NOTES ON THE RUN

While we are in our lockdown situation, meetings will of course need to move to an online format.

This week we will talk with His Excellency Ronald Recinos, Ambassador of Guatemala and concurrently New Zealand. Ronald has indicated his interest in joining Rotary. He has had a strong association with Rotary in Guatemala. (Allan Hawke, our scheduled speaker, will join us once we are back in person).

Here is the link for the Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81997377764

The link will be open from 12 noon and the meeting will run 12.30 -1.30PM 

If anyone would like any technical support, let me know and I will see what I can do from afar...

I think it would be a great idea to come along and to have a virtual change of scenery.

Please log in to let all know how you are coping with this lockdown and hear from the Ambassador.

President Warrick

PEACE PROJECT

There will be a ceremony at the Peace Bell for the Bicentennial of Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama on 15 September.

Michael Rabey

LAST WEEK'S LUNCHEON MEETING (August 12^th)

Our speaker was Ross Goddard of Goddard & Howse Travel who made a presentation on “The Future of International Travel Post Covid”.

Many of our members enjoyed the tour to Myanmar with Ross a few years ago. The professionalism, knowledge of Asia along with his forty year’s experience in travel gave members a great experience. He had operations around Asia including Viet Nam, China and Myanmar but these have closed which meant these local staff have had to find alternative employment.

Ross has since closed his Australian business with the Covid Crisis and he detailed that the Covid epidemic had completely turned the Travel industry on its head with demands for refunds along with no new overseas flights, destroying income to Travel agents. The structural change wrought on the industry in the last eighteen months was also combined with the move for travellers to book online. Ross expects the industry will not reemploy the same numbers of staff as previously.

The impact on tourist-dependent countries in Asia has been immense, especially for Bali and Thailand. Many countries do not have government assistance packages as we have in Australia so industries such as hotels, transport services and food catering have lost thousands of jobs in countries where their wages were very poor even when they worked.

Other impacts will be the rise in the cost of travel insurance and the exclusion of Pandemics from these policies. There may also be more scrutiny of previous medical conditions in the application forms and higher loadings may apply.

Also, airlines may have a long lead time to regain the same number of travellers as confidence in travelling overseas has been shaken when we hear of many Australians stranded overseas. Ross said that a survey of potential Australian travellers indicated around half would defer their travel plans for 2022 and the other half would still aim to travel which would imply there would be a net reduction in demand of around 50% next year. However, he does expect business travel to recover quickly due to pent up demand.

Another issue is that pilots and cabin staff would need to be recertified to fly as many had been laid off over the last eighteen months. Also, aircraft need around 11,000 safety checks before they can restart flying if they have been mothballed. So there may be a lag in the ability to supply air tickets even if the demand is there.

The use of an International Covid Passport will be difficult to implement as each country and even each airline may have their own version of the Passport. This will make overseas travel more time consuming and difficult.

The main aim for every developed country is to maximise the number of people vaccinated to allow society to return to a new normal. In Australia, we are aiming for 70/80% double vaccination rates before our borders are reopened. Stage 3 will allow the following

No timeline has been set for the Stage Three reopening as this will be dependent on the uptake of vaccines in the Adult community. The Government's current projections are for an 80% uptake of vaccines by the end of December 2021.

The importance of a full reopening of our International borders is the fact that overseas travellers bring in around $45 billion in foreign currency to assist our balance of trade plus overseas students bring in around $40 billion in student spending. Australians however spend around $40 billion on international tourism.

Ross says that if we use the Post World War 2 experience as a guide for international travel then travel will gradually improve over time. Travel is important to break down barriers in the understanding of other people and their cultures This can avoid potential xenophobia creeping into our society from lack of contact. The human spirit of curiosity to experience other cultures and countries will ultimately prevail.

Russell Dew

AUGUST DUTY ROSTER

If Unable To Attend On A Day You Are Rostered, Please Organise A Replacement.