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 24th 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
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