The Tourism industry is currently in a Race to Recovery. The hospitality industry all over the world is facing turbulent times across all aspects and key inbound, domestic & outbound markets are only expected to recover by the first half of next year.
Hotels all around the world are also on this difficult road to recovery. Digitalization initiatives and circumstances have forced change but also have helped the hotel industry during these challenging times. Measures like touch-less check-in & check-out services, contactless billing, touchless sanitizer dispensing centers, mobile-friendly dining menus, contactless orders, payments, and delivery options will help hoteliers to deliver responsible yet quality guest experiences.
As we prepare to live with this new normal caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Virus, sustainable prep is required across destinations regardless of how this pandemic will end. This new normal is the best time for Tourism to evolve so we can create a better place to live and unleash the rising potential of new and sustainable kinds of tourism.
This situation has largely been a restart to a lot of industries and sectors and now is the right time to start. The negative impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry can be turned into an opportunity to fix long haul challenges in the sector. Not using this time to evolve and adapt to the times would be a grave mistake and could possibly lead to the demise of tourism. Taking into account a wide range of disciplines within this industry, improving safety and fostering creative solutions seems to be the best course forward. This is the time to explore a multi-disciplinary approach to tourism across professions.
The tourism industry can no longer ignore the issue of total tourism security, which has often been called “tourism surety.” As the industry is very sensitive and it cannot afford terrorism natural or political disasters. Since the world is connected through the internet and transportation, It is sure what impacts one part of the tourism industry, in the end, will impact the entire industry.
This time the policy should evolve to control over-tourism by enforcing carrying capacity to enable social distancing to implement waste management to deal with the hazards of biomedical waste. In this new normal, the disposal of face masks, gloves, PPEs, shields, sanitizers, is another area to resolve as tourism rebounds.
To encourage responsible travel, campaigns for travellers which make them aware that tourism development focuses on the needs of the local community and the preservation of their traditional way of life but facilitate access to urban conveniences that helps to pave the way for sustainability and resilience.
Tourism policies must evolve to create a COVID-ready, sustainable, resilient destination, to gradually unleash the country’s immense tourism potential of the travel and tourism industry.
Editor
Rajani. A
