Hospitality, Leisure, and Travel Industry: Challenges Post COVID-19

This essay examines the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality, leisure, and travel industries, which are vital contributors to the global economy. It highlights the significant challenges arising from travel restrictions, lockdowns, and health concerns, leading to job losses and revenue decline. The essay also explores positive aspects, such as reduced air pollution and waste, and the industry's adaptation through enhanced safety measures and strategies. Ultimately, the report emphasizes the need for effective strategies to navigate the pandemic's effects and facilitate the industry's recovery, with an anticipated return to pre-pandemic levels in the coming years. Desklib provides access to this essay and many other resources for students.

Essay

Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................3
References .......................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
The hospitality industry is one of the most growing industry around the globe offering
primarily foods services and accommodations in place like hotels, resorts, conferences centres and
so on. These industries largely contribute to the growth and development of the economy through
offering employment opportunities to around around the globe and also effectively contributing to
the global GDP (Hospitality and tourism industry amid COVID-19 pandemic, 2021). The outbreak
of covid-19 has directly impacted the global economy and almost all the industry sectors including
the hospitality and travel industry. The hospitality and travel industry are considered to the one of
the most affected industries due to the lock-down and travelling restrictions. It has led to millions of
job losses and directly impacting their profitability and performance. Increasing number of Covid
cases has created a number of challenges for the hospitality and travel industry as travel restriction
lead to directly impacting the profitability and productivity of the industry. This essay highlights
various challenges faced by the hospitality leisure and travel industry due to the global pandemic
Covid-19. This essay includes the detailed analysis of the challenges faced by the industry along
with their overall impact by positively and negatively. In addition to this the recommendation in
order the challenges faced by the industry will also be highlighted in this report.
Main Body
The increasing cases of COVID 19 through the world has lead to the human tragedy, directly
affecting the health of thousand of people around the globe. The consequences of the various steps
taken in order to edge the global pandemic covid 19 are creating directly impact on the global
economy (Agarwal, 2021) The increasing rise in the cases of COVID 19 and travel restrictions
around the globe has directly impacted the Hospitality and travel industry around the globe, it has
also lead to creating challenges for the both the industry directly influencing their performance and
sale (Grabher, 2021). It has also lead to large number of employee turnover for the travel and
hospitality as well as directly impacting their growth and profitability (Fusté-Fornéand Michael,
2021). All the business organisation despite of their size and functionality are facing large number of
challenges especially the aviation, travel and hospitality sector. The global pandemic lead to the
directly impacting the revenues of the industries, leading to the workers losing their jobs (Aigbedo,
2021) (Buiand Wickens, 2021). It is become difficult for the number of organisation particular for
the small business to continue to grow and survive in the marketplace. The global pandemic lead to
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rise in the employment rate around the globe with approximately 50 million people losing jobs. In
order to follow the travel ban, closure of borders and maintain the quarantine measures most of the
workers around the globe can not go to work easily leading to directly creating impact on their
living standards, income capacity (Boyle, 2021). Due to the current global pandemic, created the
environment of uncertainty and risk, also due to this the business organisation are delaying the
investment, purchase of goods and services and hiring new employees. As per the data it is analysed
that the impact of the covid 19 had lead to majority of the workers losing their job in the hospitality
and travel industry mostly. Due to the the fear among the workers, large number of labour force or
the front line workers are moving back to their native place this has lead to creating huge challenge
for the travel and hospitality industry to retain their employees and enhance their overall
performance during the time like this (Guillet and Chu, 2021). Temporary employees will the first
one to be impacted than the impact will be felt by the permanent employees as the hospitality
industries are considered to be the hard pressed when it comes to cutting the cost. This can lead to
large number of employees leaving their industry for the ones where the cash flow is more quicker
(Cockerham, 2021). The travel and the hospitality industry are the considered to the most effected
industry among all the other industry around the globe (Khamung and Hsu, 2021). There was a
steep reduction of around 2.86 trillion dollar which is equal to around 50% revenue loss. There
growth and development in the the hostel and travel industry has been directly impacted leading to
impacting their permanent consumers also. Losing the customers has directly lead to impacting the
overall performance and profitability of the industry (Guoand Ayoun, 2021).
On the other hand, various positive attributes have also been analysed due to the impact of
covid 19 on hospitality and tourism industry. One of the positive factor that is analysed is the rapid
downfall in the air pollution (Das, Stamand Blake, 2021). As in case of the travel industry, due to
the lock-down large number of air craft's were grounded leading to reduce the air pollution. Also the
another positive impact of the current pandemic was that after the lock-down clean and pollution
free environment is observed (Opportunities and Obstacles in the Global Tourism Industry, 2021).
Because of the major concentration of tourism in the economy around the globe, large number of
tourism in the economy of many countries, large number of tourism industry were associated with
the global food market because of the low cost, leading to generate employment for the local states.
There is large amount of food waste is involved in the tourism industry (O’Connorand Assaker,
2021). But of because of the outbreak of the Covid 19, there was reduction in the food wastage and
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supply. The another positive impact of the covid 19 on the tourism industry analysed is that the trend
of natural beauty around the globe is restored also there is reduction of waste and trashes (Rosalina,
Dupre and Wang, 2021). Additionally effectively contributing to reduction in the pollution in
transporting activities. Also the increasing number of workers working from home because of the
