The 'Great Resignation' is having a huge impact on businesses in 2022, and none more so than brands operating in the tourism and activity sector.
Take this story in Alaska, for example. The US state is expecting a record-breaking tourism season, but hospitality companies in Alaska are struggling to find enough workers to cope with the demand.
The Great Resignation has taken root around the world. Good employees are difficult to find, and they're even more difficult to keep. This has affected the hospitality industry more than others - a sector that is already challenged with above average turnover rates.
So, what can tour and activity operators do to relieve stress on their existing employees (to improve retention) and mitigate the challenges associated with finding new workers?
The use of technology to automate and improve internal efficiencies can go a long way to help! In fact, Fotaflo has specifically designed a photo marketing platform that significantly improves the processes of photo sharing and photo marketing for tour and activity operators, leading to a wide range of marketing benefits.
In this blog, we’ll take a quick look at what the ‘Great Resignation’ actually is, what it means for your tour or activity business and how our innovative photo marketing platform can improve your team’s internal efficiencies.
What is the Great Resignation?
The workforce shortage, which has been dubbed the ‘Great Resignation’, is an economic trend in which employees are voluntarily resigning from their jobs en masse. It first began in early 2021, and he has continued into 2022 with no signs of slowing down.
According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an increasing number of Americans quit their jobs in February and the gap between available positions and the unemployed grew even wider.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that 4.35 million workers left the workforce in February, an increase of 94,000 from the previous month - representing a slightly higher level as a percentage of the workforce, up 2.9 percent from 2.8 percent.
At the same time, there were 11.27 million job openings during the month, down just slightly from January.
However, despite that, with the total level of those counted as unemployed contracting further to 6.27 million, that left a record 5 million more openings than available workers. There were 1.8 jobs for every person unemployed.
What does the Great Resignation mean for your tour and activity business?
As a business owner in the hospitality sector, you know just how difficult it is to both find and retain talent. The industry already suffers from an above-average employee turnover rate, and the Great Resignation is only making that more difficult.
Good employees are not only difficult for your employees to find, they're also hard to keep.
In a year where Covid restrictions are lifting, or perhaps even already gone, and tourism is set to explode around the world, this can be devastating for any tour and activity business. A shortage of workers can lead to sub-par guest experiences, more work for existing employees and even business closures.
How technology can mitigate some of those challenges
While technology isn’t a complete solution for the workforce shortage, its use can go a long way in mitigating some of the challenges that come with a shortage of workers. That’s because technology can be used to boost business efficiency, improve productivity and make employees’ lives a little easier.
Technology can help tour and activity operators address the workforce shortage by:
- Automating recurring tasks.
- Allowing guides to focus on delighting the customer, rather than completing manual tasks.
- Reduce strain on existing team members, helping with retention issues and burnout.
- Upskilling existing team members to give career opportunities.
How a photo marketing platform can help
A photo marketing platform gives your tour or activity business a more efficient and cost-effective way to provide photo memories to your guests, by simplifying and automating the distribution of photos and videos to your customers.
Save time for your tour and activity guides, so they can focus on the most important part of their job - delivering incredible experiences to your guests.
By adding service and value to the guest experience, tips increase and with the best performing post-activity content - guest memories - businesses can use photo memories to give the option for guests to tip their guides.
In addition, Fotaflo also gives guides the ability to record thank you videos and send them directly to customers. We've found that this increases the amount in which guides are positively mentioned in reviews, and gives tour and activity operators the opportunity to reward guides for positive experiences - increasing the likelihood that they'll enjoy working for your brand.
Not only that, but photo marketing software also automates processes around the photo remarketing process, saving your employees from the burden of manual tasks. Set up automated remarketing campaigns on key dates, and watch as repeat bookings and referral bookings both increase.
Want to learn how we make it easy for your business to capture and distribute photos and videos to your customers, and benefit from remarketing campaigns? Get a demo of the Fotaflo platform today.
