Challenges Faced by Tourism Industry due to COVID-19: A Study on TUI

This research project aims to evaluate the challenges faced by the tourism industry due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on TUI and aims to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on its business performance and the strategies adopted by TUI to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 on its business performance.

FOUNDATION YEAR PROJECT
(To determine the challenges faced by
tourism industry over its operations and
functions due to outbreak of global
pandemic COVID-19. A study on TUI)

Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................3
Research topic.............................................................................................................................3
Research background..................................................................................................................3
Research aim...............................................................................................................................3
Research objective......................................................................................................................3
Problem of the research...............................................................................................................3
Research Questions.....................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................5
Research methodology................................................................................................................5
Gantt Chart..................................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................8
What are the challenges faced by TUI over its operations and functions due to outbreak of
global pandemic COVID-19?.....................................................................................................8
What is the impact of COVID-19 over business performance of TUI?......................................8
What are the strategies adopted by TUI to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 over
business performance?................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 4: SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................................9
Presentation of findings...............................................................................................................9
Summarisation of findings........................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Research topic
To evaluate the challenges faced by tourism industry over its operations and functions
due to outbreak of global pandemic COVID-19.
Research background
The background of the research is to determine the issues which are faced by tourism
industry due to the outbreak of pandemic. Tourism industry is one of the growing industry but
the crisis has created a great impact on the performance and growth of industry (Škare, Soriano
and Porada-Rochoń, 2021). The chosen organisation for this investigation is TUI, it is a travel
and tourism company that deals in varieties of services including charter and scheduled
passenger airlines, cruise lines, package holidays and hotels and resorts.
Research aim
To determine the challenges faced by tourism industry over its operations and functions
due to outbreak of global pandemic COVID-19. A study on TUI
Research objective
 To examine the challenges faced by TUI over its operations and functions due to outbreak
of global pandemic COVID-19
 To analyse the impact of COVID-19 over business performance of TUI
 To discern the strategies adopted by TUI to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19
over business performance
Problem of the research
The problem which is identified within this research is that due to pandemic tourism
industry faces issue related to managing operational and functional activities of business.
COVID 19 has influenced the function and operation activity of tourism industry which leads to
poor performance and productivity (Yeh, 2021). The outbreak has create a negative impact on
the tourism industry as they were not able to survive in competitive environment and also face
difficulty for attracting potential customers. Thus, this investigation is gong to identify the
challenges faced by tourism industry due to crisis. These issues creates a great impact on the

business performance and growth due to which it becomes challenging to achieve the goals and
gain competitive advantage in market.
Research Questions
 What are the challenges faced by TUI over its operations and functions due to outbreak of
global pandemic COVID-19?
 What is the impact of COVID-19 over business performance of TUI?
 What are the strategies adopted by TUI to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 over
business performance?

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
Research methodology
Research methodology is a process of gathering, analysing and interpreting the
information by using different research methods. Within the current research, investigator has
used qualitative research method for gathering and accumulating the information related to the
research study (Yates and Leggett, 2016).
Qualitative research method:
Qualitative research method is a procedure of carrying out theoretical information that
helps researcher to attain the research aim and objective in effective and efficient manner. This
method focuses on collecting non-numerical data as per the need and requirement of this
research. Through using qualitative research method, researcher can avail in-depth knowledge
about the chosen study and also helps in generating new concept and ideas (Moen and
Middelthon, 2015). For gathering the information by using using qualitative research method,
investigator has focuses on choosing systematic literature review as it assist in collecting valid
and relevant information related to the current subject matter.
Secondary research method:
Investigator has also focuses on choosing secondary research method in order to
accumulate and gather information related to the selected topic. This method helps in collecting
and gathering second hand information in appropriate manner. The reason behind selecting
secondary research method is that it helps in accumulating information through using different
sources including newspapers, publications, books, articles, already conducted survey, interview,
and many others (Hill, 2015). Another reason for choosing secondary research method is that
investigator can carry out research gap in efficient way.
Gantt Chart
Gantt Chart is a graphical representation that depicts about the project schedule. It
generally focuses on showing the tart and finish dates of different project elements including
planning, resources and dependencies. Gantt Chart is designed by Henry Gantt, he was an
American mechanical engineer. Project managers generally uses Gantt Chart for building and
managing comprehensive project, determine logistic and task dependencies and monitoring
progress of project (Ong, Wang and Zainon, 2016). Through Gantt Chart, project managers can

create complicated plans in easy manner and also it helps team members to work around
deadlines and allocate the resources properly.

CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is an important chapter that provides detailed and valid information
related to the chosen topic by using different scholarly sources such as books, articles, journals,
newspaper and many others.
What are the challenges faced by TUI over its operations and functions due to outbreak of global
pandemic COVID-19?
According to the perspective of Yang and et. al., (2021), there are various challenges
which are faced by tourism company over its operation and functions due to outbreak of global
pandemic. These issues creates a great impact on the business performance and growth of
business. The few challenges which influence the operation and functioning of business due to
pandemic are health and wellness of employees, re-opening challenges, technology and
attracting and retaining staff.
What is the impact of COVID-19 over business performance of TUI?
According to Yan and et. al., (2022), pandemic has created a great impact on the
performance and productivity of tourism company. The pandemic has created positive as well as
negative impact on the business performance of TUI. COVID 19 has hit the profitability and
productivity of business. Organisation also faces issues related to retaining and engaging
employees during pandemic as they were switching their job due to lack of income and resources
(Ocheni and et. al., 2020). The positive impact which is created by pandemic over business
performance is that company can implement new technology and also develop new strategies for
attracting employees and customers.
What are the strategies adopted by TUI to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 over
business performance?
As per the opinion of Shubtsova and et. al., (2020), there are various strategies which can
be adopted by tourism company for reducing the negative impact of pandemic over business
performance such as adopting new technologies, considering new health and safety guidelines
and engaging customers actively. These are the few strategies which helps in improving the
business performance of TUI due to pandemic.

CHAPTER 4: SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS
Presentation of findings
According to the assembled information in literature review it is being identified that
tourism industry faces various issues in pandemic due to which the profitability and growth of
business decreases. The functioning and operation activity of tourism company gets affected due
to COVID 19 as they were not able to run their business activity in systematic manner. The
growth of tourism industry is based on the customers. But due to the restriction it becomes
challenging to attract customers and improve its profitability (Butler, 2022). The outbreak of
pandemic creates great influence on the business performance by changing the perception of
customers, absence of foreign travel, loss of productivity and profitability, security issues and
lack of development and many business hurdles. The functions and operation of tourism industry
is also affected by the pandemic as company were not able to operate and run their business in
effective and efficient manner due to which it becomes difficult to attract and retain customers.
The above graphical representation illustrates that TUI faces huge loss due to pandemic
which creates an impact on its operation and functioning of business. In 2019, the revenue
generated by TUI is €18,928.1 million. But due to pandemic, the revenue generation capacity of
TUI get reduced which creates a great impact on the business performance.

Summarisation of findings
According to the accumulated information from the above literature review it is being
summarised that tourism industry faces various issues in pandemic which influence their
operation and functioning activity. The challenges which are faced by tourism industry are travel
restriction, decrease in productivity and performance, security issues and many others. These
challenges creates a negative impact on the business. It becomes difficult to attract and retain
employees during pandemic as they were more focused on their safety and security (Dube,
Nhamo and Chikodzi, 2021). The other challenge which is faced by TUI is re-opening challenge
as they have plan and frame new strategies in order to operate and run the functioning of
business in effective and efficient manner. There are few strategies which can be implemented
by tourism industry in order to overcome the impact of pandemic on operation and function of
business are adopting new technology, formulating new health and safety policies and engaging
customers actively. Through using these strategies, company can mitigate the issues and also
improve business performance.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
It is being concluded from the above information that pandemic has affected the
profitability of business due to which it becomes difficult to survive in competitive environment
and attract more and more customer towards the brand. Thus, by adopting new strategies,
company can overcome the issues faced by pandemic and also run their business function in
significant manner. These strategies helps in enhancing the business productivity and
performance due to which company can stay in market for long run and deal with the negative
impact of pandemic.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Butler, R., 2022. COVID-19 and its potential impact on stages of tourist Destination
Development. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(10), pp.1682-1695.
Dube, K., Nhamo, G. and Chikodzi, D., 2021. COVID-19 pandemic and prospects for recovery
of the global aviation industry. Journal of Air Transport Management, 92, p.102022.
Hill, C. E., 2015. Consensual qualitative research (CQR): methods for conducting psychotherapy
research. In Psychotherapy research (pp. 485-499). Springer, Vienna.
Moen, K. and Middelthon, A. L., 2015. Qualitative research methods. In Research in medical
and biological sciences (pp. 321-378). Academic Press.
Ocheni, S .I and et. al., 2020. Covid-19 and the tourism industry: Critical overview, lessons and
policy options.
Ong, H. Y., Wang, C. and Zainon, N., 2016. Integrated earned value Gantt chart (EV-Gantt) tool
for project portfolio planning and monitoring optimization. Engineering Management
Journal, 28(1), pp.39-53.
Shubtsova, L. V and et. al., 2020. Supporting the tourism industry in the context of the
coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis: Social tourism and public-private
partnership. Journal of Environmental Management & Tourism, 11(6), pp.1427-1434.
Škare, M., Soriano, D .R. and Porada-Rochoń, M., 2021. Impact of COVID-19 on the travel and
tourism industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 163, p.120469.
Yan, Y and et. al., 2022. Can tourism sustain itself through the pandemic: nexus between
tourism, COVID-19 cases and air quality spread in the ‘Pineapple
State’Hawaii. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(3), pp.421-440.
Yang, T. T and et. al., 2021. The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism demand for
destinations: an analysis of spatial heterogeneity from a multi-scale perspective. Asia
Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 26(7), pp.793-810.
Yates, J. and Leggett, T., 2016. Qualitative research: An introduction. Radiologic
technology, 88(2), pp.225-231.
Yeh, S. S., 2021. Tourism recovery strategy against COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism Recreation
Research, 46(2), pp.188-194.