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Exhibitions industry needs to bring in viable solutions for countering waves
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Saturday, 24 April, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Yogesh Mudras
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 Just when the travel, tourism and hospitality industries were happy to kickstart the physical format of exhibitions adhering to safety protocols onsite, a second viral wave has struck the country, leading to a corresponding wave of uncertainty, fear and doubt.
This needn’t be so. While the industry has revealed admirable resilience to counter the adverse circumstances, they, along with the policy makers, have also learnt invaluable lessons from the first wave.
That 2021 will be a see-saw’ year is well-documented. Hospitality and its larger avatars, travel and tourism, generate revenue for local economies directly as tourists spend money in hotels and restaurants. It also helps economies and the MSMEs as tourists purchase locally made goods and crafts, while also indulging in local F&B and novel stay experiences. The crux of developing the sector is through technology and safety. So, the industry must know how to utilise technology in creative ways when serving their customers and also needs to develop new policies and reboot their services to focus on health and hygiene.
Given that the hospitality industry is a people-friendly sector, the exhibitions industry in this new normal needs to engage hospitality stakeholders throughout the year. They ought to provide turnkey omni-channel engagements, combining the best of physical and virtual platforms. These will encourage the sector to confer and create, offer efficient, impressive and state-of-the-art solutions for their evolving requirements.
Trade exhibitions
After all, trade exhibitions, whether physical, virtual or hybrid, are key mobilisers and facilitators of the economy. For the past few years, owing to our advocacy, we have seen a visible transformation in policy initiatives towards the industry. The government’s focus on bringing a new-normal mode is likely to play a prominent role in building sectoral communities that congregate crucial stakeholders under one umbrella to develop industry knowledge and conduct business investments, MoUs and promote careers in this domain.
Last year, the interim period between unlock and our foray into physical expos gave us the time to assess, fortify, test and amplify safety, digi-tech and other innovative measures. These aided in building the requisite faith among our internal and external stakeholders towards attending our much-awaited physical events. Besides, should other waves occur, trade exhibitions will augment positivity and innovation, with stakeholders certain that when the wave passes, a well-thought-out business strategy will help them tide over these phases.
Currently, it is reassuring to see that despite the lockdown-like situation, hotels are open. Guests, however, are not allowed to avail of spa, pool, gym or salon services. 24×7 in-room dining services are being curtailed with restaurants inside hotels restricted to in-house guests only, and only one restaurant allowed to operate. Essential modes of transport are also operational that will, no doubt, help in stabilising livelihoods that depend on this industry in direct and indirect ways.
Distribution and sales
The food and beverage Industry has also been severely impacted as far as distribution and sales go due to Covid-19. However, during this phase, as officegoers were busy working from home, touchless solutions and in-home experiences were being briskly adopted by the sector with guidelines and protocols including high cleanliness standards. In a pandemic where uncertainty looms large over the future of the F&B Industry, cloud kitchen seems the most viable way forward, especially as government directives also encourage takeaways over dining in at restaurants. Again, technology and safety play a critical role here, and is something for the industry to congregate and understand at comprehensive platforms that trade exhibitions alone can offer.
Optimism and confidence
Looking ahead, the coronavirus vaccine and its dissemination to a sizable population will gradually encourage more people to step out and spend their leisure time at their favourite destinations and restaurants. These are bound to instil some optimism and confidence in the market. As a matter of fact, just prior to the second wave, restaurateurs in Mumbai were reported to have recorded 85-90 per cent business activity.
Everything digital
Side by side, the hospitality sector has not left any stone unturned to make travel safer and more hygienic. It is working to ensure a better overall digital customer experience as everything has moved to digital -- be it booking a flight, a hotel, cabs, meals etc., even room access keys. It would require the government to start building supporting infrastructure to propel domestic tourism when the wave recedes. With the right services and technologies, service providers can help rebuild confidence in business travel programmes.
The government should also promote local tourist destinations among people to generate revenue for small businesses and create detailed SOPs for SMEs for further developing experiential tourism in remote places to ensure that the load on developed tourism centres is lessened. The coming months are an opportunity to revive the industry and thousands of people associated with the sector may overcome this unprecedented crisis and rebuild their businesses.
Meanwhile, the exhibitions industry needs to also come up with viable solutions for countering the waves. As of now, engaging with the industry through omni-channel mediums rather than physical events alone seems the most practical, a greener and more sustainable one! Given the current circumstances, it is a win-win situation if we can leverage the best of both worlds (physical and virtual) for a greater cause.
(The author is MD, Informa Markets in India)
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