Nature has thrown the gauntlet with the Covid-19 pandemic and it is up to humans to pick it up and show that they are capable to adapt to it.
And an industry as thoroughly and wholly dependent on human interaction as hospitality might yet have the chance to show the economy a way out of the Covid maze.
Covid-safe travel corridors
It is upto the leading Indian hotel chains like the Taj Hotels, Oberoi Hotels, ITC Hotels and Oyo to show the way, by building Covid-safe travel corridors, for domestic travelers.
These would be bundled all-inclusive packages covering the entire origin – destination – origin journey, including Covid Health & Travel Insurance, ground / surface transportation, air travel, hotel stay, meeting rooms and meals & refreshments, and last but not the least, the guests’ Covid-free test & safety measures.
This would entail five key measures:
· Cashless Covid Group Health & Travel Insurance for Guests
Offering stay packages which includes cashless Covid Group Health & Travel Insurance cover for guests, would provide a huge safety net for both corporate as well as leisure travelers to have the confidence to undertake travel in these otherwise uncertain times, even while indulging themselves or discharging their unavoidable official duties.
· Sanitized to & fro ground / surface transportation
Hotel chains can tie-up with ride hailing apps like Ola and Uber, to ensure a covid-safe home pick-up & airport drop and vice versa, both at the departure as well as arrival destinations.
The tie-up can entail cab drivers making a video of their thermal temperature checking, vehicle sanitization and personal protection equipment being worn, as they begin from their homes. A Covid test report for the cab driver, done every two weeks, could be added along with.
This would take away another big source of travel & health safety stress in these times.
· Special Charter Flights
The hotel chains must band together and enter into tie-ups with the scheduled commercial flight operators like Air India, Spice Jet and IndiGo, for special charter flights only ferrying contracted guests of these hotel chains, who have bought this special all-inclusive package, covering surface transportation, flights and #hotel bookings.
Between the leading hotel chains and the three leading domestic airlines they should be able to have sufficient numbers to operate flights across the major metro and Tier-I / II cities and towns across India on daily basis.
· Hotel stay, meeting rooms, Business Centre and Meals & refreshments
These special bundled all-inclusive packages would of course have variants offering a mix of the core hospitality elements like hotel stay, meeting room bookings, Business Centre and meal & refreshment components, to meet the varied needs of leisure and corporate travelers.
· Guests’ Covid-free test & safety measures
The success of this whole model would be critically dependent on the hotel chains undertaking equal measure of health & safety precautions to ensure only covid-free Guests undertake travel & stay under these packages.
This can be achieved by mandating the use of the ArogyaSetu app by the guests’ from atleast 14 days prior to the journey, showing no contact with a Covid-infected person, and covid test results of the guest done not more than 7 days prior, showing -ve status.
Stakeholder Advocacy and Approvals
A whole of travel & tourism industry approach for a whole of state and Central government engagement and approval would be required, in order to make this a reality.
They key stakeholders whose support and approvals will be critical to make this a success, will be the Health Ministry, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Home Affairs, the State Governments and the Municipal bodies of the origin and destination cities, Hospitals tied up under the Covid Health & Travel Insurance policy, both in the origin and destination cities, apart from various Government and regulatory entities like IRDAI, Airport Authority of India, ICMR and NitiAayog.
The success of this endeavour will have a positive ripple effect across sectors and industries and help in kick-starting the growth of the Indian economy, by making it easy for businesses to restart and by saving the jobs and livelihoods of millions of Indians.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gaurav is a seasoned hospitality professional
and has held senior leadership and
management positions in leading Indian as well
as international hotel chains like Value Inns &
Hotels , Best Western Hotels & Resorts , Sarovar
Hotels & Resorts and Sayaji Hotels .
In 2017 he moved as Head – Truck Stop Format
with the petro-retail division of Reliance
Industries Ltd., to redefine & reposition it’s
highway destination outlet A1 Plaza chain, as well as for execution of it’s Loyalty
Marketing program for highway truck drivers.
Gaurav has a Master’s with Marketing specialization from the Devi Ahilya University, a
Certificate on Customer Relationship Management from IIM, Indore and a Certificate on
E-Commerce & Online Marketing from BWI University.
Gaurav has been a volunteer with the international spiritual organization Chinmaya
Mission and was the Sub-Editor of it’s international spiritual youth magazine Chinmaya
Udghosh for 10 years.
Gaurav is married, resides in Thane, and enjoys reading, travelling and spending time
with his daughter!
