Effects of Covid-19 on the event tourism sector: views of South African business events stakeholders

Abstract

The current study explores both the practical and feasible strategies aimed at alleviating the identified effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business events sector in South Africa. Pandemic-induced health and safety, as well as mobility-restricting regulations, grounded the business events sector and presented unprecedented challenges. The gradual easing of restrictions and reopening of the business events sector has witnessed a realignment of approaches to hosting events. This has necessitated the need to understand the new context, devise recovery and resilience strategies, and re-imagining business events in the post-COVID-19 era. The study adopted a qualitative research approach whereby 14 South African key resource persons from business events organisations, event organisers, and event managers were purposively selected to participate in semi-structured interviews. The data were transcribed and subjected to ATLAS.ti software, where the emerging themes were analysed and compared between participants. Business events stakeholders highlighted business closures, job losses, reliance on relief funding, cancellations and postponements leading to unanticipated costs, as initial effects of the induced regulations. Others, however, had to restructure how events were planned, managed, and consumed by moving to virtual and hybrid options. Technology played a critical role in such circumstances. The study also revealed that collaboration and mutually beneficial synergies amongst business event stakeholders were viable strategies to remain relevant in challenging environments. The study highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration and the need for resilience-building strategies. The ability to adapt quickly to the changing environmental conditions, such as embracing technological innovations in event production, management, and consumption, highlighted the need for long-term strategy responses intended to move the sector from mitigation to resilience-focused options.