Impact of Covid 19 on Business and Tourism Industry: A Study on Virgin Holidays

This research project aims to identify the impact of Covid 19 on business and tourism industry while ensuring their future sustainability. The study focuses on Virgin Holidays and their ways to overcome problems associated with future sustainability. Findings suggest that implementing sustainable practices can enhance brand image and value in the market.

Foundation Year Research Project
(To identify the impact of Covid 19 along with problems
facing by business and tourism industry while ensuring their
future sustainability)
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Contents
STAGE 1: PLANNING...................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Research aim and objectives........................................................................................................3
Research problem........................................................................................................................3
Research question........................................................................................................................4
Research methodology.................................................................................................................4
STAGE 2: CARRYOUT RESEARCH...........................................................................................7
Secondary data collection............................................................................................................7
How Covid 19 is impacting on UK business and tourism industry?.......................................7
What are the problems facing by business and tourism industry while ensuring their future
sustainability?..........................................................................................................................7
What are the ways that could use by Virgin Holidays for overcoming problems associated
with future sustainability?........................................................................................................7
Findings.......................................................................................................................................8
STAGE 3: SUBMIT A WRITTEN PROJECT REPORT THAT SHOWS THE RESEARCH
FINDINGS.....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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STAGE 1: PLANNING
Introduction
Future sustainability means acquiring the resources in such a way that current needs and
wants are being fulfilled by keeping in mind the needs of future generation. Before the hit of
pandemic Covid 19, travel and tourism industry is one of the vital sector in developing the
economy as well as for future sustainability. When the Covid 19 occurs it becomes very difficult
for the business especially tourism sector to manage their resources so that they can ensure
sustainability. There are three pillars of sustainability that is economy, social and environmental
and these pillar stands for profit, people and planet. After the era of Covid 19 business
performance and productivity impacted a lot as managing them in effective manner become
problematic and challenging. To know the impact of Covid 19 on future sustainability the chosen
travel and tourism organisation is Virgin holiday. The organisation was founded in 1985 and the
founder is Richard Branson. The firms operate their operation all over the world and some of
their subsidiaries are Virgin, holiday Cruises, Travel city direct etc. The companies headquarter
is in Crawely, England. The countries in which they do business are US, Africa, Canada etc.
Research aim and objectives
Research Aim:
To identify the impact of Covid 19 along with problems facing by business and tourism industry
while ensuring their future sustainability: A study on Virgin Holidays
Research Objectives:
 To determine the impact of Covid 19 on UK business and tourism industry
 To identify the problems facing by business and tourism industry while ensuring their
future sustainability.
 To determine the ways that could use by Virgin Holidays for overcoming problems
associated with future sustainability
Research problem
The main research problem that is faces on selected organisation is the impact of Covid
19 on their performance and productivity. It is due to decrease in their customer base after the
global pandemic. The sector is not able to improve their performance because the Crisis is so
worst that maintaining the needs of current is not possible which in turn the wants of future
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generation cannot be fulfilled. The buyers are least interested to go out instead they are more
concerned towards their health. The amount that they are spending prior on travelling is now
being utilise in other areas which impact the profit and revenue of travel and tourism sector.
Research question
 What are the impact of Covid 19 on UK business and tourism industry?
 What are the problems facing by business and tourism industry while ensuring their
future sustainability?
 What are the ways that could use by Virgin Holidays for overcoming problems associated
with future sustainability?
Research methodology
Research methodology is a systematic process of identifying, analysing and interpreting
the data in such a way that researcher can know what type of data is collected and how it is being
analysed. This section helps the investigator to gather valid and reliable information in order to
attain aim and objectives. There are various steps of research methodology, which are discussed
with the help of Onion framework.
Research philosophy: It can be defined as a set of belief and principle about the type of
data that is need to be gathered. They are classified into two form i.e., positivism and
Interpretivism (Snyder, 2019). Positivism philosophy gathers quantitative information in form of
number and Interpretivism collects qualitative data in words or statement. In present
investigation Interpretivism philosophy will be selected to obtain qualitative data.
Research approach: In this step the approach is selected for testing the hypothesis or
theories. Deductive and inductive are two approach, deductive approach test existing theories
and Interpretivism test new hypothesis and theories. In current research Inductive approach will
be chosen to test new theories which are in the form of qualitative.
Research strategy: There are different strategies which can be used to collect information
from respondent. Survey, systematic literature review, case study, action research and many
more are the kinds of research strategy (Kumar, 2018). As per the investigator, literature review
research strategy would be selected to obtain detail data about the study.
Research choice: Quantitative and qualitative are the choice to gather information. In
foremost numerical data is collected and in later non numerical information in form of words or
statement is gathered (Ragab and Arisha, 2018). Further they are sub divided into Mono method,
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Multi method and mixed method. In current investigation the research choice is qualitative and
the sub part is mono method because only single data type is to be obtained.
Time horizon: It is the time framework which is used to know the point of time at which
information need to be collected. They are of two types that is cross sectional and longitudinal.
Cross sectional collected data in shorter time and longitudinal gathers data in longer time
duration (Babii, 2020). As per the topic cross sectional time horizon will be chosen because
examiner wants information at single time in shorter time framework.
