“Industrial Revolution 4.0 & Technology Interventions: Gearing up the T.E.D (Tourism, Experience, and Destination”

International Web Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality

“Industrial Revolution 4.0 & Technology Interventions: Gearing up the T.E.D (Tourism, Experience, and Destination”

The third lecture themed at “Industrial Revolution 4.0 & Technology Interventions: Gearing up the T.E.D (Tourism, Experience,  Destination” of International WEB Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality was delivered by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, University of Jammu and Dr. Kandappan Balasubramanian, Associate Professor, School of Hospitality Tourism and event, Faculty of social Sciences & leisure Management (FSLM) Taylor’s University, Malaysia held on 29^th April, 2020 (Wednesday) at 1.00 pm (IST). There were 236 participants registered for this lecture including top academicians, students and research scholars of various countries like USA, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Philippines and Malaysia. This “International Web Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality” is an initiative taken by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, University of Jammu along with Dr Ramjit, Deptt of Tourism Studies, Central University of Kashmir and Mr Nikhil Singh Chark, Assistant Professor, Ambedkar University, New Delhi, India.

Mr. Nikhil Singh Charak welcomed and introduced both the experts and coordinators from Indian and Malaysia. The proceedings of the session were initiated by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas by welcoming the co -speaker of the session, Dr. Jeetesh Kumar, all participants as well as coordinators of the event.

The first speaker of the lecture was Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, who shared his valuable thoughts with the participants on the theme of the topic he suggested the R.A.P (Reactive, Active and Proactive) model for the travel and tourism industry and explained in detail the R.A.P Model with regards to the technology and how it could be used during critical issues / pandemics like COVID-19. Further he also impressed upon the fact that the memorable and positive experience may be created and designed by the resilient leaders or professionals who have to take care of New Normals.  He talked about the fact that all the employees of Tourism and Hospitality industry have to be Resilient and have to take care of their teams and workplace.

He said that modern day employees have to motivate or inspire their colleagues and also deliver quality experiences and build trust amongst the customers etc. He also urged and advised all the employers / employees of various travel agencies and scholars & students of various institutes to be curious, self-motivated and try to learn new things on daily basis.

Dr. Kandappan Balasubramanian discussed about the transition of industrial revolution right from water/steam to artificial intelligence/ robot etc. He also supported his arguments with the r examples of the various initiatives taken by hotel Sheraton Chennai and many more in the industry. He also highlighted the importance of technological intervention and quoted various examples of the aviation sector. The expert further discussed about the severity of tourism, highlighted the critical issue of COVID-19 crisis and reflection. He suggested that there is going to be a shift towards digitalization especially with regards to the digital engagements and how all the prospective customers engage and may be based on the various travel and tourism products and services they consume. He also emphasised that the hospitality industry needs to follow new norms especially pertaining to hygiene and sanitation.

The session was followed by Q&A where in the speaker’s; Dr. Kandappan and Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas responded and constructively answered the various queries of the participants. At the end of the session a detailed report as well as vote of thanks was presented by Dr. Ramjit, Coordinator and Sr. Assistant professor, Department of Tourism Studies, Central University of Kashmir and Coordinator of International Web Lecture Series.

“Reflection of COVID-19 on the Global Economy: Crisis VS Opportunities” - Q&A

International WEB Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality

“Reflection of COVID-19 on the Global Economy: Crisis VS Opportunities” 

Q & A 

Question and Answer Session was conducted during 2nd lecture organized on 24th April 2020 by the experts Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas and Dr. Jeetesh. Some of the questions remained unanswered during the lecture here are the replies to those questions:

Q1. After this pandemic is the opportunities will be more or not. That too in food production? Question by Mr. Reddy

Answer: Current pandemic is affecting our lives/ lifestyle/ working routines very seriously. But I believe it is all for the time being and we will be back to normal very soon. Don’t think, there will be more or less opportunities, but definitely it will be the same what we had before this epidemic, because machine can replace human in many ways, but still human touch is more important to make the customer loyal and repeat buyer. 

