Challenges Faced by Hospitality, Leisure, and Travel Industries

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges encountered by the hospitality, leisure, and travel industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It delves into the operational, financial, and staffing impacts, highlighting the difficulties organizations faced, such as operational disruptions, financial debt, and staffing shortages. The report also explores how organizations reacted to the crisis, including decisions to shut down, innovative approaches like staycations, and adaptations in operational strategies. Furthermore, it discusses the challenges of reopening, including the need for a minimum occupancy rate to avoid losses. The conclusion emphasizes the long-term effects of the pandemic on these industries, the importance of addressing these challenges, and the role of government measures in economic recovery.

Challenges of hospitality leisure and travel industry during COVID-19

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
TASK....................................................................................................................................................3
Challenges of hospitality, leisure and travel industry during COVID................................................3
Reactions of the organizations towards the issue...............................................................................4
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality sector can be referred as among the fastest growing industry in the world.
It is important to deal with the issues and challenges seriously that arise in the industry. The
operational activities that are important in the industry are very complex and tedious to be
performed. The hospitality industry was drastically affected amidst the pandemic. The
COVID-19 pandemic has led to a downfall in the hospitality industry that has affected the
revenues and profits of the various organizations of hospitality industry in wide aspects. The
various measures to stay safe against the pandemic have led to increasing of the cost for the
hospitality industry organization. The pandemic has not just affected the hospitality industry
but also has affected the travel industry as various regions had to face a situation of complete
lockdown. The various industries were affected by the situation that had to face various
challenges in order to bring their businesses back on the track. Various organizations had
different reactions towards the pandemic and they took various measures to overcome the
losses that had incurred to the hospitality and tourism sector businesses (Bilsland, Nagy and
Smith, 2020).
Amidst COVID-19, the main motive of the government was to safeguard its citizens
in the country and further take measures to uplift the economic conditions of the various
sectors in the region. The governments have taken and shall be taking various measures in
order to sharpen the economy (Hao, Xiao and Chon, 2020).
TASK
Challenges of hospitality, leisure and travel industry during COVID
The hospitality industry was drastically affected amidst the pandemic. The COVID-19
pandemic has led to a downfall in the hospitality industry that has affected the revenues and
profits of the various organizations of hospitality industry in wide aspects. The various
measures to stay safe against the pandemic have led to increasing of the cost for the
hospitality industry organization. The various challenges faced by the hospitality
organizations are discussed below.
 Operational impact- The pandemic has affected the operation processes of the
hospitality and the tourism industry. In order to deal with the impact on the
operational activities it is necessary for the organizations to have an extended cash
flow forecasting. The organizations must plan their cash points by having provisions
for the unforeseen conditions that may occur in future. The organization can look for
various ways to reduce its expenditures upon the operational and capital expenses that
can be cut off. The organizations can switch to advance revenue management systems
and price models that will help them in responding quickly to the market (Higgins-
Desbiolles, 2020).
 Financial impact- The organizations have faced various issues related to the financial
debt and liquidity too during the pandemic. The organizations if arise in a situation of

