Questions of Balance

I’ve been saying “there’s never a dull moment” for the better part of three and half years now. And it’s been true. Consider: the 2019-20 season pacing towards occupancy records interrupted by a global pandemic, then shut-down, gradual reopening, flush wallets, remote travel, revenge travel, inflation, threat of recession, in-migration, out-migration, housing crises, and the rise of the resident. And that’s just a partial list. 

Tracking it all at Inntopia has been like juggling smoke, but the intelligence gained has been invaluable. I’ve also spent much of the last three years looking at these issues as part of the Insights Collective think tank, where we’ve taken that list and identified the pandemic and post-pandemic forces at play, i.e., items that are driving fundamental changes in destination resort communities. And from that analysis, one thing is clear: these forces have converged in such a way as to have a profound impact on how local communities feel about their destination travel economy.