Presentation at the 6^th Turin Centre on Emerging economies Workshop by Juliet Chipumuro, Radu Mihailescu and Azzurra Rinaldi

On Thursday 10^th and Friday 11^th of December the 6^th  Turin Centre on Emerging Economies Workshop: Emerging economies during and beyond the Covid crisis: insights and perspectives, took place online. It is an annual series of workshops hosted by the Collegio Carlo Alberto, the University of Turin and the Italian and European Associations of Comparative Economics.

Dr. Radu Mihailescu, Dr. Juliet Chipumuro from Stenden South Africa and Prof. Azzurra Rinaldi from Unitelma Sapienza were invited to present a workshop based on a research in course of publication on potential labour market distortions post-Covid 19 with regard to gender differences in the South African hospitality industry.  The study is part of larger ongoing research which looks at the impact of the current Covid imposed restrictions on the accessibility to the labour market in Tourism and Hospitality not only in South Africa but also in other countries in Europe.

The workshop focused on the possible future trends that policy makers need to take into account in order to mitigate some of the negative effects that economies in developing world are likely to experience as a result of the measures taken against the spread of the pandemic. One of the conclusions of the workshops was that the current economic situation also provides opportunities for urgent implementation of policies addressing gender equity and accessibility in the Tourism and Hospitality Sectors in South Africa.

In its initial phase, the research also involved Dr. Bill Rowson whose input will be sorely missed.

Additionally there were also  a number of interesting key note presentations from representatives from Richard Kozul-Wright (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – UNCTAD) and  Carlo Sdralevich (International Monetary Fund - IMF) on industry and future economic trends beyond Covid impacting both developed and developing world.