Q2. What will be the impact of covid-19 on placements? Question by Mr. Reddy

Answer: For the best – skilled person, don’t think there will be any issue with placement. With regards to tourism industry, of course it got direct hit, but as mentioned phenomenon of tourism is very fragile, get shocks easily but come back to normal very fast. Therefore, if tourism and hospitality industry are there, demand of human touch and jobs will be there.

Q3. Once the outbreak is over, what will be the mitigation strategies? Question by Ms. Sofi

Q4. What will be the impact of covid 19 on admission in hospitality and tourism Management College in the session 2020-21? (Question by Mr. Harveer singh)

Answer: Each person and institution is effected by COVID 19 but, there are numerous institution/ universities who are having business and running their shows perfectly because they were ready for this type of crises.. border less classes, online teaching and learning. I don’t think those institution will have any issue, surely student won’t be happy to waste the time and wait for next intake. Infect I believe its best decision to enroll in foreign university, where you don’t need to be available physically, eventually going to save living cost and don’t need to be away from family too. 

Q 5. Impacts of covid - 19 in the sub-continent of India? (Question by Mr. Rameez raja)

Answer: Developing countries always get high hit due to less resources, improper utilization of resources or many other issues including politics. Number of industries will be, actually already affected. Demand and supply are imbalanced resulting in inflation.

Q 6. What about the livelihood for the tour guides or Taxi Drivers? (Question by Ankit agarwal)

Answer: They can focus on up gradation of their skills including soft, technical and communication. Adopting new tools to market them self. Of course, for the time being they are facing issues, for those probably government should interfere and take care of the SMEs, and etc.

Q 7. Are there any changes in hotels and resorts after this covid-19? Question by Mr. Reddy

Answer: Yes, majority of the accommodation are running on 0% occupancy, number of hotels are shutting down temporarily and few permanently. Some hotels are just relying on F&B. Hotels have laid off staff, sending on non-paid leaves but again it’s happening for the time being.

Q 8. Are clients ready to buy or they will be scared of high power of contagious property of the pandemic.

Answer: Currently, we are observing lockdown everywhere, surely there will be scary factor among people, but it depends on the properties that how do they target and bring back the confidence of the customers.  

Q 9. What will be prices in hotels and resorts will be change or not after this pandemic?

Answer: I am not sure, but I think middle level or non-brand will bring down their prices for time being to attract at least cost-conscious customers.

Q 10. Will covid_19   have a lasting impact on the environment?

Answer: It’s having fantastic positive impact on environment – no pollution, earth is on leave taking nice off 😊 but very hard to say how long it will be. Because human being human, once epidemic is over, we will be back to our routine and will be destroying nature.

Q 11. What will be the impact of pandemic on students of tourism and hospitality? After pandemic will tourism products and service prices go down or up?

Answer: I don’t see any impact of COVID 19 on students, the best one will find their ways to get employed, and it’s very competitive. Once pandemic is over, industry will be back to normal routine with high demand. Regarding prices, very hard to say probably will be depending on the brand, location, demand, availability etc.

Q 12. How to tackle with the issues of firing of employees from the organizations globally.

Answer: Government should interfare in this matter. Malaysian government has confirmed that no local will be laid off due to this endemic.

Q 13. What will happen to the newly opened hotels and restaurants that have already taken loan from different institutions and have to pay it back, will be there any help from them.

Answer: Hotels, restaurants or other companies, who have taken loan from financial institutions can discuss, negotiate on the paying back terms and conditions. In Malaysia, Bank Negara (State Bank) has already declared that banks shouldn’t follow the same dates and terms. Payees are eligible to discuss regarding their payments time period. Also, number of bank came up with the schemes of loans for SMEs.

Q 14. Sir, I have an idea regarding the payments when the guest will check. We can make a website or app so that the guest can pay their money at the date of check out through the hotel website or app.

Good idea 😊

“Reflection of COVID-19 on the Global Economy: Crisis VS Opportunities” - International Web Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality

 The second lecture on the theme “Reflection of COVID-19 on the Global Economy: Crisis VS Opportunities” of International WEB Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality was delivered by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, University of Jammu and Dr. Jeetesh Kumar, Senior Lecturer, Taylor’s University on 24^th April, 2020 (Wednesday). There were around 90 participants including top academicians,  students and research scholars of various universities from across the globe. This “International Web Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality” an initiative taken by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, University of Jammu along with Dr Ramjit, Deptt of Tourism Studies, Central University of Kashmir and Mr Nikhil Singh Chark, Assistant Professor, Ambedkar University, New Delhi, India.

