Abstract
The profound impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global tourism activity and the hospitality industry has rendered statistical approaches on tourism-demand forecasting obsolete. Furthermore, literature review shows the absence of studies on the supply chain in the HoReCa (hotel, restaurant, catering) sector from a sustainability perspective that also addresses economic and social aspects, and not only environmental ones. In this context, the objective of this article is to carry out a prospective analysis on how the changes in the behaviour of consumers during the pandemic and the uncertainties regarding the exit from the health emergency can give rise to social trends with a high impact on the HoReCa sector in the coming years and, specifically, how they will affect the HoReCa supply chain. In the absence of investigations due to the proximity of what has happened, public sources and reports of international relevance have been identified and analysed from the future studies and strategic and competitive intelligence disciplines. The HoReCa sector in Spain has been chosen as field of observation. This analysis draws the future of the HoReCa sector, describes the changes in customer behaviour regarding food and beverages, explains the changes in distribution chains, and reflects on the impact of potential scenarios on the sector. The confluence of all these changes and trends can even configure a new supply chain in the hospitality sector with the emergence of new actors and the increase of access routes to a new final customer for whom security prevails in all its dimensions: physical, emotional, economic, and digital.
Highlights
The HoReCa channel is the set of commercial catering food establishments whose main activity is the production and sale of direct out-of-home consumption of food
Even if HoReCa is a fundamental part of tourism, there are few academic works in this field as it is a difficult sector to study, largely because the stated objective of many of the official databases is to provide rigorous information on the tourism sector, where accommodation services are clearly prioritized over restoration services, and because the HoReCa establishments are often included under the hospitality umbrella [1]
The objective of this article is to carry out a prospective analysis on how the changes in the behaviour of consumers during the pandemic and the uncertainties regarding the exit from the health emergency can give rise to social trends with a high impact on the HoReCa sector in the coming years and, how they will affect the HoReCa supply chain
Summary
The HoReCa channel is the set of commercial catering food establishments whose main activity is the production and sale of direct out-of-home consumption of food. The concept of sustainability has grown beyond the idea of environmental stewardship to include social as well as economic aspects [2]. Creating value for this triple bottom line, i.e., environment, economy, and society, has been the goal of sustainable business models [3]. The principles of sustainability refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, having to establish an adequate balance between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability. Sustainable tourism must ensure viable long-term economic activities that provide well-distributed socio-economic benefits
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