COVID-19’s impact on Italian MEEC industry workers and consumers’ satisfaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26821/IJSRC.10.7.2022.100711%20Keywords:
Italian MEEC Industry, Workers and Customers’ Satisfaction, Presence Vs. Remote PartecipationAbstract
Fewer explorations are carried out on the world of tourist events which involves not only visitors with leisure purposes but also workers who considerably affect the economy and turnover of the Italian hôtellerie. Italy's Meetings, Exhibitions, Events, and Conferences (MEEC) industry during 2020 was tragically affected by the pandemic consequences, such as the social distance and the compulsory and mandatory "stay at home" quote. To investigate restrictions' influence on the Italian MEEC industry participants, the authors adopted a qualitative methodology for outcomes on the degree of satisfaction perceived by workers and costumers. Two hundred fifty data were collected and analyzed to yield the change that digital transformation performed in the MEEC enterprises. The meaningful results show that the lockdown effect in Italy has brought several different perceptions on workers and customers due to the distinct use in adopting some modern technologies. The transition from in-presence participation to online participation events affected chiefly the satisfaction of workers who perceived their work in a devaluing way. Hence, discrepancies in perception were identified according to the socio-demographic status (age, gender, Etc.), the frequency of attendants and the online fruition. The outcome evidence that the perception of satisfaction in workers has decreased, but the possibility of attendants of customers increased. In conclusion, the research marks underlined the usage of digital tools, reconsidering their role in this sector's management both from the workers' and customers' points of view. In conclusion, it can be stated that if, on the one hand, the consequences generated by COVID-19 have increased the usability of events, on the other hand, the diffusion of technological tools has undoubtedly decreased the satisfaction of workers.
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