Editor’s Notebook
Ifeel like a bleary-eyed fuzzy animal waking up and sticking its head out of its abode after a long hibernation. Having not printed a magazine since the February – March issue it is great to be able to go ahead with this print edition.
WE CAN DREAM
Just before the lockdown clamped down, I passed an Asian Journeys to a young receptionist. Her face lit up. “This is exactly what I need, a travel magazine! We can’t travel now, but we can plan for when we can!” Neither one of us realized how long our winter of discontent would be. Believe me, I wanted to publish Asian Journeys before now, but with no advertisers – why advertise when no one can travel – and with no readers – most of the print magazines are delivered into Singapore’s CBD which was like a ghost town throughout the Circuit Breaker – there wasn’t much point.
What have I been doing all this time? I’ve written four short stories on being locked down in Singapore – that are available on Amazon – and I plan to publish them in a book. I spent more time working on the website and redid our e-newsletter. A lot of people had difficulty adjusting to working from home. I’ve been working from home for 12 years – since I launched Asian Journeys, so it was business as unusual for me. And my lovely wife Farah made it easy to be home. We developed new traditions and had a lot of quality time together.
REVIVING TRAVEL
Doing articles for the EDM and for the website I made sure that I noted in every story that was looking to the future that “everything was true and accurate – at the time of writing.”
The possibilities of travel were – and still are – constantly changing. The travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong got delayed at the last moment. Hopefully, by the time you read this, people will be going back and forth between the two city states without restrictions.
The way forward, as Travelrevive, powered by ITB and Singapore Tourism Board demonstrated, is through small steps. Travelrevive was the first in person, as well as virtual participation, travel conference in the Asia Pacific region. We were the guinea pigs. The organizers wanted to see who would participate and could everything be done safely. We were tracked during our time at Marina Bay Sands and the information analyzed with an eye as to how to make improvements. Most importantly, they wanted to know if you could bring 1000 people together with 65 foreign delegates from 14 countries, and have a meaningful event with no one getting Covid – 19.
VIVA LA VACCINE
Many of us believe that the vaccine will be the answer to our travel problems. What we don’t yet know is how quickly the vaccine will be distributed and how effective it will be. When I produce the February – March 2021 issue of Asian Journeys I hope I’ve either been travelling, or about to.
While many of us ‘enjoyed’ virtual meetings I didn’t promote events that purported to be travel events when they were virtual. That is not travelling. We all learned how to watch TV some time ago. Travelling means going somewhere and substitutes don’t work for me.
KEN’S ART OF TRAVEL
I welcome Ken Hickson as a contributor to Asian Journeys. Ken has been doing the Art of Travel on-line for sometime, but for someone raised on print it just wasn’t satisfying enough and he yearned for a print outlet.
Introduced by a mutual friend we thought we’d give it a try of adding The Art of Travel to Asian Journeys. For me, the benefit is that we get more variety into the magazine. Ken has a world of contacts and ideas for stories and I believe he will be a valuable member of the team.