It is vital to ensure that the customer experience is positive in the tourism industry. From streamlining services to personalizing experiences, digital development helps the tourism industry to further enhance the customer experience.
According to the recent UNESCO report “Museums around the world in the face of COVID 19”, 90% of museums, globally, have been forced to close their doors during the corona crisis and more than 10% may never reopen. Most cultural professionals have been forced to work from home and many have adapted their traditional roles to support different departments and functional areas of expertise. Faced with extremely challenging times, the management and staff of cultural institutions have been able to respond in rapid and creative ways to the social and cultural needs of their societies, taxing their professional skills. Museums and heritage institutions have experienced several changes during this process, many of the trends and new practices will remain after the crisis and management and staff will need to be ready to welcome those changes. Through this thought-provoking and stimulating period, NTG digital and socio-cultural skills have become even more prominent for museum and heritage professionals. This piece presents some of the most interesting initiatives developed by museums around the world during the lockdown period and the way professionals have responded to the challenges. It also presents some of the trends that will probably continue after the crisis.
Helping people to acquire key digital skills is vital to the recovery post-Covid as we all know. However, one issue that we are seeing at a global level at People 1st International is just how important it is for the efforts of employers, banks, NGOS, other funding bodies and government agencies to be aligned, so that key stakeholders are in the loop on key initiatives. This will both ensure that there are no unnecessary overlaps between projects, and that funding for skills development is spent in the best possible way.
The new government strategy, Welcome to Wales: Priorities for the visitor economy 2020-2025, was launched in January 2020. The ambition is to grow tourism for the good of Wales, aiming for skills development, equitable economic growth, environmental sustainability, social and cultural enrichment and health benefits.
The strategy highlights that Visit Wales will continue to work with the industry and take a more prominent role in promoting skills for tourism, hospitality and events. By the spring of 2020, a Tourism Skills Partnership is to be established to bring together the sector, Regional Skills Partnerships, Further Education, Higher Education and others.
The goal of environmental sustainability will be achieved by sustaining natural resources, improving environmental performance and encouraging sustainable transport. Social and cultural enrichment will be achieved by giving a warm welcome for everyone, providing opportunities for young people and promoting a thriving Welsh language and culture. There is an emphasis on inclusive tourism and the need for more access improvements for disabled visitors. A Brilliant Basics fund will deliver small-scale tourism infrastructure improvements, for example, accessible changing places on the beach.
A key priority is an innovative Cymru Wales brand delivered by a digital-first industry and the development of a Visit Wales ‘Centre of Excellence’ for digital innovation. The Centre will act as a physical hub for the brand, a creative space for professionals in the sector to work together as well as running webinars for businesses.
All of these progressive aims are timely and relevant to the Next Tourism Generation Competition 2020. This aims to promote industry engagement with education. Read about the launch of the competition here.
Looking into the future, this is an exciting time for tourism development for the good of Wales.
How can a hotel emerge stronger from the COVID-19 Crisis? In her study “Future Hotel – The Smart Resilient Hotel” (original available in German + English) Prof. Dr. Vanessa Borkmann, head of research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), points out fields of action and possibilities. One result: Digitalization promotes resilience in hotels.
On 7 and 8 October Next Tourism Generation alliance partner Cardiff Met University attended VAC2020, (#vac2020), a 2 day virtual conference, to gain a better understanding of the concerns of the UK Visitor Attractions sector in 2020.
In the tourism industry digital skills are becoming increasingly important as the workplace develops. Therefore, being fluent in these digital tourism skills is more in demand than ever and employers are now constantly on the lookout for employees with them. This digital demand can be seen in the industry, which is why digital workers are becoming increasingly valuable, and employers are pushing for more skills in the industry.
In 2020 an increasing demand for digital workers has been noted, with industries relying on employees to work from home to stop the spread of COVID-19. The tourism industry has been no different, relying on employees being digitally present, showing how working digitally has become invaluable this year.
It has been over three months since Covid-19 hit Europe and forced many countries to lock themselves down: large groups were not allowed anymore, #stayhome became the new normal and public transport and the streets have never been so empty. The tourism industry has been affected by many natural disasters, as well as political and economic turmoil, but when the whole world locked down due to the Coronavirus, many challenges were faced by European destinations. READ MORE