Life in the Time of Corona Part 14 - An Appeal
As many of you will know, for the past 12 weeks, we have been busy with our #MyTravelPledge campaign.
We launched the campaign on 21st March as a response to something very simple: the lockdown in Spain was imposed on 14th March and we, as a tourism business, faced a bleak future of cancelled bookings and no income. Rather than stare into the abyss, we thought that we’d offer our empty bedrooms to those people who would most deserve a break once the Covid-19 pandemic subsides and travel restrictions are lifted - healthcare and other frontline staff.
Little did we know at the time that the campaign would extend worldwide, that we would generate 5,500 nominations from healthcare workers around the world and we would be featured on the BBC World News flagship travel programme, ‘The Travel Show’.
The campaign always had three main aims:
Give something for healthcare workers to look forward to, and boost morale, at this hugely difficult time;
Give property owners some hope that their tourism businesses might have a future when travel restrictions are lifted;
Invite travellers to start visiting Spain again once the crisis abates.
We have evolved as circumstances around us have changed, and the latest phase of the project sees the ongoing allocation of free holidays to nominated healthcare workers, and the shift in attention to our own small businesses. Collectively, we as accommodation providers need to think about the future, and as there are glimmers of a reopening of travel on the horizon, we have all had to start thinking about generating revenue.
This morning, we woke to the not unexpected statistics that, in April 2020, Spain welcomed no international tourism visitors and generated no tourism income (read the article HERE). When you consider that, in 2019, records were broken with nearly 89.4 million visitors coming to the country (read the article HERE), you can start to see the massive impact that the pandemic has had on the economies of both the country and the individuals who rely on tourism for their livelihoods.
For some of the hosts who have contributed to the #MyTravelPledge campaign, their home is their business and without income from tourism and visitors, they face a very real threat to their own futures. As we mentioned above, one of the main aims of the campaign, as well as giving something of value to frontline workers, we hoped that the campaign would give us some hope that visitors would return one day, and our income streams restored.
Time has passed, all too quickly, and we are approaching high summer in Spain. There are only the slimmest signs that international tourists will be able to return for this summer season, and I think we are all hoping that we might get some business from local travellers. Not many of us, it seems, have full reservation lists for this year and I think we have all been concentrating on 2021.
It came as both a surprise and an enormous delight, therefore, when we received an unexpected email last week:
Subject: Contributing to stays by health workers
Message: Hi Andrew and Ian,
We would like to contribute 1,000 Euros towards the cost of health workers staying at Casa Higueras.
At first, we were both marginally sceptical as we had not even thought that anyone would offer financial support. It transpired that these generous benefactors, Louise and Miles Walton, are followers of our blog and podcast and so are aware of the campaign and what we are doing.
As it happens, the couple transferred €1,200 into our account which will cover the discounted costs of bed & breakfast accommodation for another 6 healthcare workers at Casa Higueras, on top of the 4 holidays we, ourselves, have already given.
We are overwhelmed and hugely grateful that Louse and Miles saw fit to make this offer. The vast majority of those accommodation providers involved in #MyTravelPledge are not large hotels; they are small businesses savagely affected by this crisis. Their income has dried up and very few will receive support from government; certainly not enough to make the difference between closure and survival. I spoke, a few weeks ago, to one of our owners who has a very well-established business, and they are seriously concerned about their future. Their lives are tied up in their property and they believed that they could possible survive without bookings in the summer, but if they don’t get bookings in the autumn, then the story looks very bleak indeed.
This is not just a Spanish story. We have property providers around the world, with many in the UK suffering just the same concerns that their income has dried up and there are few optimistic signs for a significant return of visitors this year.
It was, therefore, the generosity of Louise and Miles that prompted the next phase of our campaign.
We have, up to now, been supported by accommodation providers who have been kind enough to offer holidays at their properties free of charge to healthcare and other frontline workers. Economics dictate that the number of free holidays has to be finite as we all need to think about generating income at some stage, but that has not dissuaded our lovely hosts from giving something to those people most in need of a break.
Louise and Miles have demonstrated that there are people who, maybe, do not own a bed & breakfast or self-catering holiday rental but still would like to help.
Shamelessly, therefore, we are using this blog post to make an appeal, particularly if you have been fortunate to have been in full-time salaried employment throughout this lockdown period.
Consider covering the costs of a short break at one of our participating properties, allowing the property owner to offer another stay to a frontline worker while receiving some income. We do have conditions for our donation scheme. The property owners that would be eligible to receive this kind of support have to have given at least one free holiday away at their expense. They also have to work on a discounted price to benefit from any offer of a financial donation, so need to feature this on the new campaign’s OFFERS page.
Some of our properties only charge €50 per night for bed & breakfast, so a pledge of €200 would provide the property owner with a source of income and allow them to offer a 4 night ‘free’ stay to one of our 5,500+ front-line nominees.
We have always used the strap-line “we all need something to look forward to” as part of our publicity for this campaign, and it still holds true. Whilst standing on your street every Thursday evening at 8pm to give a round of applause is extremely heartwarming and demonstrates unity in our support, reading just one or two of the thousands of messages we receive from healthcare workers should show you the impact the campaign has had and continues to have:
“I saw your interview on BBC news channel and thought I'd give this a shot. My wife Amy is a respiratory nurse in a hospital in Cardiff, she works long hours and deserves a break. The Corona virus has hit her ward hard with everyone of her patients being extremely vulnerable. She recently lost one of her fellow nurses who she was really close to through Covid 19. Other nurses she works with have tested positive and this creates a level of anxiety that she could be next. But she still gets up every morning and goes in and gives her best to look after her patients. Myself and our two children are extremely proud of her and would love to surprise her with a break she definitely deserves. Every Thursday we clap for the NHS, this is always very emotional for us but the overriding feeling is that of pride that my wife and my children's mummy is a real life hero!”
“I am a returning healthcare worker in Liverpool, and my wife is also a full-time NHS worker who has worked with Covid-19 patients on intensive care wards. We would greatly appreciate the chance to have a short break together and some much needed time to relax. Thank you for the opportunity, and for this generous gesture you are offering for NHS workers - regardless of our outcome.”
“Firstly, thank you for this very generous offer. I am a band 6 sister in a busy accident and emergency department serving on the front line during this pandemic. I am also currently unable to visit my family in Ireland due to lockdown so I am really feeling the strain. A holiday/break away would be amazing and I would be very grateful to be considered for this offer.”
“Emma is one of several senior nurses at GOSH who fell ill with Covid-19 in March, from which eventually her close colleague sadly died. Emma has continued to show incredible resilience and leadership throughout the epidemic, even taking part in planning meetings from her bed!
A truly worthy nominee who is the hero of our family!!!”
“iIam an ICU nurse and I currently am working on the COVID front line and have been since March. I would love to win a short break it would really help my mental health as we’ve seen our colleagues die and been unable to have time off work. Please consider me.”
You will know that is it not in the nature of our blog to make an appeal, although now we would love to have your help. Our accommodation providers have donated holidays without knowing when they, themselves, would earn money again. Please share this post; it would be wonderful if just a handful of those people who applauded the many individuals who put their own lives at risk every day - not just healthcare workers, but retail employees, public transport employees, porters, cleaners - could give something for someone to look forward to.
