Muscat: Oman’s hospitality and tourism sectors are poised for quantum leaps post COVID-19 provided digitalisation is implemented aggressively, according to experts.
Speaking to Observer in the background of the Tourism Tomorrow online conference, experts further suggested that digital transformation is the need of the hour to emerge successfully from COVID-19.
“Tourism and travel sectors are affected worldwide and Oman is not any exception and the recovery is a process that needs an alignment of various factors of travel and tourism supported by digitalisation,” says Abdul Rahman al Balushi, a travel expert.
“Technology, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, and the digital transformation of both operations and communications will drive optimisation.”
The reduced pollution during 2020 is likely to be immediately reversed once travel becomes more accessible, with environmental issues likely to be glossed over in a rush to feed the travel bug once more. Although 65 per cent of people are planning to travel in 6 months and half of them in the next 3 months, business travel may take little more time to recover, according to the participants.
“Face to face interaction and meet and greet may suffer for some more time. Technological upgrade and digital transformation will be a necessity during the post-COVID era. However, technology shouldn’t substitute the real to customer experience and authenticity,” says Rajan Jayaraman, Country Head of Kuwait Airways.
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