Four Strategies Tourism Sector Can Employ to Recover Post-COVID 19

The Covid 19 pandemic has destabilized all sectors of the economy and affected their profitability. To begin with, the tourism industry is one of the most affected due to restrictions and travel bans in many countries. However, the world is containing the disease and things are taking shape slowly with some countries having started putting measures that will help the tourism sector resume its operations.The following are strategies which the tourism sector can adopt to recover post coronavirus.

Finance

There is a need for governments to work with the tourism sector and support it financially in efforts to restore the normal operations of hotels, game parks, museums, and other tourist sites. For example, governments can reduce taxes for restaurants and partner globally to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. Furthermore, the hoteliers should consider collaborating with financial institutions to acquire more funds for relaunching. But where an organization had not completed servicing loans, a new agreement of extending or postponing the payment time will be the solution. 

Moreover, it would be beneficial for the hospitality industry to plan with their suppliers on the most suitable payment terms since after reopening, the business will begin picking slowly. Also, the tourism sector can consider setting some money to offer training to the staff who had been laid off or new employees who will be recruited and ensure they can deliver effectively.

Marketing

It would be necessary for the tourism sector to restructure marketing and advertising activities. Every business that anticipates success after covid19 is supposed to be astute enough to assess how the confidence of the consumer will be improving and run strategic marketing continuously. For instance, using opinion leaders and influencers to encourage travelers to visit specific locations is likely to yield immensely.

Additionally, marketing budgets should be directed on encouraging local tourists to exploit domestic sites and nearby international markets through targeted marketing. In fact, running targeted campaigns can enable the tourism sector to start earning positive results as soon as possible. Nevertheless, care should be taken to avoid running racist campaigns that cause tourist phobia thus harming the sector.

Besides, the tourism industry should focus on the most cost-effective booking such as online. This can be implemented by creating easy booking procedures that will be displayed on websites and social media platforms.

Human resource

Most workers have been laid off while others have been sent home on unpaid leave in the tourism sector. When the Covid 19 will be contained, it is recommendable for the tourism sector to retain their staff and sign for long term mutual benefits as the business tries to gain resilience. This is important because it can be very expensive to recruit new workers who have no experience and relevant skills. Another way of keeping the workers is to create flexible working timelines, reduced working hours for some staff and ensure every team member receives some funds that can sustain him/her.

Operations

The most effective way to promote operations in the tourism sector is to permit rebooking of trips and trying as much as possible to avoid trip cancellations. This is crucial because consumer confidence will be growing gradually and sometime, they might have booked to travel but grow some fears hence opting to cancel trips. Additionally, the hoteliers should consider cooperating with event organizers to reserve hosting the events that have been postponed.

In short, the tourism sector will recover post covid19 if it implements key measures such as working with all the stakeholders to support it. These strategies includesourcing for finance from government and financial institutions. Finally, the tourism sector should focus on targeted marketing within domestic regions for it to generate profit that will allow maintaining of staff and operations returning to normalcy.