India is witnessing a second wave of coronavirus cases, impacting hospitality in India adversely once again
When the hospitality sector in India steadily started to recover from a long haul posed by the pandemic, once again it has started to cripple. What makes the situation more serious is the dependency of millions of people who depend on inbound and outbound tourism for employment. The recent surge in cases and the overall pandemic has forced millions of people employed in hospitality towards unemployment. Suresh Nanda of The Claridges Group of Hotels, while commenting on the whole situation talks about the post-pandemic future of hospitality in India.
“As the restrictions on movements are eased, domestic tourism will witness traction,” says Suresh Nanda. He also indicated the changing patterns in the sector owning to increased concern about health and safety. “Health and hygiene have become one of the utmost priorities of travelers. They are resorting towards the internet to check which of the hotels are offering the best health safety standards.”
His luxury heritage hotel chain, The Claridges Group of hotels, has introduced some of the compulsory measures across all its hotels such as Covid screening of all employees and strict hygiene and sanitation in all rooms and restaurants. Moreover, all the visitors are screened on arrival, while providing all the necessary assistance to them.
However, he also said that with disruption, Covid-19 has also brought an opportunity to implement new-age technology to the industry. “Hotels and restaurants are going digital. Some of them are even introducing ultra-advanced AI and robotics enabled technologies,” he says.
The recent surge in Covid-19 cases is an indication that the virus is not going away in near future and we will have to learn to live with it by adhering to all the compulsory guidelines provided by the authorities. Therefore, Suresh Nanda suggested that the industry requires an unconventional method to come over unprecedented crises that we are facing. “Covid-19 and disruption in businesses came like a complete reset. As the situation is exceptional, we need some out-of-the-box ideas to restructure our businesses and hospitality is no exception.”
He also said that the concept of ‘Suraksha’ has been added to the principle of ‘Suvidha’ that used to be the only utmost priority of the sector for a long time.
