An unexpected outcome of the COVID pandemic was turning local tourism operators from competitors to collaborators.

That’s according to Dave Hayashida of King’s Point Pottery in Notre Dame Bay.

Hospitality NL held an in-person conference and trade show in the capital city, bringing operators together physically for the first time since the pandemic began.

Hayashida says while the pandemic was tough, it did result in a change in the way in which operators work together, instead of against each other.

He says the pandemic forced a lot of operators to rethink the way they do things to survive. He referenced Joe O’Brien of O’Briens Whale and Bird Tours in Bay Bulls who addressed the conference saying that for years his greatest enemy was Gatherall’s, but the two companies adopted the survival strategy of working together, “and a lot of people have learned that lesson” says Hayashida.