EDUCATION

Tourism Educators South Africa weigh in on events restrictions

Before the pandemic, the events fraternity notably played an immense role in terms of resuscitating the struggling economy of South Africa. It has been more than eighteen months since the first case of the Covid-19 pandemic was recorded in South Africa.

By members from Tourism Educators South Africa (TESA).

Owing to the devastating effect of Covid-19 on the tourism and travel industry, the events industry has been impacted by a subsequent indefinite postponement, impacting many small economies. What began as a fictional horror movie became a living, daily reality for every event stakeholder to be confronted with.

The initial cancellations of noble events such as the Standard Bank National Annual Arts Festival; the Annual Cape Town Jazz International Festival (previously known as the North Sea Jazz Festival); and Tourism Indaba amongst others, were tolerated as the country prepared for the management of the pandemic. However, the continued restrictions prohibiting the hosting of events are crippling the cultural and creative industries, especially as South Africa is home to over 600 festivals annually, contributing significantly to local and provincial economies and influencing communities’ social aspects. Furthermore, inconstant and uncertain clauses have been published in the frequently updated Disaster Management Act (DME). Regulations have prohibited many businesses to operate, resulting in the liquidation of suppliers across the entire tourism value chain, and massive job losses. Hence, the impact on various role-players who benefit from events is, to some extent, immeasurable. Indeed, we can quantify the economic impact by investigating loss in revenue, the impact of event cancellations, and the furlough or even the retrenchment of staff (either seasonal, temporary, or permanent) and pay cuts. However, it is the intangible impact that we are ill-equipped to measure. For example, with the cancellation of events, not only have artists lost their jobs, but towns have also lost a significant amount of their gross domestic product (GDP) too. The financial losses will also continue to negatively impact tertiary institutions and research entities as festivals and events will be unable to budget for research in future. For them, the focus now is on survival. The ripple effect of the continued restrictions is, therefore, unparalleled and may take years to recover.

The pandemic had and is continuing to have a detrimental influence on our teaching and research activities.

Adjustments in teaching and learning

Lockdown restrictions have forced Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) to move away from ‘business as usual’. For instance, being an Academic in a ruralbased institution had its challenges. Most of the students were lamenting about network connectivity, or an environment that is not conducive for learning at home, to name a few. To be more succinct, this was more of an imbroglio.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also challenged academics and scholars to find innovative and creative ways to facilitate education, which will deliver teaching and learning to our students. Furthermore, multi-modal teaching and learning has made teaching both easier and extremely challenging. The ‘new normal’ has become a reality and one has had to adapt to the ever-changing learning management systems while ensuring that students are also moving in the right trajectory. According to Higher Education South Africa (HESA), IHL needs to embrace this digitally driven world and brace itself for the “new normal” for at least the next 36 months. It sounds surreal and somehow a thoughtprovoker. However, the Covid-19 pandemic is real, and it has taken its toll on the lives and livelihoods of many people.

Impact of event restrictions on research

With the cancellation of many domestic and international conferences since March 2020, many, mainly business events were either hosted as hybrid or fully online events. Access to delegates became limited or restricted, and often event owners “sold” access to their database, as a desparate measure to recoup their financial losses. This poses a future threat to postgraduate students' access and ability to collect data.

Many institutions of higher learning have long-standing research agreements with various festivals and events ranging from music, food, arts and culture, sport, and exhibitions, amongst others. While agreements were in place to conduct research at festivals and events in 2020, none of the surveys could occur owing to the lockdown restrictions. This has led to the following adverse effects:

• A loss of primary industry-specific data which has a direct negative impact on research outputs. On average Institutions of Higher learning reported a decline in research outputs by more than 60 per cent compared to 2019.

• A significant decline in our thirdincome stream. Institutions have had to cancel event courses, despite the effort to offer the programmes online, as people seem to have lost trust in the events industry as a career option. Some institutions have on-site venues, such as conference facilities and restaurants, where undergraduate students gain practical experience and are used to supplementing their income to take part in expensive programmes, but these had to close and resulted in huge revenue losses.

• Post-graduate students are unable to collect data and complete their studies.

Other data collection avenues had to be considered, with online surveys being the only option in quantitative studies as opposed to where students could collect data at the events in person through self-administered questionnaires. While this approach proved successful in some cases, a poor response rate was achieved in many others due to respondents being bombarded by numerous online questionnaires. Some students had to postpone their research activities until 2021, but as many tourism businesses closed, the population became smaller and the required sample size could not be met. Post-graduate students who need to submit their theses or dissertations in 2021 now have insufficient data and no financial means to increase the sample size. This especially has a significant and worrisome influence on PhD candidates who must contribute by developing models, frameworks, or strategies. With an insufficient sample size and inadequate data to support their hypotheses, the limitations currently outweigh the study’s contributions. This will undoubtedly influence the examiners’ reports, and the overall targets that South Africa has to offer PhD students.

• Despite the adoption of the data collection mitigation strategies such as collaborative partnerships with events marketing organisations, participants are motivated by incentives, which are against the research ethical policies of many IHL.

• In the past, fieldwork gave undergraduate and postgraduate events, tourism, and hospitality students valuable exposure to research within the industry.

Since no face-to-face fieldwork may currently be conducted, communityengaged research – as part of an institution’s community engagement strategy – cannot be realised.

Besides the effect on research, the absence of events has a significant impact on our student numbers, with fewer students considering events as an attractive job opportunity, which is one of the focus areas of many qualifications. Unfortunately, this will create a gap in knowledge, skills, and competence regarding event management, and result in more skills gaps for the industry.

As tourism educators, we are concerned about the impact the prolonged restrictions have on tourism, hospitality, and specifically the events sector. The limited operation of establishments across the tourism value chain – which are largely fuelled by events – resulted in students losing internships, work-integrated learning (WIL) experience or other practical exposure opportunities. Although WIL is offered virtually, it does not provide students with the same experience that a face-to-face environment does. Furthermore, the disruption of the events industry has prevented students gaining valuable experience within the industry and delaying their graduation.

As academics and researchers, we monitor the regular publications of the Disaster Management Act Regulations, and it is concerning to note the misunderstanding and interpretation of ‘events’, specifically business events, which include meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE). We applaud the efforts by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) with the development of the Tourism Industry Standard Protocols for Covid-19 Operations, and the Re-Opening Guidelines for the Event Industry in South Africa — Covid-19 Safety and Prevention Measures, designed by the Event Safety Council (ESC), and we hope that events will be allowed to operate sooner rather than later under these protocols. We believe festivals and events are able to safely accommodate audiences by following these rigorous safety protocols. The survival of South Africa’s events, cultural and creative industries, and the research endeavors contributing to the industry’s sustainability depends on this.

It is the intangible impact that we are ill-equipped to measure.