The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry which includes food and beverage (F & B), accommodation, event planning, theme parks, travel, and tourism.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted this industry very negatively, bringing both domestic and international travel and tourism to a halt and countless businesses to their knees, and many even to bankruptcy.
Now that things are opening up again, it’s refreshing to see that many operations that had to close have been revived, and that business is once again picking up. For months on end, many F & B operators weren’t allowed to have dine-ins and could only cater for takeaways, losing great sales profitability because many patrons prefer the dining experience.
The F & B businesses continued to operate, though, regardless of the pandemic, primarily because people need to eat. Even people without previous culinary experience took to selling food and drinks to make ends meet. Many employees lost their jobs nevertheless, with operational capacity cut to its barest minimum.
Many people in the F & B, travel and hotel industries lost their jobs as business operations were reduced to their lowest ever. Travel and tourism practically came to a stop, and tens of thousands of employees in these industries lost their jobs.
The tourism sector has always been one of the biggest economic generators of our country, and one with great social impact. Sad though it has been for this industry in the past year and a half, things are beginning to look up as we welcome again international and domestic travel.
Malaysians have lately begun to rediscover their our country through domestic tourism, and this offers an opportunity to revive the sector. Domestic tourism will be the key to support the tourism industry, in line with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture’s directive to promote domestic tourism post COVID-19.
As we move forward toward a brighter post-COVID-19 future, and as the economy is thankfully resuscitated, it is obvious that the hospitality industry will continue to survive and thrive.