Impact of COVID-19 on Customer Service Practices in Tourism Industry: A Study on Travelodge Group

FOUNDATION YEAR
RESEARCH PROJECT

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................3
Topic and organization................................................................................................................3
Introduction or background of research.......................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Objectives....................................................................................................................................3
Research issue..............................................................................................................................3
Research question........................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................4
Timeline.......................................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 3- LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................7
CHPATER 4- FINDINGS...............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION-............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................2
Questionnaire...............................................................................................................................2

CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION
Topic and organization
To analyse the impact of COVID-19 on customer service practices in tourism industry; A
study on Travelodge group.
Introduction or background of research.
Tourism industry is one of the leading progressive sectors in the world, that contribute to
increase GDP, in term of enhancing customer satisfaction level by providing the best
accommodation and other forms of tourism services. This sector has been affected from COVID-
19 factor, that lead to decrease organizations operational effectiveness (Mohanty and et.al.,
2022). The current research project will be based on Travelodge group, which falls under the
category of top 10 tourism organizations in the UK. The study will highlight the research
approaches used to collect information about impact of pandemic on customer service practice of
chosen organization.
Aim
The aim of current study is to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on consumer service
practice of Travelodge group.
Objectives
 To analyse impact of Covid 19 on tourism industry.
 To study customer service practices in Travelodge group.
 To analyse the impact of Covid-19 on customer service practices in Travelodge group
 To recommend strategies to Travelodge group to further improve customer service
practices after Pandemic.
Research issue.
The research issue is COVID-19 that affect customer service practices within organization
such as Travelodge and overall tourism industry adversely. This external factor has affected the
whole world and become a reason to decrease the customer service and other form of operational
efficiency of companies in chosen industry (Škare, Soriano and Porada-Rochoń, 2021). This
research issue will drive the attention of researcher toward conducting appropriate investigation
by using some specific and effective research approaches such as primary and secondary data
collection, inductive research approach, etc.

Research question.
 What is the impact of Covid 19 on tourism sector?
 What is customer service practices in Travelodge group?
 What are the impact of pandemic on customer service practices in Travelodge group?
CHAPTER 2- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research type-
Research will take initiative to select specific research type, among two such as
qualitative and quantitative (Hafidz and Elihami, 2021). They will choose qualitative research
type for purpose of collection and examining non-numerical data.
Research approach-
Scholar will select inductive research approach as it is suitable to conduct qualitative
investigation based on specific topic such as to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on customer
service operation of Travelodge group.
Research philosophy-
Interpretivism is one of those research philosophy approaches that researcher will
initiative to select in order to focus on collecting info about how and in which extent or manner
COVID-19 impact customer service practice.
Research design-
Researcher will initiative to select particular research design and that is descriptive,
which drive their attention toward gathering information related to pandemic that impact
customer service practices in Travelodge group.
Data collection-
Scholar will initiative to use secondary and primary data collection methods, that will
allow them to collect data by using varied sources such as publish articles, books, survey, etc.
Sampling-
In order to collect relevant data about topic, they will select simple random sampling and
gather information from 20 managers of Travelodge group.
Data analysis-
Thematic data analysis approach research will select to analyse the gather data and
specify how pandemic impact customer service practice of Travelodge group, that operate in
tourism sector.