5 tips for resilience and recovery from COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic took many tourism
organizations and businesses by surprise, with a drastic drop in revenues and a
deep uncertainty about a timeline towards recovery. A lack of preparedness for such a rapid downturn
in visitation and revenues made it difficult to retain staff, and the lack of
precedent is making everyone wonder how and when travel will recover.
Despite all the uncertainty, there are already
indicators about how tourism microentrepreneurs might need to react to be more
resilient to shocks like this pandemic and to accelerate recovery. Our research (Ferreira et al 2018) indicates
that tourism microentrepreneurs should address five types of demands: pursuing
innovation, marshalling resources, adapting to externalities, aligning core purpose
with self, and e-marketing. Following I
draw from this research and from observation of the rapidly evolving landscape of tourism recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic globally to provide a few tips.
1. Pursuing
innovation
Several of the microentrepreneurs with whom
P1tLab collaborates have reacted to the pandemic by adopting innovative
approaches to their businesses. The
pandemic is making everyone reconsider what is important in life (aka The Great Realization),
so we can expect changes in traveler motivations and travel preferences. Times of change open opportunities for those
that want (or desperately need) to break away from the status quo. So, this is a time for savvy
microentrepreneurs to be observant of societal changes, to attempt new ways to
reach the market, and to pivot their businesses accordingly.
2. Marshalling
resources
Government has launched financial relief
programs to try to avert the impending economic doom. Those programs have been executed with a
varying degree of effectiveness. In some cases large corporations hoarded
capital leaving out most micro businesses.
Yet, there were financial relief programs in the US and there will be
more in months to come. In some cases
these are in the form of zero interest business loans, in other cases they are
grants to help businesses make necessary investments to be COVID-19 ready, and
in other cases they are subsidies to partially cover employee salaries.
Tourism microentrepreneurs are at times outside
the sphere of influence of county TDAs and county government; but my long
experience working with communities in North Carolina reveals that tourism
businesses have many willing allies in local government. This is an excellent time to reach out to
the local TDA, to the county Extension office, to the local SBA Center, etc
asking for advice and assistance.
3. Adapting
to externalities
We have found that microentrepreneurs are
relatively risk adverse partially because they have livelihoods very vulnerable
to unpredictable forces and events. For
some microentrepreneurs a “failed crop” might mean losing their business or
losing their property. A strategy used
by farmers to cope with uncertainty is to buy crop insurance, but most kinds of
tourism microentrepreneurs are unable to buy an appropriate form of
insurance. Some microentrepreneurs opt
to diversify their livelihoods - this strategy appears to be potentially
applicable to a broader set of people.
The COVID-19 pandemic will likely be listed in management books as the
ultimate externality, so this is a good time for microentrepreneurs to
reflect on their livelihood portfolios and strategize ways to make their
livelihoods ever more resilient.
4. Aligning
core purpose with self
Most microentrepreneurs developed small
tourism business because they feel that it supports a lifestyle they desire
(e.g., life in a farm), it helps them pursue a passion (e.g., devotion to art),
or helps them share something deemed important with the public (e.g., need to
protect nature). During periods of fast
economic growth and collective hypnosis with greed, these personal choices and
stories may be uninteresting to the market and to support organizations. But in the present time of reckoning it is
likely that guests, support organizations and others would be interested and
captivated with microentrepreneurs’ principled life paths. Therefore, microentrepreneurs might want
to seize opportunities to share self-narratives with the public in ways that
they deem appropriate with the goal of celebrating their life paths and to
showcase the integrity of their businesses.
5. e-Marketing
The COVID-19 pandemic has motivated
microentrepreneurs to experiment with e-commerce innovations that they were
once reluctant to try. Namely, many farmers
started selling online through marketplaces like those listed in this Extension fact sheet, others started
offering a drive-through CSA pick-up weekly, and many opted to participate in
the Vacationer Supported Agriculture initiative in North Carolina beaches (www.p1provisions.com). Other microentrepreneurs have experimented
offering virtual guided tours and workshops through telepresence platforms like
Zoom and Facebook Live. As a result some
microentrepreneurs reported reaching a broader audience and became more visible
to local Tourism Development Authorities.
In addition, microentrepreneurs that tended to be chronically
disengaged, invisible and neglected by support organizations, have been able to
participate in the mushrooming number of webinars and telepresence workshops
and virtual town hall meetings offered by Extension programs, economic
development organizations and universities.
All these developments are making the internet
fulfill its long promised role of a leapfrog technology that provides universal
access to markets, networking and resources.
The digital divide still exists, but I sense a renewed urgency in
providing broadband coverage in rural areas, and an acceleration of digital
adoption and literacy among microentrepreneurs.
Be sure to get on this bandwagon. For all this, microentrepreneurs should be
sure to embrace web technology and connectivity.
PS:
P1tLab methods demand that we work with communities and
microentrepreneurs as partners, so sharing universal tips is . We bring insights from previous work, but we
recognize that each person and each group of people are unique. So… we
invite current and aspiring partners to reach out to us for deeper and more
actionable discussions about resilience and recovery strategies.
Lead in(ve)stigator, P1tLab
NC State University
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