Question and Answer Session was conducted during 10th lecture organized on 23rd May 2020 by the experts Prof. Parikshat Singh Manhas and Prof. Perry Hobson. Some of the questions remained unanswered during the lecture here are the replies to those questions:
Q1. When will the hotel industry open and what will be the new normal in the industry?
RESPONSE: The industry will only be able to re-open once health authorities can see the infection rate have dropped and the changes of re-infection. Most countries are planning to re-start domestic tourism first, and then to identify int’l ‘travel bubbles’ or ‘ corridors’ with other countries that they trust. As mentioned at the end of my webinar, Vietnam has already announced its “Vietnam is Safe” domestic campaign, and for Asia the “Vietnam NOW – Safe and Smiling” campaign (see - https://vietnaminsider.vn/vietnam-launches-stimulus-packages-to-attract-tourists/ ), while Thailand is brand-extending its ‘’Amazing Thailand’ campaign theme to become “Amazing Trusted Thailand” (see - https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/amazing-trusted-thailand-tourism-rebrands ). The ‘new normal’ for the industry will be a much stronger focus on health and sanitation. First, as mentioned in my webinar the cleaner was usually the last person you saw in a hotel – now it should be the first person. You need to overtly remind people of the precautions you are taking without scaring them. A restaurant in Sydney’s Walsh Bay's Pier One Hotel now has a "hand sanitiser sommelier" (see - https://www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/what-its-like-to-dine-in-sydney-as-restaurants-reopen-20200516-h1o3o7 ). In the UK, a restaurant is using shower curtain to isolate patrons (see - https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/cafe-worcester-shower-curtains-coronavirus-reopening-a4447571.html ) . Second, the introduction of touchless ordering systems – as we really don’t need traditional menus, we can put them on phones, introduce apps, and also have touchless payment systems. All this technology currently exists. Third, ensuring the customer can see that you are doing throughout the hotel. Guests will realise that the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. So, you have to think of everything that happens - from your front desk to the point of departure. Also, how can you tangibalise what you are doing? Can your guests see your clean kitchen and chefs at work? If not, install a camera and have a video screen. Consider how housekeeping should work, and how the staff can be seen cleaning your public and private areas. These actions will become the ‘new normal’. Let’s also use this opportunity and time as a way to innovate. Adopt technology, let’s re-think staffing roles to adopt a new form of hospitality than puts a premium on guest health and safety. Think innovatively. Rather than think about what we can’t do – think what we can do, and the new ways we are able to do things.
Q2. As we know that the hotel industry is going to open as well as the airlines (excluding international flights), then what are the function or things that are going to be carried out by the hotels because the people will not travel from one place to another?
RESPONSE: First, I refer to my answer in Q1 above. Second, is we have to give ‘confidence’ to people that travelling is once again ‘safe’. Sorry to say this (and having been to India several times I think I can), but I would respectfully suggest that public health and cleanliness of public places and facilities has never been had the same high level of importance in India as in other countries - such as Japan or Switzerland. So to encourage travel, health and cleanliness are going to have to become national priorities. This public health awareness needed to happen in India, it’s just that COVID is suddenly making and reinforcing the point. Rather than just think of the hotel ‘property’ as being defined by its boundaries – how is a hotel going to work with other businesses and the wider community around the hotel to ensure health and sanitation for all? We need to ‘think big’ to solve the pandemic problem.
Q3. After this pandemic there will be fastest recovery in hospitality and tourism industry as discussed by experts. having this thing in mind there will also be demand for ample availability of resources used in order to serve the hospitality and tourism industry. Due to this scarcity of resources would be there because of the demand at large . What will be the sustainable ways in order to use these resources at optimum level in order to save the hospitality and tourism industry from this scarcity?
RESPONSE: I am not so sure what you mean by ‘scarcity” and ‘resources’. Do you mean such things as masks, and other sanitation equipment? If so, I would suggest that, “invention is the mother or necessity” and I would suggest that India looks back at its history to identify past practices that can be combined with modern knowledge to create new products and services that are distinctly Indian. When you refer to ‘resources’ is this in regards to power generation, staff?? Sorry, I wish I could give a more concrete answer but the question wasn’t so clear.
Q4. How to innovate the health tourism keeping in mind the COVID factor post lock down?
RESPONSE: Innovation is sadly something that the hospitality industry has often been lacking, and I have had the pleasure of speaking on this topic of innovation in India before. As mentioned in my webinar under the umbrella terms of ‘health tourism’ there are 2 clear strands – medical and wellness. Each will require differing strategies and tactics. First, with medical tourism, fear of infection after any operation has always been there, I suspect that hospitals are actually better placed to manage this though their protocols – but people will be more fearful as COVID is associated with hospitals. Second, while wellness may seem less fearful, the likelihood of transmission is more possible given proximity of people and the lack of medical interventions/protocols that often natural medicinal remedies embrace. Both sectors will need different, but clear and strong messaging.
