Restoration & Rebuilding Pakistan's Tourism & Hospitality Sector: Transforming Business Processes

Abstract

The descriptive cum correlational research aims to suggest a framework for modification in business process to restore and rebuild, pandemic hard hit, tourism, and hospitality sector. The research premises on the rationale that under the persistent and looming pandemic threat, continued closures, and lockdowns of the tourism destinations with rising unemployment is not the answer to live with. Drawing from the exploratory research, a resilience-based framework model, to restore and rebuild Pakistan tourism and hospitality sector amid pandemic, an instrument was self-developed and validated before its operationalization. After checking the reliability and validity of the instrument through Cronbach's Alpha and exploratory factors analysis, the instrument was administered through mix of physical and online distribution. The sample of 312 respondents, representing variety of stakeholders from tourism and hospitality businesses across favorite destinations, responded through a mix of online and physical survey. The research found an adaptable resilience-based framework model for the restoration and recovery of tourism and hospitality businesses amid pandemics. The model called for placement of health safety features, provision of service quality, technological interventions, and socially responsible imaging of hotels. However, the desired outcomes can only be reached through well-knitted joint response from all the stakeholders including government, community, tourists, and the destination managers. The research argued that the restoration and rebuilding of tourism and hospitality business, is likely to renovate into sustainable tourism capable of kick-starting employment generation, poverty alleviation, society's well-being, and economic growth without compromising people health. Keywords: Tourism and hospitality business, COVID Pandemic, business restoration, transformation of business processes, business resilience.