fund requirement, then it is important for them to analyze the various funding sources
properly before taking decisions regarding the fund raising process. The organization
can choose various modes of raising funds either from the equity or debt but first they
must analyse the impacts of all the factors. The organizations must maintain
transparency towards their creditors and can involve their participation in the funds
raising sources as well as the mitigation in order to analyse the continuation of the
various funds raising issues. The organizations can switch to various funding sources
in order to fulfil short term requirements (Romagosa, 2020).
 Hiring and staffing challenging- The staff is considered the most important factor in
every industry. Just like every other industry, Human capital is considered as the most
important factor in the hospitality and tourism industry as well. The well qualified
staff can have a huge impact upon the customer service and efficiency in the
hospitality organizations that could provide higher customer satisfaction. The hiring
of well qualified and skilled employees remains a challenge for the hospitality
organizations. In order to cope with the challenges the organizations can provide the
employees with suitable and needful training for the operational activities in the
industry (Kaushal and Srivastava, 2021).
 Reopening of the organizations- The most challenging factor amidst pandemic is the
re-opening of the hospitality and tourism organization. Even after the markets open
for the hospitality sector, the organizations need to have a minimum occupancy of
40% in the organization to have a situation of no profit and no loss. Any occupancy
lower than the percentage is a situation below the break even and this interprets that
the organization is running while making losses. Also the regions still have been
facing the situation of rising cases of COVID-19. The spike in cases is a threat that
the industry can once again face a shut down. The situation has been quite dynamic
and vulnerable for the organizations to plan expansion amidst the pandemic.
Reactions of the organizations towards the issue
The hospitality industry was drastically affected amidst the pandemic. The COVID-19
pandemic has led to a downfall in the hospitality industry that has affected the revenues and
profits of the various organizations of hospitality industry in wide aspects. The various
measures to stay safe against the pandemic have led to increasing of the cost for the
hospitality industry organization. The industries to be firstly and the most affected were the
hospitality industry and the tourism industry. These industries experienced extreme downfall
all of a sudden and at present these are working upon to overcome the losses that have been
incurred in order to analyse the financial and operational impact upon various organizations
of the industries. The industries have had a huge impact in terms of revenue as well as the
supply chains. The various organizations reacted to the pandemic in various ways, some
reacted towards it in a positive manner whereas some had an adverse reaction (Nuskiya and
et.al., 2020).
Various organizations have opted for the decision to shut down their businesses due to
the adverse impact of the pandemic upon the hospitality and tourism industry. This is a

negative impact in aspect of the pandemic that might have affect employment of various
people (Thams and et.al., 2020).
There were various organizations that reacted to the pandemic in a positive manner
and raised a helping hand amidst the pandemic. The hospitality organizations had fulfilled
their commitments amidst pandemic by providing their business physical places as hospital
beds to the hospitals and the medical organizations. The various organizations came up with
the concept of staycations or the holistay concept. The concepts like staycations and holistay
were admired by people and attracted the visitors towards the concept that led to the various
new opportunities for the hospitality and tourism organizations (Yacoub and ElHajjar, 2021).
The various hospitality organizations switched upon the activities that required less
productive time as compared to the ones that were performed earlier and required more
assets, security plans, etc.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the study that COVID-19 has had huge impact upon the
hospitality and tourism industry. The various organizations have responded and reacted in
various ways towards the impact of pandemic. Some organizations have gone in a huge
downfall whereas some of the organizations have come up with various new innovations in
order to cope with the challenges and identify various opportunities of expansion. The study
highlights various challenges that have been faced by the various hospitality and tourism
industry. The various challenges include financial, operational, staffing and the reopening
challenges that need to be taken seriously by the industry. The challenges among pandemic
have been an issue in front of the government as well. The main objective of the government
has been to safeguard the residents of the region and then further take measure to uplift the
economy of the region. Though, it is very considerate that the industry will require huge
amount of time and efforts to bring the industry at the pace of performance which was there
during the phase of pre pandemic. The further measures in aspect of upliftment of the
industry are hugely dependent upon the medical treatments in the region.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Bilsland, C., Nagy, H. and Smith, P., 2020. Virtual Internships and Work-Integrated Learning
in Hospitality and Tourism in a Post-COVID-19 World. International Journal of
Work-Integrated Learning, 21(4), pp.425-437.
Hao, F., Xiao, Q. and Chon, K., 2020. COVID-19 and China’s hotel industry: Impacts, a
disaster management framework, and post-pandemic agenda. International journal of
hospitality management, 90, p.102636.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F., 2020. The “war over tourism”: challenges to sustainable tourism in
the tourism academy after COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(4), pp.551-
569.
Kaushal, V. and Srivastava, S., 2021. Hospitality and tourism industry amid COVID-19
pandemic: Perspectives on challenges and learnings from India. International Journal
of Hospitality Management, 92, p.102707.
Nuskiya, M.H.F. and et.al., 2020. Covid-19 crisis and recovery of hotel industry: a strategic
focus on tourism sector in Sri lanka.
Romagosa, F., 2020. The COVID-19 crisis: Opportunities for sustainable and proximity
tourism. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), pp.690-694.
Thams, A. and et.al., 2020. An initial assessment of economic impacts and operational
challenges for the tourism & hospitality industry due to COVID-19 (No. 2/2020).
IUBH Discussion Papers-Tourismus & Hospitality.
Yacoub, L. and ElHajjar, S., 2021. How do hotels in developing countries manage the
impact of COVID-19? The case of Lebanese hotels. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management.