The fear of COVID-19 has made adventurers, travellers and people preferring leisure staycations cut back on travelling and this is the first reason for the blow over of the hospitality industry.
Many big hotel chains and independent hotels might not be able to overcome the crisis shortly or at least before restrictions are brought down apart from peoples’ fear of infection. The pandemic is an unforeseen and a never-before-experienced situation that has left all industries going in search of new alternatives.
Travel restrictions also added to the existing situation until the conditions were made less strict. The millennials will be the first to come out after a lift on the travel restrictions. The older generation might still have considerations before popping up in hotels anytime soon.
The tourism and hospitality industry accounts for 8.0% of the jobs in India as of 2020 and has huge growth potential, but the impending pandemic has led to the verge of several people working in these industries to lose their jobs.
India is one of the few countries digitally advanced countries that have enough features to plan a trip in terms of all bookings and reservations before commencing the journey. Rise in middle class in India and the increasing need for spending on luxury and travel have supported the growth of domestic tourism to a greater extent.
As the industry resumes its operation after the pandemic, there might be possible considerations for incurring the previous losses due to the pandemic.
Travellers perceptions and expectations post pandemic are beyond identification and will be unpredictable as to how they’ll react and what they expect in terms of safety and hygiene standards.
People are already planning for trips by the end of 2020 as the travel restrictions are being lifted slowly.
The industry has to revive itself and the economy and the time frame for the same will be incalculable and the industry has to get itself buckled up for the bumpy ride ahead until a vaccine is widely available.
Private villas and their separated owners is another unsung story during the pandemic, while not being able to physically look after their villas and reinvigorate them to the new normal in addition to the losses that they are already sustaining. Staycations were one of the popular pickups of this generation, might quickly even resume after the pandemic.
The market size of Tourism in India is huge and it is estimated that business accomodations contribute a major share and leisure coming next.
Foreign exchange earnings in India for the year 2019 were 29.96 billion USD which has drastically fallen in 2020.
Civilian Aviation is another major interlinked department that has gotten into crisis this year. On and off traveling guidelines and the halt of flights both domestic and international have cast a thwack on this department too.
How to overcome the crisis after everything goes back to how it was?
- It is essential to focus on enriching customer experience and giving them a sense of assurance during their stay. Everything that corresponds to the new normal will have to be adapted. Social distancing has led to a vast change in people’s mindsets and customers’ values and ideologies must be respected.
- There might be changes in the pattern of any kind in the behavior of customers after the pandemic, say there might be an increase in people wanting to travel to relieve themselves of the tension created during this period or there might be a drop in the number of people wanting to travel.
- Focus on customer experience like dropping quick meal menus, planning ahead of the schedule for employees, packaging, cleanliness and safety during food delivery, multiple options for accessing the services and making everything seamless and contactless should be emphasized.
Analyzing before jumping to conclusions will be the paramount for success for the hospitality industry this season.
Source: IBEF