Mr. Nikhil Singh Charak welcomed and introduced both the experts and coordinators from Indian and Malaysia. The proceedings of the session were initiated by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas by welcoming the co -speaker of the session, Dr. Jeetesh Kumar, all participants as well as coordinators of the event.

Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas initiated the session and at the onset thanked the collaborators, speakers, coordinators and participants for initiating this process of virtual knowledge dissemination. He gave a brief about the Topic “Reflection of Covid-19 on the global economy: Crisis Vs Opportunities”.   During his presentation he laid stress on the fact that crisis are beyond the control of humans especially the natural crisis or the pandemic which we are facing right now. He emphasized that at present we should focus on the “during COVID- 19 strategies” rather the “post COVID-19 strategies”, because we don’t that for how much time Covid – 19 is going to last. According to him it could be 2 months or 6 months or even more before a proper Vaccination for Covid -19 is found out and that is a long time span if we look from economic point of view, business point of view or tourism point of view. So the stake holders can’t sit idle and wait for the things to happen, they need to have strategies for during COVID-19 period and those strategies at least help the industry to take care of liquidity crisis or the resource crunch which it is facing. At present there are two important variables or drivers that help the tourism industry to run, one is going to be economic roadmap i.e. how business around us will start working and developing and the other one which is very critical factor i.e. Vaccination. He stressed on the fact we are facing economic recession at present and if there will be no vaccine, economic depression is going to be built up in a very big way. During crisis and after crisis, travel will not be the same, there will be new set of normals in the world, and new protocols are going to come over. Now companies will be more proactive especially TMC’s (Travel Management Companies) nees to bring up more values to services towards the behavioral aspect and health related aspect. TMC’s need to gain and retain the confidence of clients and customers by bringing in new set of protocols and their execution is very important aspect. Travel brand safety is going to be very crucial aspect in the near future.

Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas stated that first movers will be domestic travelers who will be followed by religious travelers. As TMC’s we need to strengthen domestic tourism and religious tourism, we need to concentrate in facilitation of these two forms of tourism. According to him the next set of travelers will be business travelers as necessity of making physical transactions / interactions is going to be very important.

After the Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, Dr. Jeetesh Kumar, the co- speaker of the lecture deliberated on the theme and shared his ideas and viewpoints. The speaker discussed about the impact of COVID-19 on the travel and tourism industry. The speaker was of the thought that tourism industry has been adversely affected by the pandemic. There has been a reduction of 45% in gross value added in airlines, reduction of 54% in gross value added in accommodation sector and reduction of 47% in gross value added in food and beverage services globally. The expert further discussed about the severity of tourism, highlighted the critical issue of COVID-19 crisis and reflection. In it, iterative and adaptive learning, engagement of multiple actors, knowledge sharing and peer to peer learning and innovation in education has been beautifully presented and discussed.

The important aspects related to financial recovery plans, critical success factors for recovery were taken care of by the esteemed speaker which are need of the hour. Dr. Jeetesh  laid thrust on strong brands, better communication technology focusing on restoring travelers’ confidence and strong financial support.

The session was followed by question/answers where in the speaker; Dr. Jeetesh Kumar and Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas responded and constructively answered the various queries of the participants.

At the end of the session, a detailed report as well as vote of thanks was presented by Dr. Ramjit, Coordinator, Tourism Studies, Central University of Kashmir and Coordinator of International Web Lecture Series and Dr. Ruth Sabina, Taylor’s University, Malaysia

Web Lecture Series, Coordinators

Dr. Ramjit, Coordinator & Sr, Assistant Professor & Deptt. of Tourism Studies, Central University of Kashmir, India

Mr Nikhil Singh Charak, Assistant Professor, Deptt of Vocational Studies, Ambedkar University, India

International Web Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality Launched

 Lecture: 1 - Manage Fire Under Ice: Approach of Travel agencies approach to face Business Cliff

International Web Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality was launched with first lecture titled “Manage Fire under Ice: Approach of Travel agencies approach to face business cliff” delivered by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, University of Jammu and Prof. Wu, Richard Jih-Wen, National Kaohsiung Polytechnic University, Taiwan, Republic of China on 22^nd April 20 using the Virtual Cloud Meeting software Zoom. This “International Web Lecture Series in Tourism and Hospitality” an initiative taken by Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas, University of Jammu along with Dr Ramjit, Deptt of Tourism Studies, Central University of Kashmir and Mr Nikhil Singh Chark, Assistant Professor, Ambedkar University, New Delhi, India.

