Abstract
While the COVID-19 pandemic evolves and new variants emerge, destinations and cities look to tourism recovery, cautiously rebooting and re-opening borders. Since the start of the pandemic, dramatic lockdowns have been employed, resulting in dire economic and social consequences to the tourism and hospitality industry and creating the need for a more feasible and sustainable response in the post-pandemic era. Pandemic vigilance and resilience at the societal level have become key in pandemic preparedness. However, due to the complexity of managing COVID-19, no clear cross-disciplinary collaborative framework for tourism recovery has been developed. Cross-sector collaboration to collectively integrate resources, capabilities, and experiences should be prioritised to spearhead tourism recovery plans. With insight on public health, pandemic preparedness, and community access, we hypothesised that cross-industry collaboration between the tourism industry and the pharmacist profession is relevant to the measures adopted for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine this hypothesis, this study aimed to explore perceptions from key stakeholders in the tourism and the pharmacist sectors on cross-industry collaboration towards COVID-19 management and the “know-how” in developing, adopting, and advancing such a partnership. This exploratory study adopts and advances the ‘Four Cs’ conceptual framework of communication, cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. In terms of our hypothesis, interview responses with tourism executives and CPs confirm the framework’s suitability and the importance of an interdisciplinary collaborative approach between CPs and the tourism sector to craft a sustainable pathway to recovery from COVID-19 and future pandemic measures as borders re-open and international mobility increases. A tourism recovery strategy from this pandemic can occur more judiciously through a collaborative partnership with an extensive network of pharmacists within communities and popular tourism sites, as CPs have valuable healthcare resources and the ability to track and communicate healthcare alerts to tourism destination recovery efforts.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the tourism industry, with the outlook remaining highly uncertain and complicated due to the challenges of managing the pandemic globally
In our study, we further explore the collaboration between the tourism industry and CPs as part of COVID-19 recovery
The results of the study are consistent with the hypothesis that cross-industry collaboration was deemed relevant by the tourism sector and the pharmacist sector for its implications in strengthening the post-pandemic recovery strategy
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the tourism industry, with the outlook remaining highly uncertain and complicated due to the challenges of managing the pandemic globally. Despite the ongoing presence of COVID-19, the pandemic’s crippling economic impact on the travel and tourism industry across destinations has meant governments push ahead with re-opening agendas. This has included increasing speculation on the future outlook of tourism, and how and what tourism recovery will transform into, in various destinations [8]. AA ttrraavveell ccoorrrriiddoorr eennaacctteedd wwiitthh CChhiinnaa iinn SSeepptteemmbbeerr 22002200 aaccccoouunnttss ffoorr oovveerr 9900%% ooff ttoottaall vviissiittaattiioonn ttoo MMaaccaaoo [[2222]]. TThhee ttrraavveell ccoorrrriiddoorr mmeeaannssqquuaarraannttininee--frfreeeetrtaravveel ltotoananddfrformomMMacaacoa,oa,lathltohuoguhgshtrsitcrticCtOCVOIVDI-D19-1t9estteinstgiisngreiqsurierqedu.irAedn.yAonthyeorsthaellroswaelldowtoeednttoereMntaecraMo,ascuacoh, sauscrhetausrnreintugrMniancgaoMraecsaidoernetssidoernthtsooser ftrhoomsenferoigmhbnoeuigrhinbgouHroinngg HKoonngg,Kmounsgt,imsoulastteisinoldateesiignndaetesidgnquataerdanqtuinaerahnottineles h[2o3t]e.ls [23]
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