Resilience will define future of tourism

The world has entered the phase of unprecedented volatility occasioned by epidemics, disruptive technologies and natural disasters, to mention a few crises, which has created uncertainty in the business arena.

The instability has changed the business landscape, pushing the stakeholders to innovate models that can withstand the external shocks. Tourism, which is hugely affected, can no longer take a business-as-usual approach. The subject of resilience, thus, becomes prominent.

Frequent disasters have challenged the conventional ways of doing things. Scholars have argued that the resilience agenda will define business agenda, including tourism trade. Businesses will have to strategise to survive in the ever-changing normal. The conventional style of doing things will not work.

The nagging question is how to build systems resilient enough to weather the crisis-prone business ecosystem. Weak systems have seen businesses fail to propel hospitality establishments forward in post-crisis dispensations, resulting in high mortality rate for enterprises. For instance, the prevailing pandemic struck firms hard, bringing them to near collapse and putting the recovery process in doubt.

The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre established at Kenyatta University is timely. It will be instrumental in coming up with research-based solutions to the effects of disasters and crises. It is undertaking research in various thematic areas aimed at forestalling disasters in the industry.

Economists recommend several strategies to guarantee firms a better future. First is training of frontline personnel, singled out as one of the interventions for getting the enterprise working at optimal levels. Highly trained personnel can innovate, giving the business a new lease of life. Lifelong learning is the surest way to thrive in a fluid economy.

In the face of the ongoing digital revolution, hospitality firms will have to tap into this huge potential to enhance not just their performance but also resilience. Digital disruptions can only be countered by digital innovations.

The Covid-19 pandemic caught the business community unprepared. State funding in form of stimulus cash was not sufficient to cater for their operational costs. That raised the question of sustainable funding for the enterprises. Organisations should have a kitty to cushion them from economic crises.

Partnerships will boost the sharing of best practices. We live in a “sharing economy”, where no economy can exist in isolation. That puts pressure on the developed countries to partner with the Third World to improve the overall global tourism industry.

The World Trade Organisation should, therefore, lobby the developed countries to fund tourism recovery initiatives in the developing countries.

Benard Amaya, Nairobi