The impact of the Pandemic

Coronavirus has had an additional, and enormous, impact on the tourism and hospitality sector. It has dramatically challenged the roles of those working in destination management and in turn, the impact of the virus is likely to change some of our established tourism structures and organisations. TMI has been impacted financially and this means that this business plan needs to address the future financial stability of the organisation.

The way we meet and communicate has also been impacted, and whilst this might have resulted in reduced income from events, our reach through the technology has been dramatically increased. Attendance by our student membership at the convention grew to around 500 and the introduction of regular webinars has welcomed many practitioners who may not normally have accessed one of our two annual events. Moreover, at times of lockdown many of our members, particularly those perhaps working in isolated circumstances, have greatly valued our programme of events.

The impact of coronavirus therefore means we need to urgently review and strengthen our financial position but it also means we have an opportunity to examine and redesign how we communicate, and how our organisational structure can be improved.