Focus on Industry segments in post covid world

Things changed drastically for our industry this year. With the Coronavirus, the hotel industry as we show shut down.

Few shut down due to government regulations, few due to lack of guests.

As governments tried to tackle the pandemic of the century, they shut down air travel, locked down cities and virtually anything that resembled modern life as we have come to know it.

No travelers and no one going to the restaurants, meant a perfect storm for the hospitality industry.

Now as we pick up the pieces, and as cities tentatively reopen, it is time to look getting business back in place.

Your first effort needs to be to able survive and then to thrive.

In order to survive, you should focus on industry segments that has prospered or can do that in the short term due to all these restrictions.

Here are some of the industries that have gained due to the covid crisis

• Automobile
• Tech and ancillary
• Internet
• Streaming / Film production
• Pharma

Automobiles and Ancillaries

As people start to travel back, they will be most comfortable in following social distancing. That will not happen with public transportation, leading to an uptick in automobile and 2 wheeler sales.

And with the introduction of the new BS 6 engines the auto industry is already geared to meet the environment norms.

This short term demand will also come from people wanting to drive to some destination in the initial months following the opening of the lcokdown.

You can capitalise on this trend in a few ways

• Offer room rate contracts to companies dealing with auto and auto ancillaries
• Tie up with dealer for training room requirement
• Offer dealership discount voucher to your restaurant to gift the clients
• Sell sweet or chocolate boxes to dealers as gifts
• Conduct service camps in partnership with auto companies, if you have a big parking space

Tech and Ancillary

While tech and ancillary industries that predominantly serve customers have increased their operation in this lockdown, the trend of work from home will have a short term impact in the industry.

As work from home gathers steam, there may be a huge disruption in the office spaces being abandoned and people working from home.

How to take advantage of this trend

• Offer home delivery of lunch/ dinner to employees
• Offer monthly subscription of health snacks
• Covert banquet spaces into smaller office spaces
• Offer business center to companies on long term for smaller meetings etc

Internet

If you see the speed of deal making in Reliance, you would imagine that the internet and internet related companies are more active now than ever.

The internet companies are all gearing up to meet increased demand for customer satisfaction and to do that they will have to invest in infrastructure.

That possibly could give you an opportunity to target the companies dealing with infrastructure and tower requirements.

For this industry, they simply cannot work from home. They need to be on site. That will mean travel for engineers, sales people and other people working on projects.

• Look for long stay project opportunities
• Packed lunches for these guest

Streaming and Film production

During lockdown, people had access to lots of free time, so they signed up for streaming services like Netflix, Amazon prime etc.

Now they will ask for more content.

Watch out for increased production of content by movie makers. With a huge regional base to be captured, there is opportunity in all states to get a piece of this business opportunity.

To capitalise on this trend

• Identify known production houses and see if they have a requirement for stays.
• Look at meal delivery to off site shooting.

Pharma and Healthcare Related

Of all the companies to benefit from this situation, the pharma companies and the ancillary industry will receive a big boost as the economy opens up.

Chances are that the entire industry will have to undergo multiple rounds to retraining and that creates opportunities for our banquet spaces.

Also as hospitals and equipment manufacturers scramble to provide changing technology, sales related travel should increase.

During the lockdown, the entire elective surgery stream was suspended and you will see travel for hip replacement and eye surgery etc which were kept on standby start again.

Trends to watch out for

• Medical tourism
• Continuing medical education for doctors creating requirement for banquet halls
• Insurance agents training in banquet halls

While these are some of the top segments, it is by no means the only segments growing. You may even be looking at food delivery options and thinking of tying up with aggregators to improve your revenue stream.

The bottom line is that while there is a slow down, there are still opportunities if you look closely. Focus you effort on surviving with these industry segments. The key to survive is to keep yourself one step ahead of the others and adjust to the changing needs of the market. Focus on industry segments and keep looking for the niches that can help you make more money.