Is the new or now normal that different to the old now?
As the coronavirus turned into a pandemic, there were numerous predictions that the world as we knew it, prior to COVID -19, would no longer be the same; that ‘normal’ was now replaced with a ‘new normal’, and that too, was continually changing due to the unpredictability of how the virus was impacting our lives, livelihoods and interactions.
Admittedly, the hospitality industry landscape has changed dramatically over the past 22 months after travel virtually ground to a halt and customer expectation of safety and hygiene accelerated, whilst hospitality businesses grappled to navigate an almost unrecognizable battlefield.
As some semblance of recovery begins to occur, due to the development of vaccines, its rollout (jabs), enforced safety guidelines, fragmented signs that the world was not really very different, began to emerge. However, those fleeting moments of a ‘return to normalcy’ (new or otherwise), appear to very short, (like sharp flashbacks to the ‘good ole days before Covid’), due to frequent and sudden lockdowns and border closures, as the pandemic continues to grip global society.
Looking around after the passing of nearly twenty two months, I honestly cannot detect a huge difference. Yes, people are moving about wearing masks and avoiding close contact including handshakes and hugs - in public at least. And yet, I’m not really convinced that the world is that different, than it was before COVID-19.
Some things like digital transformations have been ‘fast tracked’ and integrated into hospitality to offer a secure and safer experience. Finding people for work in some industries like in the hospitality trade has become an enormous challenge, and attracting talent near impossible. I get that, but, these are not new developments. They were always there long before COVID-19. It’s just that that persistently dull headache which the hospitality industry kept ignoring during the good times, has now developed into a full blown unbearable migraine that wouldn’t go away soon.
Yes, the way we work has changed somewhat. Workers will take more control over the when and where of their jobs while employers drive the who, what, why and how. In the hospitality industry though, working from home for the majority of workers isn’t going to be the wand of the future. We are in the people business and you can’t clean rooms on zoom – not yet!
One question that has topped the ‘anxiety list, in all this mayhem, is whether we can continue to live the way we do - from a sustainability angle. Scientists say that 2021 was the Earth’s 5th –hottest year and the finding by European researches, fits a clear warming trend: The 7th hottest years on record have been the past seven. As per new findings published in Nature Communications, climate change and global food demand could drive an alarming loss of up to 23% of all natural habitat ranges in the next 80 years.
The hospitality industry will need to take a harder look at further reducing the carbon footprint in the industry as a whole. This goes beyond energy saving habits of controlling water, gas and electricity consumption and eliminating single-use plastics to discarding non-recyclable items, sourcing items and food products locally as far as possible to reduce carbon miles on supply chains and upgrading to and maintaining energy efficient equipment.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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