U.S., May 20 -- Every now and then, we all have seen tourism destinations temporarily dropping out of the market due to natural disasters or political crises. As a non-affected observer, you may tend to say 'bad luck' and continue business as usual. However, on the day I write this, tourism and travel have been completely extinguished for a couple of weeks already - on a global scale. For all of us, this is the first time that we see the impossible happening: the world's largest industry has collapsed within a week, at a time, in which this industry conditioned itself to believe in unlimited growth and invulnerability.

In my 25 years of relevant executive assignments on 4 continents in the development and management of destinations, I ga...