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Rethinking Tourism Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism Education Owing to COVID-19

Hina Hashmi

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions in the global economy. By the end of the first quarter of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had brought international travel to an abrupt halt and significantly impacted the tourism industry. For many developed and developing countries, the tourism sector is a major source of employment, government revenue and foreign exchange earnings. Without this vital lifeline, many countries may experience a dramatic contraction in GDP and a rise in unemployment.

Just like the other industries the pandemic has also greatly affected the education too, which is a crucial determinant of the economic future of a nation. In an effort to control the spread of the pandemic most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions. In India, too the government was nowhere far behind in imposing nationwide lockdown. Tourism is also one of the industries to have suffered a major setback and so is Tourism Education. It is reasonable to assume that this impact will be here to stay for a fairly long time. Unlike the other industries which have resumed with norms of new normal the hospitality industry too will have to adapt, and very fast, to the post COVID-19 era. This pandemic is clearly a sign of changing times and human behavior. It is also an event that has given rise to push to digitalization of businesses, especially in the education sector. A new set of skills will be needed for a new way of doing hospitality: New ways of sitting the customers in a restaurant, of welcoming them in a hotel or flying them to their dream destination. And with the entire industry currently racing to adapt and transition to the new way of doing business, the hospitality education sector will also have to transform its curriculum, making it relevant to a post COVID-19 context by focusing it on teaching a much needed new set of skills. Adapting the business model, innovating the customer experience, re-thinking the offer and the overall product delivery.

This disruption education delivery has lead the policymakers to brainstorm how to drive onscale engagement while ensuring inclusive e-learning solution and tackling the digital divide. Institutions have to make modifications in the course curriculum. The development of curriculum needs to be around the sense of responsibility while preparing the students for industry to work under crises. This paper takes into account how the learning opportunities to be created in order to rebuild tourism education.