When it comes to revenue and overall growth, travel and hospitality go hand in hand. Both have traditionally been high touch industries. So, when a pandemic that required absolute abstinence from touch took the world by storm, it was travel and hospitality that were affected the most.

Despite the world returning to a state of normalcy, travel and hospitality continue to suffer in terms of revenue loss. Non-uniform vaccinations, travel bubbles and continued volatility in restrictions are giving a hard time to several companies in the travel and hospitality sectors.

However, despite the troubled waters, prominent hotelier Sanjeev Nanda is quite optimistic about the future of the industry and its potential of returning to the pre-pandemic levels. Nanda, who serves as the CEO of The Claridges Group of Hotels in India, believes that the pandemic has brought about a constructive disruption in the global hospitality arena.

“In a post-pandemic world, the future is definitely going to be way different than what any of us could have imagined two years ago. The travel and hospitality industries will not be driven by the trends from the past; it will now be governed by the real-time data,” said Sanjeev Nanda.

He added, “Yes, the sector has undergone a major disruption due to the outbreak of the disease. Businesses have faced losses in terms of revenues, investments, and human resources. However, these difficulties have driven the sector to focus more on the synergy between functions and experiment with ‘out of the box’ ideas.”

According to the Claridges Group CEO, a perfect example of the same could be seen in the inclusion of technology in the hospitality sector, which erstwhile was a laggard in adopting the latest advancements. “The need for low-touch services, birthed by the pandemic, has in fact forced the hospitality sector to become future-forward,” said Sanjeev Nanda.

He also pointed out that while businesses continue their struggle to achieve pre-pandemic revenue and occupancy levels, now is not the time to be distraught by the hardships. He suggested that business owners, as well as employees, need to look at this crisis as an opportunity for unprecedented growth.

“Right now, the future might seem a bit bleak to some, however, there is a silver lining in even the darkest of clouds. If all the stakeholders in the travel and hospitality sectors perceive this crisis as an opportunity to learn, the limits are endless for the sector to grow,” quipped Sanjeev Nanda.