will travel again. We never thought we would see the whole world shut down like this. Hotels are cheap right now, AirBnBs are empty but people are not allowed to move around. The cruise industry has been hit especially hard and in spite of numerous discounts, it will take much longer to recover. Last week I saw ex weatherman, Seth Wayne, who had left KOMO station to become a spokesman for Holland America Cruise Lines, being interviewed from a ship that was not allowed to dock after 2 people onboard had died of Covid19. Eventually people will need to travel again and when they do, my travel agent profile is, https://www.travelleaders.com/travel_agent/agent-details.aspx?id=168932&ref=agent_search_results&txtAgentName=&slctState=WA&slctMetro=&slctCity=&slctInterest=&slctDestination=Africa&slctLanguage=&slctSupplier

The Africa Travel Show

The Africa Travel Show
I have started to livestream a travel show where I interview subjects in Africa from a studio in Seattle.

The first episode of The Africa Travel Show was simulcast on Channel A TV with Davies Chirwa in Seattle and 1873 FM with Stanley 'MC Wildfire' Dube in Johannesburg. Watch the interview on the following link, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157183874497695&id=676762694

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157183874497695&id=676762694

The second interview was on Thursday 4 March 2020 with Dexter Chikerema who was in Pretoria, South Africa and Luke Evans from the Lower Zambezi Tourism Authority who was calling in from Innsbruck, Austria. Dexter runs a tour company operating out of Cape Town and Luke runs a lodge on the Lower Zambezi Valley in Zambia. Watch the interview on the following link,

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=224810725324485&id=104494720934416&ref=bookmarks

Africa Travel and FOMO

Africa Travel and FOMO

Boris Kodjoe & African Americans in Ghana for The Year of The Return

I used to work in hotel finance in Africa and advise a lot of hotel owners on funding to build their hotels so I know a lot of people in the African hospitality industry and hotel groups. In December I was on a call with a former client of mine who is finishing his hotel just outside Accra when I asked how the celebrations for 'The Year Of The Return' were going. He said I was missing because the whole of Black Hollywood has visited Ghana in 2019 culminating in the festive season celebrations. Several Black celebrities I saw on TV were talking about their plans to spend the holidays in Ghana.

Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones & kids in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

I had spent Thanksgiving and Christmas away chasing warm weather in LA and Arizona but it seemed like the whole of the US was cold over the holidays so I might as well have stayed home in Seattle. To make matters worse, many Africans return home to Africa for the holidays and it is  the best time to visit when the Diaspora is back home so social media was full of posts from people I know who were having a good time in the sunshine back in the motherland. A friend of mine was in Zimbabwe with his family and there were pictures on Instagram of his kids swimming at Mutarazi Falls in Nyanga which is one of my favorite places in Zimbabwe. My family is also from Mutare and I grew up going for family vacations in hotels in the Eastern Highlands so their posts made me nostalgic for my homeland.  Then I saw posts posts of Hollywood stars visiting Victoria Falls and the FOMO was real because the resort town is a huge party town over the holidays and I have visited so often in the past that I am now friends with several people who work in the tourism industry there. I haven't done this yet but I plan to do New Year's Eve at the Victoria Falls Carnival, one of the hottest music festivals in Africa which is held on New Year's Eve every year.

'Empire' star couple Grace & Trai Byersin Victoria Falls

Recently I set up my new full service DNP Travels agency which is an Africa destination specialist agency bringing groups to Africa. Curated and tailored services offered include:

-Vacations, tours and safaris to the top destinations in Africa, from Cape to Cairo.

-Destination weddings and honeymoons in Africa, with the best venues and suppliers.

-Family reunions, religious travel, social impact travel including volunteers and charity missions.

-Business groups, nonprofit groups, school trips, sports teams and student exchange programs.

-Conference groups, trade shows, exhibitions, meetings, event travel and concert travelers.

-Specialized tailored travel like women-only groups or bachelors matchmaking tours.

I fell in love with Ghana on my first visit here in 2009

Most people can book their own travel online these days but when it comes to groups, it becomes harder to coordinate the planning for everyone. When it comes to Africa, there is a lack of information on exactly where to go and how to navigate the continent easily. Many African Americans these days are having their DNA tested so they are interested in discovering their roots and visiting the countries where their ancestors came from but there is nobody catering to this market. Many would like to visit Africa but they have no idea where to start. I have traveled extensively in Africa and it is a challenging continent so I will use my experience and network to plan travel in Africa so all my clients have a flawless travel experience. I have friends here in the US who do not travel much and they say that they will travel more often if somebody else does the planning. As a travel advisor I have very high standards so I only work with trusted suppliers and partners. I am so hands-on that I will not offer anybody an option that I am not familiar with or not confident about, even if it means I have to visit a venue myself first before I send anybody there. I offer both escorted travel or planning services for my groups. My escorted services are trips include trips where I will travel with my clients or have a guide on hand throughout the stay in Africa. I am planning a ladies trip to West Africa where we will visit Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia and Senegal. As an alternative to our men who like to visit Brazil, we can offer a fun tour through Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Maputo, Johannesburg and Cape Town where the women are just as beautiful so they can find their African brides. I am a member of Rotary and we have many projects in Africa including the 'Malaria Partners' project. My fellow Rotarians in Seattle are excited that there will be a full-service agency which will handle their travel in future. 

Spending an afternoon was a normal thing when I lived in Lagos.

