ABSTRACT
The unprecedented growth of the tourism and hospitality sector globally correlates with the advancement of digital media and technological tools. The dominance of information and communication technology is prevalent at every stage of travelers' decision making process (i.e., from searching for a suitable destination to posting feedback on social media platforms). Not only the travelers' behavior patterns are influenced by technology, but destinations also utilize technology for marketing and enhancing consumers' experience. Nevertheless, the advancement of technology has acted like a double-axed sword for the tourism sector. Frequently, digital media is held accountable for popularising a destination to an extent that it becomes a hub for mass-tourism. Issues like tourismphobia, anti-tourism movements, and touristification etc. are gaining hype through technology and online social platforms. Alternatively, destination managers utilise technological tools to sustain tourism growth and visitor experience for better management. Information and communication technology (ICT) has played a key role in influencing tourists to visit popular destinations that led to the issue of overtourism. Likewise, the incorporation of technology is equally vital in managing the tourists' flow, and subsequently, avoiding crowding and overtourism. The chapter aims to highlight the ambidextrous role of technology in overtourism. The study is conceptual and uses short cases of various popular destinations affected by overtourism and how technology served as an emancipator to combat the unsustainable consumption patterns. The chapter discusses the practical implications of utilising technology to combat issues leading to unsustainability in tourism. It also highlights the emerging role of technology in enhancing visitors' experience in the post-COVID-19 scenario. This study presents a holistic perspective and the relationship between technology and tourism. Several studies have discussed the bright side of technology in the tourism and hospitality sector. However, the darker side is less acknowledged. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.
ABSTRACT
The detrimental impact of the COVID-19 on the world has ensued unrest amongst people. The reverberations of the life-threatening virus are conspicuous in all realms of life culminating in physical and psychological disturbance. The fear of loss of life, threatened livelihood and enforced seclusion has resulted in psychological morbidities. The existing literature demonstrates the positive effects of spirituality and religion in the life of someone mentally ailing as an efficient way of coping with problems. Spirituality is believed to provide positive emotions such as hope, courage and perspective to individuals. The current article based on a review of the literature highlights the burgeoning of post-pandemic spiritually-inclined travel to restore the balance of life. It adds to current knowledge on the effect of the pandemic on the human psyche and the mitigating effects of spirituality. The results also allow better marketing, management, and design techniques for the spiritual tourism product by providing knowledge on tourist behaviour post-pandemic. The conclusions from the review aim to evoke governments to accord more attention towards the mental health of individuals and advance programmes to help the distressed. © by the author, licensee University of Lodz – Lodz University Press, Lodz, Poland.
ABSTRACT
Purpose The investigation of the relationship between the future of humanity and the future of ecology is a pertinent issue. In this context, the study aimed to explore people's travel experience in the Himalayan region of India for transformation and well-being and how transformation induces their involvement in regenerative practices. The authors investigated if transformations contribute to the well-being of all living beings and the environment and induce involvement in regenerative practices? Design/methodology/approach The authors preferred qualitative research design and selected narrative inquiry as a research approach to bring individuals' life stories to the centre stage for examination. Accordingly, diachronic data was collected, and a paradigmatic type of narrative inquiry was applied that uses paradigmatic analytical procedures to produce thematic categories and taxonomies from the database. Findings Nine themes were identified and discussed in the light of existing literature. Transformational tourism promotes well-being and reduces mental health anomalies. The study participants used words like calm, compose, stress-free, and compassion, indicating enhanced consciousness. They also reported satisfaction and induced environmentally friendly behaviour after serving the community and environment at tourist destinations situated in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and the Union territory of Ladakh of the Himalayan region of India. Originality/value The paper collates evidence to establish a correlation between transformation and regeneration. There is a suggestion that transformative travel leads to participation in regenerative activities. The paper is based on people's experiences described as green workers of the Indian Himalayas and provides empirical conclusions that support the argument of transformational induced regenerative tourism.
ABSTRACT
Neglect is one of the most common forms of child abuse, yet is different from other forms of abuse as it refers to omission or negligence in meeting the basic needs of the child. “Neglect of Neglect” is a universal problem that needs one step more attention than the ever soaring physical and sexual abuse. The wellbeing and security of children makes a fundamental part in developing a prosperous nation. Healthcare professionals and teachers play a key role in identifying the child abuse and neglect, and thereby provide an immediate and a long term support to the children. A search was done from pubmed and google scholar with key terms “child” “child neglect” “Covid” “child rights”. The purpose of the present article is to provide an overview of the child neglect from a medical to socio-legal perspective in India and its negligence amidst the Covid pandemic and to ensure a prompt comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to protect the neglected child.
ABSTRACT
The study attempts to understand students' apprehensions, satisfaction, and experience concerning online hospitality and tourism education (HTE) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focused group discussions were conducted to gather student experiences implementing ICT in hospitality and tourism education. The group discussions were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in search of themes to identify and validate the constructs to develop the questionnaire for the study. The questionnaire was then presented before the subject experts to cross-check the validity of constructs. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was used to determine students' satisfaction by comparing students' perceptions to students' expectations. The study's findings show the importance of practical classes and labs and on-site instructor comments on students' overall satisfaction. Online teaching can complement traditional classroom teaching but cannot fully replace lab sessions with instructor feedback. Transitioning to an online platform requires effective tools and curriculum modifications to fill the gap in industry expectations regarding student employability. Online teaching has immense capability, but it cannot be generalized and requires subject-specific attention and feedback. Online education needs to keep evolving alongside contemporary classroom teaching to meet student expectations. Future research would concentrate on communication, interpersonal, and technology skills and their effect on the study's results.
