The travel and tourism industry were always inefficient. When the pandemic gripped the world, no industry were affected harder. There were massive lay-offs, their talent moved elsewhere, and more.
The industry could have fared much better in its shutdown phase if it had sufficient cash left over, which is only possible if it operates with maximum efficiency. With travel and tourism restarting themselves, even though it is on a much smaller scale, it needs to
realize that there are no possibilities to operate in the same old and tired ways they used to.
Firstly due to the pandemic, the industry will be operating with minimal staff. It cannot operate like before, where one person had the skills to do the only task. The human resource section of the industry has to adopt a more skills-per-employee approach.
Developing skills through education.
“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” Aristotle
The adoption of multi-skilled employees may sound like a wasted exercise. In reality, equipping someone with more skills instills confidence within them. This allows them to look at the bigger picture.
For transformation, the travel and tourism industries must focus on educating their people. This re-education can be a tricky task to develop and deliver. Because there is no use in signing up your entire team to a poorly developed and delivered course, that will only result in time and waste of financial resources.
What is needed for the travel and tourism industry is a bespoke, versatile and innovative ed-tech solution. Great education technologies can significantly enhance learning, and they are something the industry must embrace.
Out with the old in with the new
For this revolution to occur, there has to be a paradigm shift at the executive level. It needs to realize that everyone has to adapt to this vastly different landscape. Furthermore, if they are the ones to adopt an education first approach proactively, this will lead to spreading culture throughout their respective businesses.
“When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.” George Westerman – Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy.
Think of it like this: When important decisions are made at an executive level, they have to be implemented by the team supporting them. The more in-sync their understanding of the industry, the less oversight a team needs. Fewer oversight results in an efficiently running industry.
All this is only possible if everyone in the travel and tourism industry rejects the old “we know what’s the best approach” to “we need to learn what’s best” At LVG learning we can assist and ease you through this transformation.