Additionally, DNP Travels offers services for African clients wishing to travel to the US including family trips to Disney, golf tournaments for executives to network with business leaders in the US, college tours for high school students, honeymoons in Hawaii and other destinations as well as any travel needs for groups coming to the US. As an experienced event planner, I will be organizing several business events as well as social events to bring Africans to the US. For instance, we can do a package to the Essence Jazz Festival and pair it with a series of meetings with the local chambers of commerce for networking purposes. The market will also determine the services we offer so if a certain company or industry body in Africa would like to offer an incentive program in the US, for instance, we can happy put that together. There are also numerous trade shows and exhibitions in the US like the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas  where we can offer a full, concierge service. I have close relationships with a number of tourism authorities and embassies in Africa where DNP Travels can offer visa application support which is usually the biggest challenge for African visitors to the US. This is an exciting time for travel to Africa and for Africans as the Diaspora Africans rediscovers their roots in Africa. I am proud to facilitate the journey back to Africa and tourism does more to lift Africa out of poverty than charity or foreign aid. Communities that are involved in tourism are less likely to poach wild animals so the promotion of tourism leads to the conservation of wildlife in Africa. African countries tend to rely on commodities so the development of tourism leads to the diversification of economies away from oil and minerals as well as the growth of a middle class. Instead of sending remittances to families in Africa, please send tourist who will spend their dollars in Africa so Africa can feed itself.

Christmas in Arizona

Christmas in Arizona

The sun came out briefly on Christmas day!

I had planned to get some sun over Christmas well in advance and booked a trip to Phoenix Arizona for a week leaving on Saturday 21 December 2019. They call winter The Big Dark in Seattle but according to Mayor Jenny Durkan, Friday 20 December 2019 was the darkest day in history. The following day, when I was leaving was barely an improvement because it felt like the dark clouds reached all the way down to the ground. I called my Uber to take me to the airport that evening and could not get out of Dodge fast enough. Even the airport had a festive atmosphere as I talked to other travelers on their way to catch some sun in warm climates like Miami or who were on their way to just spend Christmas with family back East. I landed in Phoenix, Arizona after 1am then took an Uber to my hotel near the airport which was chose for its proximity, if nothing else. The next day I down to Heritage Square in downtown Phoenix for a delicious brunch and then proceeded to explore the city. Phoenix was strangely deserted as there were very few people walking around tge center. This was also due to the fact that the population of Phoenix is under 2 million people, most of whom moved to Arizona recently due to the hot job market so predictably they go back home for the holidays. I walked down to the Farmers Market which had only the restaurant was open but I found service to be very slow but they were quick to serve other people who came after me. It's a small city so I walked past the university campus and the light rail station then stopped at the Hyatt which was not busy except for a church group taking a break during their conference. The day had started off sunny but got chilly by afternoon so I took another car to a very famous steakhouse that claims that John Wayne used to be a regular. I had a decent dinner in the restaurant but when the lady in the bar wouldn't serve me it finally dawned on me that the slow service I had received earlier was due to the fact that I am Black. I took my leave and headed to my hotel to sleep.

Tify was a wonderful hostess & guide

The next day I was moving to Scottsdale near my friend where I planned to stay the rest of the week. One of my best friends in Zimbabwe had a cousin in Phoenix who wanted to show me around so he picked me up then took me for a bizarrely long drive about 100 miles out of Phoenix to a dusty Mexican town before bringing me to my new hotel in Scottsdale. By the time we got into town, his wife was blowing up his phone and I did not wish to be caught up in some domestic drama so I avoided him the rest of my stay. The wife even tried to reach me via Facebook asking me to do lunch but the whole thing was crazy and I did not want to ruin my trip plus I had learnt my lesson to avoid avoid looking for Zimbabweans when I travel in future. My hotel in Scottsdale was fabulous and it was right across the road from the Fairmont Princess, which has some great restaurants. The next day I went shopping in downtown Scottsdale and checked out some places in the Old Town then my girlfriend took me out for drinks. Scottsdale is similar to the way Bellevue is to Seattle and there is so much more to do so I had fun from the minute I got there. I had Christmas lunch at the Fairmont Princess where staff were preparing for their Christmas festival which is a popular draw for kids. I even spotted Busy Phillips there with her kids while I was trying to catch a few rays of sun in the afternoon. My friend and I went to the Marriot for a drink then to the Talking Stick casino where we danced as a musician played old favorites and finally we had dinner at the Four Seasons resort so we painted the town red on Christmas day.

A chair at the Rusty Spur Salon in Old Town,

the touristy part of Scottsdale

The one thing that stood out for me in Arizona was the level of poverty there. I took the bus to the malls from my hotel and there were people getting on the bus who were so poor they couldn't afford the $2 bus fare for a ride. One couple only had $1 between them so I gave them the other dollar and my bus pass. I also heard stories of racial profiling from young Black people growing up there and in one instance when we were meeting a friend for brunch, she arrived had early then some man started bothering them and her daughter who attends college quickly turned her phone on to record the conversation. There is a generation of young Black people out there who have to learnt to quickly record situations because of how quickly they can escalate. I must admit, one of the reasons I chose to check out Phoenix for my Christmas getaway was to see if it is a place where I would want to live in the future because I had heard so much about the vibrant job market. However, it rained most of time and it got colder as the week went by so there was no difference to being in Seattle. I even considered leaving early because I had seen almost everything but I went to the Walmart to buy some warm clothes then decided to enjoy the rest of my stay, which was lovely. I came back with a new appreciation for Seattle because even though it is rainy here, I do not feel any blatant discrimination and you don't have think about having your phone ready to record in case of another racial incident.