Hospitality Career post Covid 19
Neither we the educationist nor the professionals from Industry thought about such a prolonged period of COVID 19 outbreak; even the biggest of the economies of the world failed to forecast the after effects of this pandemic. In a situation where the wait for its cure was prolonged the only option upfront was lockdown which was sought as the only way out to break the chain. Now when we all are witnessing the further waves of this pandemic, the companies, organizations, businesses etc. have decided to live with it and move forward and contribute not only to country’s economics but to safeguard their business too.
Tourism and hospitality sector witnessed the biggest disruption ever in the history and the entire sector was struggling to overcome the situation and in between we witnessed layoffs and long unpaid leaves in some organizations. The big question about future of this sector was brain stormed by many and thus resulted with a solution that the sector has to address preparedness and provision of reserve funds for any such pandemic in future for which many points came out of brain storm and discussions churns resulting in changing the SOP’s for future business of this sector.
Everyone along with the media talked about the post COVID effect on the tourism and hospitality business worldwide which was due to persistent decline for airlines, railways, cruise ships, travel operators and all lodging organizations including hotels. It has not only impacted the present operations. It was propagated that there is no hope for travel and hospitality sectors to get normal in a year or more whereas the real picture is different. We understand that the tourism and hospitality sector thrives on the patterns of visitations and in recent times a considerable efforts are being placed by decision makers to attract visitors to support the sector and enhance the multiplier effect from the industry. The travel restrictions are being relooked and with routine health checks permission is being granted, we have seen the movement of domestic tourist to travel destinations within country and that itself is bringing the normalcy.
Also in the past we have witnessed that despite the enormous blow, the sector was salvaging resources and ways to remain afloat, be it cost reduction practices, multi-skilling of employees. Curtailed cost for those needing isolation during quarantine period and to those who are involved in treating COVID patients and cannot return to their usual place of residence. These initiatives indicated the ad hoc coping mechanisms adopted by the sector and employees were retained by various means. The Hospitality Industry has always proved in the past its tendency of bouncing back and that too with much more services and business, so this time again we are all set to witness the same.
In the scenario the aspirants looking towards Hospitality Undergraduate or Diploma courses should not be in dilemma and suspect about their career progression they should remain assured that this industry has been providing wonderful career avenues and opportunities in the past and will provide the same in future too as the sector will bounce back with much more preparedness to handle such pandemic and keep their operations on during such scenarios. We at Amrapali Institute of Hotel Management assure each of our student a wonderful career journey and also during these tough times, the Placement team is working hard to provide students with opportunities as the placement drives were conducted after the 1st lock down and many students were recruited but the joining was deferred due the 2nd pandemic wave and the joining has started now also more placement drives are scheduled with renowned International and National brands, which in itself is a good sign for Hospitality professionals.
No doubt this is the time where industry is witnessing radical changes, to provide an environment where it can provide its customers a sense of assurance in terms of their safety. It’s the time when Institutions and educators also need to adapt the change and to make students ready as per the changing requirements of the industry.
There are many lessons to be learnt from this pandemic but one important lesson for the organisation across the globe is that the employer should respect the fact that business are not run by machines and infrastructure it’s the employee which makes it thrive and succeed especially in the services sector where “human touch” become the main differentiating factor, it is because of their personal touch, care and belongingness which completes the experience of a customer. So in years to come we will see HR Policies being more employee centric, which will make this sector more career driven and will attract many good professionals.
Be it be with or without pandemic life has to come back as it was before; business have already started initially with slow pace with the domestic tourist but soon we will witness customers with corporate engagements, this will help trigger the momentum and the bounce back journey. The Hospitality sector as predicted in many surveys and reports will remain the one of the largest contributors to the employment in any country. As an Institution we are prepared to train our graduates in line with the changing SOP’s of Industry and have upgraded our online teaching resources and trained our teachers for inclusiveness and better engagement of learners also the lab’s and classes are wonderfully kept and sanitized in routine to welcome the students back to the campus. It’s the time when we educators need to prepare the students with self belief so that they can firmly stand against such pandemic situations and move forward in their career with more confident SMILE.