Reviving the Indian hospitality industry after the Covid-19 pandemic: the role of innovation in training

This study aims to identify the innovative training programmes used by the hotel industry in India to support guests and employees during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also discusses the role of contemporary training programmes in boosting consumer confidence and enhancing their re-visit intentions.

The study centres on 28 virtual in-depth interviews (conducted via video conferencing applications) with hotel industry stakeholders in India based on two sets of semi-structured questionnaires. The study included hotel training managers, operations staff and some hotel guests. Interviewees were selected using a non-random purposive sampling method.

Results suggest that the implementation of new training programmes has significantly and positively influenced the re-visit intentions of guests. The study highlights the fact that the majority of guests prefer hotels that have stringent hygiene and sanitation protocols and where the hotel staff appeared to be more concerned about the safety of the guest during service delivery. Hotels were also found to be implementing various innovative programmes, especially Covid-19 awareness training and environmental management certificate training among other specialist programmes.

Prior research on pandemics (such as Middle-Eastern respiratory syndrome [MERS], severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS], Spanish flu, etc.) has been undertaken and the role of training as a response, but there is little prior work on the role of these confidence-building training programmes in the Indian context and their influence on the re-visit intentions of guests after the Covid-19 pandemic.