COVID-19 Impact on Australian Hospitality: HAT302 Investigation

This investigation report, prepared for HAT302 Food and Beverage Management, examines the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian hospitality industry. The report delves into the challenges faced by the sector, particularly concerning food and beverage quality control and safety. It highlights examples of how businesses, such as Fish at Rocks and RST Seafood Restaurant, have adapted to the pandemic by implementing measures like contactless sanitizers, staff training, and outdoor dining options. The report also analyzes key regulations and laws enforced by the Australian government, focusing on masks, sanitization, social distancing, hygienic food standards, housekeeping, and employee health. It provides recommendations for commercial hospitality enterprises like Bluegum, suggesting business model adaptations (e.g., fine dining), adherence to new regulations, enhanced staff training, and the adoption of contactless systems to mitigate risks and ensure customer safety. The report underscores the importance of prioritizing food safety and hygiene to regain customer trust and ensure long-term success in the post-pandemic environment.

Investigation Report
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Table of Contents
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Some examples in the hospitality sector that senior management should take under
advisement. .................................................................................................................................4
Key regulations or laws in Australia for local commercial hotel................................................5
Recommendations ......................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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Executive Summary
There are various hospitality example that the senior management should take under
advisement such as installing contactless sanitizer machines, providing the staff with gloves and
masks, making the provision of outside dining. Also various innovative measures can be taken to
attract as well as stopping the spread of virus. Bluegum can also place plastic and glass partition
to make it attractive. There are various key laws and regulations of Australia that the local
commercial hotels have to take into consideration relating to health and safety of staff and
guests. Also, some solutions are being proposed to minimize and eliminate any food and
beverage quality and safety risks associated with seafood buffet dining.
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MAIN BODY
Some examples in the hospitality sector that senior management should take under advisement.
The hospitality sector is one of the broadest category of service providing sector and
hotel are among the most premium service providers and has to take care of health, safety, food
quality. The hotel industry was already facing many issues such as cross contamination, food
poisoning, regarding health and safety but this time it has been extreme as the pandemic has hit
the world very badly and all the industries are been impacted. The hotel industry from onwards
has to take extra measures and precautions as people are not comfortable and fear to move out in
hotels for stay or for having food.
After Covid-19 all the hotels and restaurants are taking extra precautions and also government
have made certain changes regarding the operations of the hotels (Chowdhury. and et.al 2020).
There are few recent examples of this industry that the senior management of Blue gum should
take under advisement such as :
Fish at rocks is a seafood restaurant – As the government of Australia has put restrictions
and ban on the buffet dining therefore this restaurant Fish at rock serves the seafood as a
takeaway and take all the precautions related to Covid-19. All the staff wears masks and
maintain social distancing at the restaurants. They have also put a contactless sanitizer machine
at the entry of the restaurant and it is a good idea which Bluegum can also undertake. Bluegum
can also install a contactless sanitizer machine at the entrance of their restaurant.
RST Seafood Restaurant – This restaurant has provided various equipments and gloves to
their staff to stop the spread of the virus and also put posters at the hand washing areas. And also
provided them training regarding
Melba Restaurant – Melba restaurant have given a provision of outdoor dining and have
redeveloped their seating plans at larger distances. Bluegum can also provide such outside dining
spaces to avoid close contacts.
There are various other restaurants and hotel that have implemented very innovative
ways to attract the customers and gain their trust post Covid-19. Some restaurants have made
plastic and glass partition while eating to stop the spread of virus. This is a very innovative
technique which is also attractive for the customers and also to take precautions and measures
for pandemic.
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Also many restaurants have installed an LED and have fed all the menu to avoid the contact with
the menu provided in a hard copy format. In this way the customers have the convenience and
also touching at the menu by different people can also be avoided.
Key regulations or laws in Australia for local commercial hotel
There are various key regulations and laws in Australia that the local commercial hotel
like Bluegum has to take into consideration as Australia was among the hotspot of the Covid-19
and many people were affected by the same. Therefore, to deal with this havoc government of
Australia has framed certain laws and regulations for hotel which are as follows:
Regulation related to masks, sanitization and social distancing – Government has
advised the hotel regarding masks as all the staff and guest has to wear the masks and have to
maintain proper distance when interacting and talking. No more than specific number of guests
must be present at one place. And the hotel should put hand washing stations at frequent
distance. Also, the staff must be trained to disinfect the frequently touched objects such as doors
and handles. The hotel staff should wear proper gloves and masks when serving the food at the
restaurant. The staff should also be trained and advised not to shake hands with the guests. The
management of the hotel can also put certain posters and signals at certain places to make the
guest aware about the laws and rules related to pandemic.
