Future of sharing economy and its resilience post pandemic: a study on Indian travel and tourism industry

ABSTRACT

Purpose Taking a retrospective view, the present study aims to investigate the resilience of shared facilities (accommodation) across India in the post-pandemic period. More specifically, it explores the issues and challenges in implementing sustainable practices in the long run taking a dual perspective of both consumers and service providers. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method study was pursued in exploring the future resilience of the shared facilities in the post-pandemic period. A multi-method triangulation approach was adopted involving both data collection and data analysis. Primary data was collected through focus group sessions and analysed through a grounded theory study. Whereas, secondary data was extracted from Twitter and processed through textual data mining using the NVivo (12 Pro) software. Critical themes and sentiments were explored through the dual study and a corroboration process was followed thereon to support the findings. Findings The dual study extracted major themes pertaining to the present pandemic scenario wherein recovery strategies are at the top priority for all tourism service providers. Among the major themes tourists 2019 passiveness towards the environment existing misconceptions with shared facilities and situational perspective emerged as critical issues worrying service providers in the post-pandemic period. Furthermore the sentiment analysis indicated a positive start to the recovery measures wherein both tourist and tour operators are confident to embrace and restore the shared facilities/business respectively with additional care and responsibilities. Originality/value The novelty of the study lies in the identification of critical themes and sentiments concerning the future resilience of the shared economy businesses post-pandemic period in Indian tourism which can have a generalized effect across the world. Moreover, the study corroborated the findings of the dual study where similarities among the themes were observed.