Data collection: Data collection is the method of gathering information from various
sources. Primary and secondary are the two data source. The foremost collects fresh data which
is collected directly from the participants and later gathers second hand data. In present
investigation secondary data source will be selected to gather data (Novikov and Novikov,
2019). The sources through which secondary data is gathered are books, journal, online site etc.
Time plan (Gantt chart):
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STAGE 2: CARRYOUT RESEARCH
Secondary data collection
How Covid 19 is impacting on UK business and tourism industry?
According to Lee, Weaver and Prebensen (2017), pandemic has created a great impact on
the business growth and profitability. It influences the functioning and performance due to which
business face severe loss. The crisis has created a large impact on UK business by influencing
the sale and profitability of companies. Key driver of tourism industry in UK are trade fairs,
concerts, sports events and local festivals. But due to pandemic, hotels, restaurants, themes parks
and tourist places gets closed due to which businesses have to suffer severe loss.
What are the problems facing by business and tourism industry while ensuring their future
sustainability?
As per the viewpoint of Coghlan (2019), there are various problems which are faced by
business and tourism industry while ensuring their future sustainability such as population
diversity, inequality, environmental degradation, health and wellness, reducing wastage and
globalization. These are the issues which can influence the decision and growth of business. By
implementing sustainability practices, company can expand their business and also attract large
number of customers towards the brand (Penz, Hofmann and Hartl, 2017). It is important for the
company to focus on the health and wellness of staff and guest in order to create positive and
safe working environment.
What are the ways that could use by Virgin Holidays for overcoming problems associated
with future sustainability?
As per the opinion of Dembovska and Zvaigzne (2021), there are various ways through
which company can overcome the problems which are associated with future sustainability such
as use sustainability as unique selling point, think long term, offer medical facilities and doctor
consultancy, disrupt old business model and also improve management skills. Through
overcoming these problems company can implement sustainable practices in effective manner
and also gain competitive advantage in future. It also helps in increasing the brand image and
reputation of company in UK market.
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Findings
As per the above information it is being identified that COVID 19 has hard hit the
functioning and profitability of business due to which companies have to suffer severe loss. In
order to attract the customers and make business successful in market it is necessary to focus on
implementing sustainable practice (Malheiro and et. al., 2020). Sustainability plays a vital role in
improving the performance and growth of business. There are various benefits which can be
gained by company through implementing right sustainable practice such as it enhances brand
image and also increases the chances to gain competitive advantage, improve financial and
investment opportunity, increase employee retention and recruitment, minimize carbon risk and
improve energy efficiency and also it helps in enhancing the productivity of business and reduce
costs.
Figure 1: How global tourism can become more sustainable, inclusive and resilient
(Source: Ahmed Al-Khateeb, 2021)
By implementing sustainable practice, company can increase their ability to comply with
regulations and make shareholders happy (Costa, Rodrigues and Gomes, 2019). But there are
various challenges which are associated while implementing sustainable practices such as health
and wellness, security and cross border regulations, globalization and many others. It is
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necessary for company to focus on overcoming these issues as it influence the growth and brand
reputation of business. The company can overcome the issues by offering medical facilities and
using sustainability practices as a tool to attract guest.
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STAGE 3: SUBMIT A WRITTEN PROJECT REPORT THAT SHOWS THE
RESEARCH FINDINGS.
It is being concluded form the above information that sustainability helps in improving
the performance and sale of business. Through implementing sustainability practice, company
can enhance its brand image and value in market. It also helps in attracting large number of
customers towards the company and enhances the profitability of business. The role of
sustainable tourism is to reduce the negative impact from environment and contribute to the
overall development of economy. Sustainable tourism helps in bringing positive experience for
tourism companies and also generate future employment for local people.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Babii, A., 2020. Important aspects of the experimental research methodology. Вісник
Тернопільського національного технічного університету, 97(1), pp.77-87.
Coghlan, A., 2019. Challenges to Implementing Sustainability Practices in Tourism.
Costa, J., Rodrigues, D. and Gomes, J., 2019. Sustainability of tourism destinations and the
importance of certification. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Dembovska, I. and Zvaigzne, A., 2021. Sustainability and its challenges in destinations that
highly depend on tourism: a thematic literature review. Worldwide Hospitality and
Tourism Themes.
Kumar, R., 2018. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.
Lee, Y. S., Weaver, D. and Prebensen, N .K. eds., 2017. Arctic tourism experiences: Production,
consumption and sustainability. CBI.
Malheiro, A and et. al., 2020. Sustainability In Tourism And Hospitality: Trends And
Challenges. In 35th IBIMA Conference Education Excellence and Innovation
Management: A 2025 Vision to Sustain Economic Development during Global
Challenges (pp. 15545-15555). IBIMA.
Novikov, A.M. and Novikov, D.A., 2019. Research methodology: From philosophy of science to
research design. CRC Press.
Penz, E., Hofmann, E. and Hartl, B., 2017. Fostering sustainable travel behavior: Role of
sustainability labels and goal-directed behavior regarding touristic
services. Sustainability, 9(6), p.1056.
Ragab, M.A. and Arisha, A., 2018. Research methodology in business: A starter’s
guide. Management and Organizational Studies, 5(1), pp.1-14.
Snyder, H., 2019. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and
guidelines. Journal of business research, 104, pp.333-339.
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