If someone had told writers that the pandemic would sorely affect their livelihood, they might have argued that opinion. However, COVID-19 has arrived and convinced everyone of its plans. Publishers Weekly listed canceled events related to writers on February 1st, 2021. This news was not pleasant for many writers looking forward to connecting at those events.

The success of hospitality marketing writers depends on that of the hospitality business. With the latter being the first to get shut down, writers had nothing to offer the public. The four segments of hospitality business all crumbled simultaneously. Ergo, writers that have built their brand around the industry suffered greatly.

This article looks into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality marketing writers, and here are five of them:

1. The decrease in earning potential
Demand often determines supply, and with the pandemic and lockdown in effect, hotel reviewing jobs vanished. Families got holed up in their homes while travel restrictions were in full swing. Fewer people were looking online for hotels since they couldn’t travel or leave their houses anyway.

The pandemic hit hospitality businesses and their writers the worst. Amanda Dudley, a lecturer working in the college essay writing service, confirmed that lockdown has drastically reduced the frequency and quality of work available to hospitality marketers. There was indeed a little demand for hospitality services; hotels functioned at low capacity and writers couldn’t visit them. It meant there was nothing to review, and so hospitality writers had no way to earn.

2. An uncertain future
Experts at McKinsey predict the pandemic’s impact will linger in the hospitality industry till 2023. Many hospitality businesses are leaking money right now and hiring writers to help publicize their businesses doesn’t seem to be a solution. This situation has caused many hospitality marketing writers to panic.

There will be no need for luxury resort marketing if luxury resorts aren’t in business. And since nobody knows when things will normalize, the future does not look rosy for these writers. Some have resorted to writing free articles and reviews to keep their creative juices flowing. Others are considering abandoning hospitality marketing for other writing niches.

3. Reduced Relevance in Society
Some writers monitor trends around their area of writing to create content. Reporting on these trends usually drew businesses and private individuals to their pages. Hoteliers looking to dominate the industry often focused on hostel industry trends to know what is new.

Since the pandemic became part of our reality, it continues to bring its impact. News channels have been awash with every new setback and triumph in the battle against COVID-19. While that may be good news for journalists, it isn’t pleasant for hospitality writers. There are no trends to pick up on with hospitality businesses closed, so there is nothing to write about. It seems the public has its attention focused on the pandemic that relegated these writers and their crafts.

4. A drop in traffic in tourism and hospitality blogs
The part of people who often go to the blogs and websites of hospitality marketing writers usually travel a lot. So avid travelers and adventurers are the target audience. But there is no reason for people to visit travel blogs with the current restrictions placed on tourism.

So the target audience for these writers suddenly vanished into thin air. With their audience’s attention turned to survival, travel blogs started to fall down the pecking order. Hospitality blog owners whose sites were their livelihood source had to either downsize or pay their writers less.

5. Loss of credibility
Before March 2020, many hospitality marketing writers made new year predictions about the hospitality industry. These predictions were primarily products of intricate calculations, trend-watching and information from the industry’s sources. It is a practice that worked for many writers before now.

The pandemic came without warning and proved all predictions wrong. No resort marketing company foretold anything like that would happen in 2020. So, many individuals that invested time and money in the hospitality business in 2020 took losses. As a result, some people stopped looking to these writers and platforms for reliable information in the industry. This reduced trust affects hospitality writers and will take some time to get stabilized.

6. Affected brand strategies
Many hospitality marketing writers have built a brand around the hospitality business. They have websites, blogs, marketing materials, posters, and brand elements that mirror the industry. They have been reviewing recreational centers, hotels, and tourism sites for years and their audience knows them as reliable sources of hospitality news.

However, the financial crunch that the pandemic brought caused some of these writers to start writing articles outside their sphere of influence. They took on these jobs as a means to hold on to their dwindling audience. But while they gained a few more clicks, they lost their blogs’ seamlessness and connection with their original strategies.

The Bottom Line
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected writers in the hospitality industry. But thankfully, the restrictions are being lifted, and writers love it. It may take a while before customers start patronizing hospitality businesses again, but there is light at the tunnel’s end.

The COVID-19 vaccine is out, and more people are getting vaccinated. This has sparked a new trend called Vaccine Tourism which could be the lifeline that hospitality writers need. It is too early to predict, but this may well be the break that will improve hospitality writers’ condition.