ABSTRACT
The Indian restaurant industry is one of the largest service sectors employing 7.3 million people in 2018-19. COVID-19 pandemic has brought industry at a brink of an existential crisis giving rise to a host of unforeseen challenges and roadblocks. COVID pandemic, indicate changes in the eating-out patterns with transformed customer’s expectation. All the discussions on the revival of hospitality and tourism post-lockdown are from the supply side. However, there have been few studies that look at the situation from the demand sides. This research analysed millennial customers’ sentiments towards re-patronising food outlets post-lockdown using a mixed-method approach. The research concludes that only 18.5% of millennials are willing to re-patronise eating at restaurants post lockdown. However, there is a large segment with 51.05% open to home delivery of food and 54.90 % open to take away food. The study has highlighted a significant difference in dining behaviour between generation X and generation Y. It has identified three major demographic segments based on willingness to eat out specifically in the context of the prevailing pandemic. These are daring diner millennials, cautious diner millennials and fearful diner millennials. The Need-risk grid explaining the quadrant shift of eating out activity is a crucial contribution of the study. © 2021 Publishing India Group. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: Dental caries is treated using a high-speed hand-piece by dentists, but the aerosol produc-ing nature of the hand-piece has become its major disadvantage in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Chemo Mechanical Caries Removal (CMCR) agent is a minimal invasive, non-aerosol generating technique of caries removal. Hence, the present questionnaire survey was carried out to assess the awareness and clinical application of CMCR agent among general dental practitioners and various dental specialists. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey, consisting of twenty-two questions, was carried out via online platform. A total of 164 dentists contributed to the study. SPSS version 20 was used to analyse the collected data. Chi square test was applied to assess significance. Result: Overall, 87.1% of the participants were aware of CMCR method among which 64.1% were Pedodontists. About 73.2% of dentists among participants accepted CMCR as an effective as well as alternative method of caries removal. Carisolv (33.5%) and papacarie (25%) were preferred by maximum number of participants. Conclusion: Considering the potential advantages, it is strongly recommended to use CMCR agent as an alternative to conventional technique for caries removal. © 2021, Shrimahalakshmi.
ABSTRACT
The World Health Organisation declared the novel coronavirus disease as a pandemic in March 2020. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus restricted global mobility as cities and countries started to impose complete lockdown to curtail the spread of the deadly virus. The restricted movement of people and transport worldwide resulted in a metamorphosis from overtourism to zero tourism within a short period. This study aims to analyse the effect of COVID-19 on the tourists' perceptions about crowding and how will this transition impact their decision while choosing a destination. In-depth interviews were conducted with tourists, and Nvivo12 plus was used to analyse the data. The study reveals that in the post-COVID-19 phase, tourists will be more sensitised towards crowding, and they would volunteer to avoid crowded places in the short run. Further, maintenance of social distancing norms and sanitised services at destinations will be a pre-requisite in selecting a destination. The study is a pioneer in analysing the changing tourist's behaviour concerning crowding, evolving perceptions of overtourism for the tourists which will aid the stakeholders at the destinations in developing strategies. Inadvertently, the tourists visibly reflected the need for sustainable tourism.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has caused radical changes in the lives of people as well as economies. These changes are deemed as evolutionary and would bring a new phase of transformation. However, current practices of both people and businesses might cease once the crisis dis-appears. In the tourism context, going back to unsustainable and irresponsible practices would lead to the re-emergence of tourism aversion. This research note addresses the possibility that COVID-19 has only brought a temporary halt to the pre-existing issue of over-tourism and its related unsustainable practices. Even though the travel restrictions imposed by several countries amidst the spread of coronavirus have created a situation of “zero tourism”, the tourism sector has now resumed its operations in most of the world. By presenting a conceptual framework, this note stresses that if the sector continues to act in the same way as before the virus, the situation of overtourism will re-emerge in the post-COVID-19 phase. Therefore, to prevent this issue, emphasising quality tourism, inculcating responsible behaviour, and the incorporation of technology are suggested. © 2021, Lodz University Press. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Though a lot of studies have analysed the impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry and several suggestions have been made to revive the sector, tourism education is largely overlooked. Tourism and cognate courses offered by higher educational institutions are essentially a part of the tourism system. This study aims to emphasize the perspective of tourism educators with respect to upcoming challenges in the tourism discipline and ways to reinvent and reboot the tourism education in the post-COVID-19 phase. The study adopted a qualitative approach and a total of 22 responses were interpreted. A thematic analysis using the Nvivo 12 plus software was done. Even though there was variability in the respondents’ background, a significant emphasis on curriculum design, industry collaboration, and excellence in research was mutually suggested by the educators. The study suggests that ambidextrous management in tourism education be adopted in post-COVID-19 phase. In other words, educators must become adept at the delivery of courses in a variety of modalities that would enable them to cope with the short and medium-term impacts of teaching in a COVID-19 (incremental innovation), while providing by anticipation of future demands (from industry and students), cutting edge curriculum (radical innovation). © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.