My 16-year-old niece is working on a paper for a school project and asked me to send her three positive and three negative things that COVID-19 did to the hospitality industry. Now, of course I need to do a dance with her to share it! Lol!
Despite the challenges that COVID-19 brought to the industry, there were indeed positive impacts on the hospitality industry in America.
The 3 Positive Impacts Are:
1. Innovative Solutions
COVID-19 spurred creativity in the hospitality industry, leading to innovative solutions like contactless check-in/check-out, virtual experiences, and enhanced cleaning protocols, improving overall guest experiences.
Personally, I have been involved in two tech products that will change the consumer behavior and customer experience forever. This was expedited based on people using QR codes and planning events via zoom.
Fetefully.com is an online AI wedding planning software that is 80% AI trained by industry experts, and 20% human where we partner with other planners. It’s also a marketplace where people can purchase things for their weddings, events, and so on since people could not shop in person.
rBARapp.com is a remote ordering software service to order your drinks and your food when you’re staying at a hotel or resort so you don’t have to wait for a Bellman or a server. The drink software is hooked to an AI machine and makes over 350 drinks per hour, this includes frozen drinks as well.
2. Focus on Health and Safety
The pandemic prioritized health and safety measures, leading to heightened cleanliness standards and protocols. This not only reassured guests but also set new benchmarks for hygiene in the industry, which can benefit public health in the long run. We have seen healthcare and premiums go down in some areas because of this awareness.
3. Community Support and Solidarity
The crisis brought the hospitality community together, fostering collaborations and support networks. Many businesses offered aid to frontline workers, contributed to community relief efforts, and collaborated with local suppliers, strengthening community ties and resilience. We built incredible relationships all over the world with people because we were forced to connect in a different way and so finding connection and happiness through a screen, changed the mindset of streaming events and weddings to family and friends across the world. It’s much more acceptable now and it’s a much more productive time overall.
COVID-19 brought a heavy blow to the hospitality industry in the United States, leaving significant negative impacts in its wake. While acknowledging these challenges, our focus remains on the good and how we’re gonna move forward and how we can change to make it better.
Here are 3 Negative Impacts:
1. Revenue Loss and Economic Downturn
The pandemic led to widespread closures, cancellations, and travel restrictions, resulting in a sharp decline in revenue for hotels, restaurants, airlines, and other hospitality businesses. Many establishments faced financial struggles, layoffs, and even closures, leading to economic hardships for employees and business owners alike.
As event planners, our entire life and all revenue was completely gone. Finding other sources of revenue like creating content and getting sponsors for podcasting and really learning where we can create value and how we can make money online through a screen became the focus and now we know how to diversify revenue, which makes us stronger moving forward. Financially, it’s been extremely difficult to get back to where we were and frankly it’s still a struggle based on what the economy is doing now.
2. Decreased Travel and Tourism
COVID-19 restrictions and safety concerns drastically reduced travel and tourism, affecting hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and tourist attractions. Business and leisure travel declined sharply, leading to plummeting occupancy rates and revenue losses for hospitality businesses dependent on tourism.
On top of that, those of us who travel a bit for events went into a state of depression because we had to figure out a way to make it work, which is extremely stressful and scary. But as a business owner you do what you have to do to take care of clients and families. It’s in the hard times where we find the energy to keep going. It pushes us to change and be better.
3. Operational Challenges and Adaptation Costs
Hospitality businesses had to adapt quickly to changing health and safety regulations, implementing costly measures such as enhanced cleaning protocols, social distancing measures, and personal protective equipment for staff. These operational changes added financial strain and logistical challenges, further impacting profitability and sustainability.
If you had a setback during COVID-19, and had something really positive come out of it. Please share your story with us by dropping an email at: connect@angelaproffitt.com.
At GSD Creative, we specialize in content creation for special events, travel, and wellness. We train sales and marketing teams to level up their content strategy – integrating consistent content creation into the overall marketing plan, emphasizing short-form videos for maximum impact.
We also handle full-service wedding and event planning and design. Our unique approach incorporates psychology to ensure your content and events leave a memorable impact.
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