Q5. How will India will recover this current situation?? Specially Hospitality sector?
RESPONSE: Thanks for the question, and I would refer to my previous responses in Q1 and Q2 and Q3 above.
Q6. What will be the ‘new normal’ in wellness tourism be after the outbreak?
RESPONSE: If you are focusing on wellness tourism (which is a sub-set of health tourism), then you have to place health at the centre of the entire int’l tourism experience. Until recently, the main focus for the authorities in India was on ‘security’ and not health. Reflecting on my own personal experience, I found. that going through any Indian airport was something that had to be ‘endured’. Added levels of security were supposed to make the environment more safe. In my mind, all it meant was you had too many soldiers or security staff asking exactly the same question just a few feet away from each other. When I left Kochi airport about 2-yrs ago, I was reliably informed that I would be checked 8 times! I suggested to the officer that this simply asking and re-asking the same question and looking at the same boarding pass again and again was just not going to change anything - or lessen the security risk. If anything, it told me they did not have a system! Just a lot of people to keep busy. So, the mindset and mantra seemed to be that throwing more people at the problem would somehow make the airport more ‘safe’. But now, with this Covid health risk, such security people are now potentially part of the new health and safety problem! Having such excessive people-centric ‘security’ actually raises the risk of transferring the disease and increasing the pandemic. So, what has to change? The use of proper SMART technologies (which as a leading provider of such technologies India is surely one country which should be able to figure this out). Singapore already has airport terminals which have no human interactions at all, and already other leading airport around the world (such as Dubai) are now introducing them. Are they less ‘safe’? No. So, it’s time for India to get over the overt people = security thinking, and to invest in proper and more secure systems. This hopefully will get rid of the soldiers forever stamping boarding passes (which are being phased out anyway!) by using technology. My fear for India is that the simple fix or ‘solution’ to this pandemic will just be to involve even more people (this time armed with thermometers) to check people again and again! This is NOT the solution.
Second, all airport public areas need to be cleaned up – both inside and outside with limited drop-off and pick-up areas to maintain social distancing. See my response to Q2 above
Third, once at a wellness retreat or resort, then as mentioned about in Q1 health and sanitation will become Job No. #1 to focus on. New norms for social distancing (possibly easy with yoga, but hard for massage) will need to be thought through for each step pf the guest journey in a wellness retreat. See my response to Q1
Fourth, back to the airport – this time for a touchless and seamless experience with the use of biometrics for check-in, immigration/security and boarding.
Q7. Malaysia is in top ten Wellness tourism destinations in Asia, how would Malaysia cope up with Covid and maintain their credibility in Wellness and Medical tourism?
RESPONSE: Along with Taiwan and Vietnam, I think Malaysia has been a ‘quiet achiever’ in its COVID response. Despite having just changing Prime Ministers before the pandemic hit (which probably delayed some crucial decisions by a few days) the country has been very focused and most infections/deaths have related to one large religious gathering in KL. Malaysia has never been particularly strong in the wellness market (as that’s more Bali and Thailand than Malaysia). For ‘Medical Tourism’ which is where Malaysia is much stronger, then it’s going to be getting the message out that Malaysia is a ‘safe’ and ‘trusted’ destination to visit for a medical intervention. Again, this will be hard to so as like India (which medical tourism has dropped by 90%) Malaysia is currently in exactly the same situation. So, what to do? The good news is that Malaysian private hospitals (which are the core of the medical tourism) have not been used as COVID treatment centres (they were only public hospitals) – so the messaging can be around ‘no risk’. But has had 150 COVID deaths (while India has had around 4,000). By world standards this is low – but not zero. This will require a need for a more nuanced messaging. By contrast, Vietnam is keen to maintain its track record and say it has had absolutely no COVID-related deaths. Sadly there is one patient who is very ill, and he’s a pilot for Vietnam Airways – though he’s not actually Vietnamese but British – and the Vietnamese are now looking to give him a lung transplant (see - https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/15/856595061/vietnam-considers-lung-transplant-to-save-british-covid-19-patient ). Of course, if it’s successful, then this will allow them to maintain their message that no one has died from COVID in Vietnam – and this in turn will give added credibility to their new tourism marketing campaign that “Vietnam is Safe”. Malaysia does not have a ‘zero’ deaths statistics, so like India, it will need to identify a credible marketing position to take as we re-open the borders. I would suggest that for the medical tourism industry it will need to use more rationale messaging to maintain its credibility (facts and figures), while for wellness tourism it’s always been more the emotive. Post-Covid I think rational message will be the credibility with
Q8. As we know that many companies are leaving China and going to start their companies in India , can we say in the case of hospitality industry that is there any possibility that there will increase in the number of hotels that must be attracted to open their branches in India?
