The Feasibility of Remote Teaching and Training of Hotel Management

Abstract

Whenever the world faces any unforeseen situation the first area that gets impacted is the academics; due to its nature and stakeholders involved. Generally immediate shutting of academic institutions is called for as a precautionary measure. The situation can be political, social, religious, geographical or biological. The Covid - 19 easily turned into a pandemic from being an outbreak in Wuhan, China. It spread rapidly causing disruptions in all areas of human personal and professional domains. Suddenly situation that we had no clue of was thrown at us. We can’t give in to circumstances; instead we need to plan strategies to handle them. It is not a two – three days affair but something that is going to have a long term impact. Cities went into lock downs, countries sealed their borders. Within cities combat mechanism was being used by the local governments and organisations in turn planned their survival as well as operational strategies. Many people moved temporarily though; from being on site or office workers to remote workers owing to the circumstances of the pandemic. The hotel industry which has traditionally been people - centric had to opt for Work From Home. Covid 19 pandemic has exposed us to many challenges and to deal with them we all are required to exercise safety protocols. As a precaution it became the need of the hour. Like other courses the Hotel Management academics and training are also facing the need to venture into remote teaching and becoming the new entrants into academic cyberspace. All those who didn’t think much of remote teaching - learning earlier suddenly were forced to embrace it, there being no other way. The recent happenings have led to transforming of teaching, learning and training. All academicians have had to innovate and find sustainable practices as students are available and are willing to learn; they may be at different geographical locations though. That missing parameter can be substituted with virtual options using technology; these have been tested and are being used in the last two years with some success. It has shown the possibility and a lot more can be done in this domain. Best available remote teaching and training models were studied and the most suitable for Hotel Management has been recommended. This paper encourages the hospitality educators re - evaluate hospitality education and training needs.