Reflecting on 2020: A Year of Great Learning and Growth

Thank G-d for 2020. Thank G-d for such difficult times personally and professionally

Thank G-d for all the good and bad, for all the experiences lived in 2020 and mostly for all the learning. But more than anything, thanks for being alive and well in times when health is consider a luxury not everyone can afford. 2020 put everything in perspective. This year, priorities changed in a heartbeat both personally and professionally.

Personally, what more can I ask from life? I have a beautiful healthy family, a place to lay my head at night and food to put at our table (No, not caviar but tacos). 

Professionally, Viajes Polanco our privately owned business since ´83 took a beating. The situation due to COVID put us in a real tough position. The government here in Mexico didn´t help one bit. Neither did labor laws. We lost everything including our shirts (something that sounds much better in Spanish). 

Our three business units (leisure, corporate, and MICE) were devastated for obvious reasons. From March to August we didn´t sell one peso. In fact, mostly we had reimbursements and problems to take care with cancelations, re bookings and negotiations all around the globe because of the pandemic. But, we are still alive and kicking and the future looks bright and promising. 

Little by little our BU´s started to show life since September and on. Corporate is between 50% and 60% of its usual revenue and in MICE we had to be creative, resilient, and we are beginning to see the light, to experience different possibilities new to us, like virtual events, hybrid ones, and more. 

I think the great poet and Prophet Pete Townshend said it best in his 1969 masterpiece Tommy,

Let’s hope Pete was right and ’21 is a good year. Let’s hope our businesses and travel industry recover fully from such a terrible disaster and finally and most important let´s hope for a better tomorrow for our kids and their generation.