The Importance Of Effective Communication In The Tourism Industry During COVID-19: A Case Study On Hays Travel Essay.

The Impact of Effective Communication on Organizational Success

Strong and effective communication specifically from the manager enables the organization in better instructing as well as informing the employees on specific assignments, and goals along with general performance expectations (Tölkes 2018). This in turn reduces the risk of making mistakes and lowers the confusion as well as misunderstanding (leading t conflicts) amongst the employees. Therefore, communication in business is imperative for surviving the dynamic and competitive business markets. Effective communication makes sure that the organization not only conveys the required information, however, understand their feeling and emotion about that information at the same time (Kharouf et al. 2019). The sudden outbreak of the COVID 19 virus has impacted the tourism industry significantly. Hence, it is imperative for the tourism organizations to understand the importance of effective communication in order to engage more customers towards the organization and generate better revenues (Amirbakzadeh and Vakil Alroaia 2020). This report discusses the general theories associated with organizational communication. The report also evaluates the barriers that prevent people from booking holidays abroad and outlines the strategies that the travel agency has implemented in order to overcome the encountered barriers.

Hays Travel is an independent travel agent chain that is headquartered in Sunderland, England. Hays Travel is one of the largest travel agents in the United Kingdom and the organization uses several tour operators to provide package holidays to customers (Hays Travel 2022). This travel agency understands the importance of effective communication in business and has implemented several strategies for overcoming the issues encountered that prevent people from booking holidays aboard amidst COVID 19 (Hays Travel 2022).

The Bureaucracy theory was developed by Max Weber a German sociologist in order to exemplify an ideal form of organization that exhibits a high level of formal structure. In terms of communication, the Bureaucracy theory assumes that the hierarchical approach where every member of the organization is responsible for reporting to the one directly above him or her until the communication reaches the top management (Suwarno et al. 2022). According to the Bureaucracy Theory, it is imperative for the ideal organizations to have clear setoff rules and regulations that control the emotionally oriented attitude and behaviors of the employees resulting in them to react illogically and unpredictably (Hatcher 2020). This would help in preventing abuse of power by the upper management of the organizational structure.

This theory was proposed by Chester Barnard which explains that there are three primary functions of informal organization. This function incorporates, communication, maintenance of cohesiveness in the formal organization, and maintenance of feelings of personal integrity along with self respect (Roman, Haleblian and Raveendran 2021). The bottom-up explanation of the communication process and authority of this theory recommends that the employees and the executives merely connected with the communication systems. This theory also underlines the essentiality of formal communication channels in order to connect all members of the organization (Roman, Haleblian and Raveendran 2021). Thus, the theory explains that the lines of communication must be direct and short in order to enhance the communication speed and decrease the number of distortions.

Barriers to Booking Holidays Abroad amidst COVID-19

The sudden outbreak of the COVID 19 virus has made a significant impact on every business industry, however, the hard hit industry is the tourism and the travel agency organization. The travel agencies of the United Kingdom have encountered heavy financial losses due to the sudden outbreak of the virus and its associated strict rules and regulations. For the past three years, holiday makers have chosen to travel within the nation or not at all. The abroad trips are mostly canceled due to unavailable information and communication of the organization operating in this industry (Kowalska and Niezgoda 2020). Now as the relations have been lifted in majority parts of the globe, travel agencies are trying to renew the interest of the people in holidays abroad. As a result travel agencies and tourism organizations have recognized a few most common reasons or barriers that are preventing people to travel abroad. These are:

Physical barriers: physical barriers are responsible for hindering the flow of information and communication causing misunderstanding and misconception. Taking the case of travel agencies, it is evident that people are still worried about getting the COVID virus abroad and getting stuck in another nation while traveling (Campante, Costa and Martins 2022). In addition to this, people are also worried about the lack of social distancing among individuals while traveling and on airplanes, therefore being in close contact with the person who might carry the virus.

Organizational structure barriers: this barrier is usually caused due to poor coordination, and the absence of formal communication channels in the travel agencies. Message filtering is another reason for the organizational structure barrier in tourism (Zieli?ska-Szczepkowska 2021). Considering the travel agency, it is evident that people lack clarity on the new governmental policies and practices regarding the quarantine rules specifically for the nations that are under the red list.

Emotional barriers: emotional barrier creates mental blocks in individuals thereby clicking the influences on how individuals perceive others' actions and prohibiting them from making clear communication (Foong and Sow 2020). In the case of travel agencies, it is found that people have now gone out of the habit of traveling and this certainly makes people anxious about flying and going away from their respective nations.

Culture barriers: there is a huge uncertainty about the rules and regulations in other nations and there is a lack of information and protocol about what will happen if there is a new variant or COVID 19 related crisis whilst overseas (Schouten et al. 2020). This is another barrier that is preventing people from traveling abroad.

 Information barriers: there is no clarity on the fact regarding what are the precaution to be taken by people while traveling abroad. This has created a significant impact on the decision of people for travelling abroad amidst COVID.

Hays Travel understands that effective communication can have a considerable impact on the organizational success and productivity (Foong and Sow 2020). Thus identifying and understanding barriers and strategies to overcome the same could assist in being more effective in the tourism industry (Grizzle and Ortiz 2019). Hays Travel aims at retaining formation on the strict regulations and policy of the governmental institution and uses this research to train the managers who are culturally aware. Hays Travel also aims at nurturing its employees to embrace the current situation of the surrounding regarding COVID and meet the changing demands accordingly.

Strategies Implemented by Hays Travel to Overcome Barriers

Hays Travel also aims at constricting effective and precise messages that are capable of addressing the needs of the students in the context of the COVID Situation and make the most sense to them (Netshitangani 2018). Hays Travel focuses on communicating with the customers personally in order to identify their respective concerns and issues regarding COVIOD protocols and make a clear and concise response to them. This helps Hays Travel in making the customers feel valued and involved with the organization for a longer period and even during COVID. Hays Travel also fosters open ended questions from the customers in order to understand their problems and accordingly find ways of mitigating the same more effectively. Hays Travel also focuses on identifying the emotional triggers of the customers and finding out what is stopping or preventing them to fly abroad. All these strategies implemented by Hays Travel help in overcoming the challenges in communication thereby allowing the Organization to attract more customers to its travel business.

In order to operate the organization more effectively and smoothly, it is recommended that Hays Travel acknowledges the concerns, and hardships, and expresses an understanding of what the customers are going through. It is also recommended that Hays Travel give customers the choices within a set of principles and guidelines thereby expressing confidence in the ability of the people. For their hays Travel could provide specific descriptions of the desired behavior from the customers and express gratitude regarding the COVID situation. It is also recommended that Hays Travel acknowledges uncertainty and explains what is known and unknown to the organization and the customers regarding the COVIOD situation and employees' mechanisms accordingly. Being consistent in the messages and using simple messages to communicate with the customers is also recommended. These suggested strategies if implemented by Hays Travel could help in identifying more barriers thereby solving them simultaneously. This ways, the organization would stay in profits and develop better revenue streams as a whole.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the sudden outbreak of the COVID 19 virus has impacted the tourism industry significantly. Hence, it is imperative for the tourism organizations to understand the importance of effective communication in order to engage more customers towards the organization and generate better revenues. Hays Travel has understood the same and the organization has implemented several strategies that will keep the customer engaged and involved in the travel business of the organization.

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