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Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to provide strategic goals for the tourism industry of Australia. The findings suggest that bushfire and COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to strategic and leadership risks for the industry leaders. The findings from the report also suggest that businesses are using robotics and Artificial Intelligence to continue working in adverse situations. As per this report, businesses are also using VR and AR technologies to provide better customer service. IoT and AI technologies are being utilised as well. The report has highlighted that the tourism and hospitality industry contributes to a significant level of sustainability issues such as over-tourism, overconsumption of food and water and significant carbon emission. As per this report, a regulatory non-profit body is required to be created for the Tourism 2030 plan. It is also imperative to ensure that IoT, AI, AR and VR technologies are required to be included in the Tourism 2030 plan as well.  

Introduction

The tourism and hospitality industry of the world have been affected significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Australia, bushfire has deteriorated the situation even further. The current report has attempted to shed light on the industry resilience concerning the Tourism industry. In this report, a long-term tourism strategy has been attempted to be created focusing on the impending challenges and their solutions. This report has explored the innovative business strategies considered by the tourism and hospitality industry worldwide. The report has also attempted to shed light on the main sustainability aspects that need to be considered by these industries in Australia.  

Critical analysis of the present strategic and leadership risks faced by Australian Tourism and Hospitality industry due to bushfire and COVID 19

The COVID-19 pandemic and the bushfire happening in Australia has significantly impacted the tourism and the hospitality industry. According to Sigala (2020, pp. 321), the main issues contributed by the COVID-19 pandemic have been the changes in working conditions with virtual leadership. Leaders have been unable to communicate with the employees effectively due to increasing hardships in communication. Similarly, Damant (2020) also stated that staff management has been a significant challenge for her as she was compelled to manage the entire work through virtual channels.  As per the Faulkner’s model of crisis management, at the emergency stage, leadership competency includes complex decision making (Hirudayaraj & Sparkman, 2019). Hence, all the leaders in the tourism and the hospitality industry decided to engage in virtual communication.  On the other hand, Schweinsberg, Darcy & Beirman (2020, pp. 2) argued that the main strategic issue regarding bushfires in the tourism industry of Australia is that through social media, people have started seeing the event of bushfire as an impact of actions of the tourism industry.

It is imperative to consider that leadership challenges have increased in the hospitality industry of Australia with the spread of COVID-19. As per Brammer & Clark (2020, pp. 455), a major leadership issue faced during the COVID-19 has been keeping the workforce motivated.  For example, Riddell (2020) argued that, in the initial days of COVID-19, the number of employees in their hotel reduced from 78 to 2 as they were unable to provide work to the employees. This situation significantly affected the leaders to motivate the employees during this time. Similarly, Damant (2020) stated that the mental health of the employees was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, Thiessen (2020) argued that leaders have felt that inactions of the business leaders have been highlighted due to the bushfire. They have also faced issues in the form of reduced income. For example, the MGallery by Sofitel Accor hotel has lost around $2.5 million in revenue (Thiessen, 2020). Hence leadership and strategic issues have been prevalent after the bushfire and the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

Critical evaluation of the innovative business strategies taken into consideration by the tourism and hospitality providers

In order to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are undertaking several steps which are supported by innovation. The hotel industry of Australia is using technologies as tourism solutions. As per Sigala (2020) hotels are using Virtual Reality for providing effective customer experiences through virtual dining and virtual wine tasting. On the other hand, Brueger (2020) argued that they are using QR codes in the place of physical menus to ensure that customers are not being forced to touch it. In addition, businesses in the tourism industry are using IoT technology for their customers. According to BILSLAND, Nagy & Smith (2020, pp. 427), IoT technology is helpful for maintaining the temperature of the rooms and managing the lighting without touching. As far as innovative solutions are concerned, Augmented reality is being used in the tourism industry as well. With Augmented reality, customers are provided with virtual tours of the places which are helping travel agencies. 

