It is said crisis unites and there’s no better time than now for unity as the travel industry undergoes its biggest test with the outbreak of Covid-19, with Asia being the first to be impacted, and the rest of the world now feeling the repercussions, there are lessons to be learnt and experiences to be shared from our region.

Singapore, where I live, was the first place outside China to be affected. The first case of the coronavirus was detected on January 23; the 66-year-old Chinese national from Wuhan has since been discharged. On January 31, Singapore became the first country to lock down its borders to new travellers from China, as well as foreigners who had been there the last 14 days – a move it felt was necessary to contain the outbreak.

On February 7, it raised its Dorscon – Disease Outbreak Response System Condition – alert to Orange, triggering panic in the local community. But this video, made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, which has since been widely praised for its messaging and tone, calmed things down. (Watch it if you haven’t. It’s a good case study in calm leadership, with very clear messaging, which is what the world desperately needs right now.)

We’ve been in the eye of the storm since the beginning of the year and we in Singapore as well as China took the pain early. Think about it – the world’s biggest country and one of the world’s smallest countries fighting it individually, yet together.

So we went through the panic buying, the hoarding of toilet paper – what is this obsession with toilet paper, people – and everyone laughed at us. And we learnt to laugh at ourselves.

We learnt that fear is real and it leads us to do irrational things. We also learnt that you have to conquer your own fear before you can help others. And with each passing day, we have learnt to pass courage to each other as we go about our daily lives.

Episode 1: Keith Tan, CEO, Singapore Tourism Board

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