lock-down situation also lead to reducing the air pollution (Kaurand Kaur, 2020). Because of the
lock-down activities and non operational tourism industry, lead to enhancing the environmental
quality around the globe. In addition to this, the falling trend in the tourism industry offered an
opportunity to effectively move towards the usage of renewable resources around the globe. The
government took this opportunity to create awareness about the green economy within the country
and set those on the tourist spot. After the lock-down the focus will be given on usage of vehicles
consuming renewable energy sources for the locals and international tourist in many parts of the
country (Soares, 2021). As Because of the government policy of lockdown, social distancing,
movement restriction largely number of restaurant lead the hospitality industry to re-evalaute their
safety measure and form new strategies including the safety measure for the employees and
customers. This helped many restaurants to regain the faith of their target customers and effectively
satisfy their needs and wants (Kulshreshtha, 2021). Event though it has created huge challenge for
the hotel and travel industry to maintain their position in the challenging environment, large number
of industry managed to maintain their position in the marketplace and continue to satisfy the needs
and wants of the customers and continue to grow (Behand Lin, 2021). These industries have
analysed the changing market and accordingly adopted to new strategies along with following all the
required safety measures (Carr, 2021). This helped them to enhance their performance and achieve
desired goals and objectives. It is analysed that it will take around 5-6 years for these industry to
regain their position in the marketplace and achieve competitive advantage (Bounds, 2020).
Effective measures and strategies will allow the business organisation to effectively deal with the
current pandemic (Parkand Jones, 2021).
Conclusion
From the above report it has been concludes that the outbreak of the current covid 19 has
directly impacted the profitability and performance of the hospitality and tourism industry around
the globe. It is also analysed that before the outbreak of the COVID 19, travel and tourism was
considered to the most essential sector in the global economy, contributing to around 10% of the
world GDP along with offering 320 million jobs. In case of travel industry, in 1950 around 25
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million people took foreign trips. In 2019, that number reached to 1.5 billion leading the travel and
tourism industry to become strongest. Such as, in the US, Hawaii faced the major challenges due to
the ban on travelling, one out of six people lost their jobs. Also in Florida, where the tourism
contribute to around 15 percent of the total revenue was largely impacted due to the pandemic. In
addition to this, in case of hospitality industry, this current pandemic lead to causing number
challenges for the industry leading them to face drastic changes. Such as the lock down in different
countries around the globe lead to industry facing huge fall in the reservation and huge number of
cancellation in the both leisure and business. This report helps in analysing the various challenges
faced by the travel and hospitality industry due to the outbreak of current covid 19 pandemic. This
report also helps in analysing the positive and negative impact of covid 19 on the operations and
functions of travel and hospitality industry effectively.
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References
Book & Journals
Agarwal, P., 2021. Shattered but smiling: Human resource management and the wellbeing of hotel
employees during COVID-19. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 93,
p.102765.
Aigbedo, H., 2021. Impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry: A supply chain resilience
perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 98, p.103012.
Beh, L.S. and Lin, W.L., 2021. Impact of COVID-19 on ASEAN tourism industry. Journal of Asian
Public Policy, pp.1-21.
Bounds, A.M., 2020. Bracing for the apocalypse: an ethnographic study of New York’s
‘prepper’subculture. Routledge.
Boyle, M., 2021. Human Geography: An Essential Introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Bui, P.L. and Wickens, E., 2021. Tourism industry resilience issues in urban areas during COVID-
19. International Journal of Tourism Cities.
Carr, S.J., 2021. The Topography of Wellness: How Health and Disease Shaped the American
Landscape. University of Virginia Press.
Cockerham, W.C., 2021. The social causes of health and disease. John Wiley & Sons.
Das, S., Stam, D. and Blake, A. eds., 2021. Innovations in Magazine Publishing. Routledge.
Fusté-Forné, F. and Michael, N., 2021. Limited tourism: travel bubbles for a sustainable future.
Journal of Sustainable Tourism, pp.1-18.
Grabher, B., 2021. Doing Gender in Events: Feminist Perspectives in Critical Event Studies.
Routledge.
Guillet, B.D. and Chu, A.M.C., 2021. Managing hotel revenue amid the COVID-19 crisis.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Guo, Y. and Ayoun, B., 2021. Starting a Career During a Global Pandemic: Telling Stories of
Hospitality Management Graduates’ Decision Making. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism
Education, pp.1-18.
Kaur, J. and Kaur, J., 2020. Assessing the Impact of Corona Virus (COVID-19) on Tourism and
Hospitality Industry in India-A Perspective Study. International Journal of Management
(IJM).
Khamung, R. and Hsu, P.S., 2021. Striving for a new normal after the Covid-19 pandemic: taking
small businesses at Bangsaen Beach as an example. Journal of Tourism and Cultural
Change, pp.1-17.
Kulshreshtha, S.K. ed., 2021. Virus Outbreaks and Tourism Mobility: Strategies to Counter Global
Health Hazards. Emerald Group Publishing.
O’Connor, P. and Assaker, G., 2021. COVID-19’s effects on future pro-environmental traveler
behavior: an empirical examination using norm activation, economic sacrifices, and risk
perception theories. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, pp.1-19.
Park, M. and Jones, T., 2021. Going virtual: The impact of COVID-19 on internships in tourism,
events, and hospitality education. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, pp.1-18.
Rosalina, P.D., Dupre, K. and Wang, Y., 2021. Rural tourism: A systematic literature review on
definitions and challenges. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 47, pp.134-
149.
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Soares, M.M., 2021. Design, User Experience, and Usability: UX Research and Design: 10th
International Conference, DUXU 2021, Held as Part of the 23rd HCI International
Conference, HCII 2021, Virtual Event, July 24-29, 2021, Proceedings (Vol. 12779).
Springer Nature.
Online
Hospitality and tourism industry amid COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 [Online] Available through;
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7528873/
Opportunities and Obstacles in the Global Tourism Industry, 2021 [Online] Available through;
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/73254
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