RESPONSE: In global terms, India has done poorly in regards to becoming an int’l tourism destination. By contrast China has targeted to be Number 1 in terms of both inbound and outbound. In terms of inbound. Using 2016 arrival data China was No. #4 with 59m visitors, while India had a long way to go – coming in at Number 25 with 14.9m arrivals behind Hungary and the UAE. While India has developed an excellent marketing campaign, the challenge (as I often write about) is being able to deliver on the tourism promise. In my opinion, China is much better at being able to do that. China has also been more welcoming to international hotel chain brands than India has been. If India is looking to attract more foreign investment and companies to re-locate to India, then it also going to need the infrastructure to make that happen. Internationally recognised hotels brands (particularly ones outside of the major cities) are certainly one piece of that jigsaw in terms of attracting foreign investment to shift to India. However, I should stress that there are many other factors when it comes to companies re-locating. What has been shown in many countries, is that the local standards have often risen with the arrival of foreign branded chains. My opinion would be that India (thanks to Taj and Oberoi), has a history of excellent 5*star hotels serving the luxury end of the market – the challenge more recently seems to be having consistent international standards in the mid-to-economy segments. This is important for not only the business market, but also the leisure market too. Like many countries, the challenge is getting the balance between having international standards and maintain a sense of place and offering hospitality that is local and authentic. Easy to say, but typically hard to do. I would suggest that countries such as Thailand, or destinations such as Bali, are worth looking it in regards to finding and maintain that balance.
Q9. Hotel industry has got alternative business. They have become quarantine centers in India. Regarding health in early 80s we require to be vaccinated before going abroad.?
RESPONSE: In many countries hotel have (in the short term) become quarantine centres. While this has provided some cash flow to hotels in the short term, the concern in the medium terms if that the travelling public will shun such hotels – particularly if they perceive there is some potential or a fear getting infected. Which then begs the question - will quarantine hotels have to be quarantined? Let’s say 2-weeks after the last ‘infected’ guests leave so that the hotel to be cleaned and to be sure it safe again. As to the second part of the question about vaccinations. First, at the moment we don’t have a vaccine and it may take 12-18months to get one – and that’s if one can be made (it’s never been done before for a corona virus). Once there is a vaccine, then I suspect ‘Yes” that will be the case (as it was back in the 1980’s) of being vaccinated before you fly. In the interim, it’s more likely that there will be testing at airports to see if you are positive before you can get on the plane. Second, as many people have had the virus the question now is do they now have immunity? Are they therefore ‘safe’ to travel? There has already been some discussion about ‘COVID passports’. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has discounted them as not being a good idea – and even top journals such as Nature have weighed in on this issue (see - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01451-0 ) and some think could actually further spread the virus (see - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52425825 ).
Q10. India is featuring as a country, being able to manage the covid - 19, with low mortality and high recovery rates. Is this fact going to effect this country as destination for health tourism?
RESPONSE: I think countries that can show that they have managed the COVID pandemic and public health outbreaks well are much more likely to be ‘trusted’. However, some people are concerned that many countries are not testing enough or not correctly reporting deaths as being from COVID. I think a lot will depend on the perceived brand trust the market has of certain countries. The reality is that India will probably have to make its case in the “court of public opinion”. I fear that many people will naturally assume/think that India (due to its vastness and population size) will simply not have been on top of the COVID pandemic situation as more developed countries. Again this may, or may not be, true – and just look at the disasters and deaths of supposedly well-organises and developed countries such as the UK, Spain, Italy and the USA. Sadly, the global media images of millions of migrant workers having to return home showed not only chaos ( see - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/chaos-hunger-india-coronavirus-lockdown-200327094522268.html ; https://www.arabnews.com/node/1677711/world ; http://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20200512-india-migrants-jobless-road-deaths-starvation ) but clearly no attempt at social distancing. Consequently, my feeling is that India will have to work very hard to change such a perceptions in that ‘court of public opinion’. Which is why in my webinar I asked the question, what is India going to do in marketing terms? Particularly given that Thailand and Vietnam have already got their ‘Amazing Trusted Thailand’ and ‘Vietnam Safe’ messages out (see response to Q1). How is the “Incredible India” marketing campaign to change? Incredibly Safe India? Doubtful, as again other safety issues - such as the general perception about the lack of women’s safety in India - might actually come to mind. While marketing messages may not always be 100% true, the marketing message has to be credible in the eyes of the target market. So, India will need to think very carefully what its credible messaging can be.
Q11. Kerala is regarded as a wellness tourism destination. Previously it was worst hit by Covid. In this circumstance how will Kerala market itself in the western world? What will it's probable marketing strategy?
RESPONSE: As ‘god’s own country’, Kerala is certainly a wonderful part of India that I have had the good fortune to visit, and go on the backwaters. Internationally, I am not sure that people will have enough detailed knowledge about COVID deaths in part of India to sway their views. While Kerala has developed a distinct image internationally, it will need to re-inforce that. As noted in some of my responses to the other questions here (see Q1, Q6, Q7 and Q10 in particular) the strategy needs to be to re-inforce the view that Kerala is a safe place to visit for wellness tourism.
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