But respecting the traditions, let us use the change of year, to stop, analyze and review. Not what we can do more, but what we can do better. If 2020 has caught us by surprise, 2021 will bring us added challenges in recovery we look forward to. Where to start? Exactly at the beginning...

"People don't buy what your company does, they buy why the company does it".

We repeat this phrase from Simon Sinek, which we used in one of the first contents of our blog, where we explained the Golden Circle concept in Tourism. Why did we repeat ourselves? Because this is perhaps one of the main steps and a change in mentality that the different players in tourism have to consider: not working for profit. To lead for a purpose.

Said in this way, when in 2020, Tourism went into survival mode, it may even seem offensive. But this is clearly not the intention. The goal is to awaken managers and leaders to a new reality, new paradigms, which require new approaches. They are disappointed with the expectation of a "new normal", this does not exist. What this new year will bring us and we hope, that it will teach us as well, is that we have to start to become aware of our decisions and of their impact, not only on us, on our companies, but on everyone. We have to move from self-centeredness to ecocentrism, in what will have to increasingly become a circular economy. The solution has to be global and built together. And in this new paradigm, Tourism has a fundamental role, as an industry that transforms communities, habits, and consumption. Of impacts, which can be positive or negative. The choice is only and only ours. Of what moves us.

Therefore, we must stop, reflect, and start again... from the beginning.

The market has changed... we still don't know exactly who the next tourists will be looking for us. Those same tourists and visitors have also changed... motivations, ways to travel, ways to plan. And although we have studies and trends, the uncertainties and unpredictability are high. Only one thing has not changed: the values, the beliefs. The essence of the consumer, the tourist, the visitor. So what do we have to look for? The essence of the companies!

What is the reason of your company's existence? Your brand? Of your business?

What is the purpose behind everything you offer, how you communicate, and mainly how you connect with your followers?

What values and beliefs led you to create your brand, to work in a company, to persist in wanting to keep your business alive? In wanting to recover Tourism?

Because much may have changed, the essence of something never changes. The WHY (why) of companies never changes and it is this essence that makes your customers, even in external situations and adverse markets, continue to seek it. The link that we can generate between what we believe in, the purpose of our companies and everything that the market also believes and to which it is connected. We are not utopian or unrealistic when thinking that profit doesn't matter, of course, it matters, but as consequence. Not as the main objective.

Therefore, in this first week of 2021 that will take all our strengths and resilience, we leave the challenge to start again yes... but having the courage to go back to the beginning, to the essence, and to remake a new path with a more sustainable, more genuine Tourism, with a purpose.

If you are still reluctant, check out the benefits that companies that are managed for a purpose gain. Tourism does not need to be a villain, it can and must be a hero in the recovery of our economy, of our country. Not for a "new normal", but to flourish from a new reality...