Digital Communication Recovery Strategy for Business Continuity amid Covid-19: Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises in Gauteng

Abstract

This study examined the adoption of digital channels to support business continuity following the outbreak of Covid-19. The population of the study comprised small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as tourism service providers in the City of Tshwane, Gauteng, South Africa. The study employed a quantitative approach and collected data using a self-administered questionnaire. The sample frame was 100 tourism SMEs registered with the Gauteng Tourism Authority, and the sample consisted of 65 business owners selected using purposive sampling. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results show that SMEs have adopted a variety of digital channels such as Skype, MS Teams, Zoom, emails, and so forth. Most of the respondents have shown skills in using digital channels such as Skype, MS Teams, Zoom, emails, and more. The most common applications, such as Skype, MS Teams, Zoom, and emails were used very effectively. The pandemic has substantially increased the diffusion and adoption of collaboration platforms to maintain business productivity and creativity. By linking the workforce beyond the limitations of location or workstation, digital channels allow workers to build communities of interest and collaborate while supporting business continuity. This study targeted only tourism SME service providers in the City of Tshwane. It would have been ideal to include SMEs in other provinces as well, but this would have required more time and resources, which the researcher simply did not have. Therefore, future studies should include SMEs from other provinces to understand how they are using digital channels to support business continuity following the outbreak of Covid-19.