Regulations related to hygienic food – The Australian food regulatory system has
developed certain food standards and it is enforced by state and territory governments. These
safety standards takes into account the domestic policy guidelines and if the hotel is improving
certain sea food then they should also follow the food standard code which are there on the
borders. All the food that is imported by the hotel must meet the Australia's biosecurity
requirements and also should cover the food safety requirement of Imported Food Control act,
1992 (Lindley, 2019). Maintaining proper hygiene by the hotel staff can also improve the brand
image and can also reduce the burden of penalties. The hotel should put more focus on fine
dining and takeaway rather than the buffet dining as government has put many restrictions
regarding buffet dining and in some places they have put a ban too.
Regulations related to housekeeping – The hotel should train their staff regarding
cleaning of rooms and changing the covers and bedsheets after every check-in and check-out and
all other related services. The bathroom of the hotels must be properly clean and sanitized and
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adequate sanitizer, soap and other things must be provided to the guests. Also the Australian
department of health updates regularly on their page related to medical advise and reports.
Regulations relating to employees – Government has advised the hotel staff to
undertake risk assessment of all the staff and proper medication must be done of all the staff.
The information regarding the health of the staff must be updated to the authorized government
(Moloney. and Moloney, 2020). Also, the staff must be advised to keep the updates of all the
regulations of the government through the website and relevant local sites and state health
department.
Recommendations
As there are various challenges that the buffet dining restaurants are facing as
government has put a ban on buffet service, also the customers are very much concerned about
the hygiene and safety, also there is food safety risks (Garcia Garcia, 2019) . There are three
solutions to minimize and eliminate the food and beverage quality and safety risks associated
with seafood buffet dining:
The business can switch their business models – One solution to cope up with this
pandemic and to attract the customers is that Blue gum can change its business model which
means they can change their business model of buffet dining to fine dining, or they can also opt
for takeaways for their restaurants. As in buffet dining there have already been cases of food
poisoning and due to this pandemic people are all the more concerned about social distancing
and restaurants to gain the trust of people. Bluegum hotel should provide their guest a fine
experience of high quality food and services with extra measures and precautions regarding
sanitization and hygiene. As after these hard times it is the new normal and therefore bluegum
for its long term success can look upto changing their business model. In buffet system there is
close physical contact between people and by this there is risk of spreading of virus.
Embracing the new regulations – Bluegum hotel should also adhere to the new laws
and regulations established by the government related to Covid-19. There are many laws and
regulations that Bluegum should follow such as they should give training to their food safety
supervisor and also be food audit ready (Le. and Phi, 2020). The hotel also have to follow laws
of world health safety. Health screening has to conducted of the guest arriving in the hotel
especially from other countries and proper sanitization facilities must be provided so avoid the
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spread of the disease and advising the guest to wear masks by the Bluegum staff. The hotel
should also keep certain packets of masks and other precautionary items in case the guest
misplaces or forgets to bring.
Also, the restaurant staff should ensure that the seafood that they are offering is safe and
hygienic and the quality of the seafood is as per the government specification.
Hotel should bring in new regulations that promote contact less check-ins and check-outs and
also payments. Also, the hotel management and staff should keep a constant touch with the local
and health authority of Australia.
Hiring and training more staff – The hotel should provide proper training of their staff
regarding sanitization and various ways to disinfect the areas which are being frequently
touched. They should be given training to wear appropriate gloves and masks and other
equipments when serving the guests. They should be trained to take extra precaution when
making the sea food and hygiene should be maintained properly (Bourgeault. and et.al 2020). In
case of shortage the hotel should hire staff that is well aware of the post pandemic rules and
safety measures. Competent personnel must be hired by the hotel who can keep the database of
all the guest and knows how to operate the software to do the same.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bourgeault, I.L. and et.al 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to develop
more sustainable health workforces. Human Resources for Health. 18(1). pp.1-8.
Chowdhury, M.T. and et.al 2020. A case study on strategies to deal with the impacts of COVID-
19 pandemic in the food and beverage industry. Operations Management Research.
pp.1-13.
Garcia Garcia, S., 2019. Policy disconnections in the regulation of sustainable seafood in
Australia (Doctoral dissertation).
Le, D. and Phi, G., 2020. Strategic responses of the hotel sector to COVID-19: Toward a refined
pandemic crisis management framework. International Journal of Hospitality
Management. p.102808.
Lindley, J., 2019. Sustainably Sourced Seafood: A Criminological Approach to Reduce Demand
for Illegal Seafood Supply. In Sustainability and the Humanities (pp. 407-420).
Springer, Cham.
Moloney, K. and Moloney, S., 2020. Australian Quarantine Policy: From centralization to
coordination with mid‐Pandemic COVID‐19 shifts. Public Administration Review.
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