To begin with, Nikhil Singh Charka welcomed to all the participants to this maiden lecture of International Web lecture Series held on April 22^nd 2020. He briefed the participants about the  experts - Prof. Parikshat Singh & Prof Wu, Richard Jih-Wen and Dr Ramjit.  Prof. Manhas in his opening remarks, apprised the participants about this international lecture series and how it shall be discussing realistic issues and challenges relevant to the Travel & Tourism industry.  He admitted that the COVID 19 has hit the economy in very aspects and also throw some light on common challenges faced by the Global economy and asserted that what could be done in innovative way to get over this ongoing crisis or recession.

During his lecture Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas suggested and highlighted the concept of liquidity to recover the losses during and post COVID 19 for the tourism and hospitality Business. He stated that this is the best time to think about the future strategies to cope up the common challenges faced by the travel and tourism industry. He provided a road map towards identification and development of the strategies concerning ongoing pandemic crisis and post-covod-19.  He provided a road map for various businesses based on which they could move from  initially trying to minimise the Business losses to No losses and then moving towards the profits after certain period of time. He also talked about various possible trends that may be seen in near future like concept of Quarantine Hotels and urged the audience to think about the innovation strategies to build or rebuild the customer base and to cope up with losses during this pandemic and crisis.

Prof Richard, started his lecture by mentioning the web page of WTO website that reflecting a message “Stay at Home”. He commented that where all the countries had closed their borders and even not allowed to move inter or intra region of the country. During this time the tourism and travel business is facing a crisis like situation and there are worries about the business cliff fall. In his presentation, He deliberated upon the various points in detail as travel agencies has to work upon and while stay calm and decisive on the six important aspects like Finance control, Management change, Strategic Thinking, Forecasting, Public sector and Learning. He suggested to utilise the present time by staying calm ones should put all the serious efforts to have good financial control during this period. The companied may consider the concept of CSR VS CSR and Human Cost vs Cost cut by offering fifty percent salaries for work from home during this pandemic and of course hundred percent after recover from the crisis.

He also insisted upon think strategically by think big, deep and think for the present time and come up with the innovative ideas and mentioned about strategic planning during the pandemic. Further added that strategic planning provides a helicopter view to cope up the common challenge which have been facing by travel agencies since November 2019.  Prof. Richard also highlighted the blessing of the Technology for any travel agencies business by quoting an example “earning profits even during the slack seasons and facing losses even during peaks seasons” added that the technology may effects to the travel agencies business either way therefore this should be used appropriately to build confidence among the tourists/travellers. The students from across the countries and from Taiwan put forth the questions pertaining to topics and the same were well addressed in detailed precisely by the both the experts. After detailed discussions, Dr Ramjit, Coordinator, International Web Lecture Series in his concluding remarks highlighted the importance of virtual or web lecture series especially during COVID-19 pandemic and  added few points like virtual collaborations and joint initiatives and brain storm sessions over webinars may help to TMCs , the students and business community to cope up this challenge i.e. COVID-19. In the end, He conveyed sincere gratitude to all the experts and students from the various institutions across India and Taiwan. Republic of China for their active participation in the web lecture and wish them stay safe, healthy and active during COVID-19 pandemic. About 100 students from various institutions like University of Jammu, Central University of Jammu, Ambedkar University, Delhi, Panjab Technical University, Bathinda, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Taiwan attended this lecture.

Web Lecture Series, Coordinators

Dr. Ramjit, Coordinator & Sr, Assistant Professor & Deptt. of Tourism Studies, Central University of Kashmir, India

Mr Nikhil Singh Charak, Assistant Professor, Deptt of Vocational Studies, Ambedkar University, India