On the other hand, Andrews (2020) argued that hotels are utilising the self-check-in with codes given in the mobile of the guest to open the assigned rooms. This has been helpful in reducing the chance of a guest to be infected by Coronavirus. Similarly, Brueger (2020) also stated that their hotel has also considered incorporating the digital system of checking in and checking out for the staff. On the other hand, Bas & Sivaprasad (2020) argued that hotels are using touchless innovation with door sensors along with voice or foot-activated elevators. Hospitality companies are providing virtual sterilisation tours with Virtual Reality technology as well to the customers prior to providing service. These innovative steps undertaken by the companies have been contributed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Critical appraisal of the main sustainability indicators should be considered by the industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly emphasized the relevance of focusing on the sustainability issues in Australia. As per Enqvist et al. (2018, pp. 18), the concept of stewardship has focused on stating the role of sustainability in the tourism industry. The four main distinct meanings of stewardship are motivation, ethics, outcome and action. The consideration of SDG goals is significant for future travellers. The SDG goals 3 and 6 required to be considered for the tourism industry of Australia. Goal 3 represents maintaining good health and wellbeing. SDG goal 6 represents the cleaner water and sanitisation. According to Borja et al. (2020, pp. 10), considering the goal of good health and wellbeing of the people in the community, businesses need to ensure that travellers refrain from over travelling.  Most travellers are engaged in over-tourism which has deteriorated the situation of Australia. Similarly, Paramati, Alam & Chen (2017, pp. 7) argued that travellers are unaware of the impact they are having on the environment. For example, increased tourism in Australia has increased carbon dioxide emission. Hence, the health of the local people has been affected by over-tourism. Hence the tourism industry needs to focus on the problem of over-tourism in Australia.  

On the other hand, Gudmundsson (2019, pp. 14) argued that long haul flights have a negative impact on nature as they are responsible for the emission of harmful gases in nature. It is imperative to consider that long haul flights stay in the air for a long time which contributes to more emission. This suggests that businesses in the tourism industry need to consider the issue of long-haul flights to ensure that sustainability is maintained in the sector. The tourism goals of 2020 in Australia mainly focused on mitigating supply-side issues (Tourism Australia, 2021). Hence, the balance of natural resources is needed to be considered as well. According to Alvarez-Sousa (2018, pp. 24), tourism consumption is a major issue faced by countries which are contributed by travelling as well. Over-consumption, a tourist destination by the tourists contributes to a high level of water shortages and overfishing which can affect the local community. 

Outline of tourism 2030 strategy

The innovative solutions incorporated by other countries need to be included in the tourism plan of Australia. The sustainability issues are required to the taken into account in the Tourism 2030 strategy as well. For Tourism 2030 plan of Australia, the mission statement will be increasing the competitive advantage of Australia as a responsible travel and tourism destination by utilising the natural resources of the country. The SDG goal 6 attempts to pledge to provide clean water and sanitation to the people (SDGs, 2021). Hence, being responsible as an industry will be relevant. Moreover, the vision statement will be focused on providing a safe and memorable experience of travelling to Australia. SDG goal 3 relies on offering good health and wellbeing (SDGs, 2021). Therefore, this goal is required to be considered by the 2030 Tourism policy. 

In Australia, a corporate plan was decided which focused on gaining an overnight expenditure goal of $121.3 billion specifically for 2019-20 (Tourism Australia, 2019). For Tourism 2030 for Australia, a specific overnight expenditure goal can be created. For instance, it can be decided that within 2029-30, the tourism industry of Australia needs to gain an overnight expenditure of $230 billion. For ensuring that in the post-COVID era, the regulatory body of the tourism industry becomes more stringent. In Queensland, there is a non-profit statutory body called the Queensland Tourism Industry Council which regulates the tourism industry in Queensland (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2015). Therefore, for entire Australia, a standalone regulatory body can be created which will ensure that the COVID-19 related regulations are maintained by the industry players.

A corporate governance framework required to be created for creating an effective Tourism 2030 plan. The statutory board to be created for the industry of tourism needs to report to the Australian Minister or Trade with respect to the PGPA Act. The Tourism 2020 plan created by the Australian government was mainly a process rather than a strategy. Similarly, the Tourism 2030 strategy also requires to be treated as a process. The technologies that is prevalently used such as IoT, AI, VR and AR needs to be considered to be used in the tourism industry in the Tourism 2030 strategy. 

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the current report that the bushfire and COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the tourism and hospitality industry of Australia. As per this report, the companies in these industries leaders are facing issues to maintain communication and remote working. In addition, the report has highlighted that the tourism industry contributes to several sustainability issues such as over-tourism, use of long-haul flights and tourism consumption. This report has created strategic goals for the Australian tourism industry for 2030. The strategic goals have focused on creating a non-profit statutory body for the tourism industry.