Knowledge

Experts discuss improvements to indoor air quality at tourism facilities in post-COVID-19 era

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

A series of 3 webinars was recently hosted by IFTM to spotlight the importance of indoor air quality in the tourism and hospitality industry. The webinars, on 8 and 9 September, featured discussions between academics and industry professionals from the Guangdong-Hong Hong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Portugal. The purpose of the series was to discuss the latest trends in improving indoor air quality in tourism-related facilities so to help restore the confidence of tourists in visiting indoor tourist attractions.

The webinars formed part of the programme of special events to celebrate the 25th anniversary of IFTM. The webinar sessions attracted more than 100 attendees from various sectors, including gaming, hospitality, public administration and higher education, with the people drawn from across the world, namely the United States, Australia, Germany, Portugal, Singapore, Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao.

The first webinar, on the morning of 8 September, was conducted in Cantonese. The second session, in the afternoon, was conducted in English and was held jointly by IFTM, NOVA University of Lisbon, and Turismo de Portugal. The latter promotes tourism in Portugal and runs hotel and tourism schools there.

The third webinar took place on the morning of 9 September and was conducted in Mandarin, targeting attendees from the Greater Bay Area.

Importance of indoor air quality

A guest speaker in all the sessions was Prof. Frank SC Lee, Associate Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He said during one of the sessions that the COVID-19 pandemic had underscored the importance of maintaining indoor air quality.

The COVID-19 pandemic had generated “significant impact on various industries”, including in hospitality and tourism, Prof. Lee said. “Management should consider special arrangements to ensure the safety of customers and employees, thus enhancing consumer confidence.”

Prof. Lee has about 20 years of experience in helping the hotel and tourism industry strive for measurable improvements in air quality, in venues such as integrated resorts, hotels and museums. One project he provided advice on was the installation of a system to monitor indoor and surrounding outdoor air quality at a Shanghai hotel.

That initiative “helped to improve” the hotel’s brand image in the eyes of hotel guests, Prof. Lee said. He noted that the average occupancy rate of the property had exceeded 95 percent, a performance coinciding with installation of the system.

Hotels can improve indoor air quality by reducing materials that emit volatile organic compounds, whether such materials are for construction or for decoration, Prof. Lee suggested. His other recommendations included on-site use of a greater amount of greenery, which could act to reduce air pollution, and better ventilation systems. “Hotels could also advocate no-smoking policies in guest rooms, and set up designated smoking rooms in the property, for guests,” he said.

Standards needed 

The second webinar featured commentary on the indoor air quality regulations and practices in Portugal. Prof. Francisco Cardoso Ferreira, from NOVA University of Lisbon’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, outlined the importance of maintaining high standards. “People who spend a lot of time in poorly-ventilated rooms have a 50-percent higher risk of developing allergies,” he said. That could not only lead to “a loss in productivity” in workplaces, but also place “a heavy burden on national healthcare systems”.

Prof. Ferreira said that while most jurisdictions had standards for ambient air quality and ways of assessing it, standards for indoor air quality were not always present. He said it was only in 2006 that Portugal set rules for commercial and service industry buildings with a view to improving energy efficiency and maintaining high-standard air quality indoors. Portugal’s rules were updated in 2013. They set minimum figures for fresh air flow rates in buildings and safety thresholds for pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, particulates and volatile organic compounds.

Increased awareness

Another keynote speaker, Prof. Niu Jian-lei, Chair Professor of Building Environment and Energy at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, highlighted the increasing relevance of discussing indoor air quality in facilities used by tourists, as consumers were becoming more aware of the topic due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In his participation in the first and third webinars, Prof. Niu shared  information on the transmission of certain airborne diseases that had affected Greater China in recent years, such as tuberculosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and now COVID-19. He said preventing airborne transmission had not previously been a design focus of ventilation and air-conditioning systems in tourism and hospitality facilities, but that had changed following the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The pandemic has dealt a huge blow to tourism,” Prof. Niu noted. “For the hotel and catering sectors, as well as other hospitality-related businesses, they have to come up with new means to minimise the risks of virus spread occurring through their ventilation systems.”

Seeking a balance

People working in the engineering and environmental protection industries also shared their insights during the webinar sessions. Mr. Felix Chan Hiu Hei, a project engineer for Arup Group in Hong Kong, took part in the first one. He gave a presentation that mentioned the use of various technologies by the tourism and hospitality industry to minimise the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus and other pathogens. That included filters for ventilation systems, air purifiers, coatings for surfaces that are frequently touched by people, and UV-C lighting for sterilisation.

He warned nonetheless that non-stop operation of disinfection and purification equipment such as UV-C lighting could see increased emissions of ozone, worsening air quality and ultimately posing a risk to human health. “It is of paramount importance to optimise the operations of the disinfection and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems,” he stated.

Mr. Chan further said smart building design measures were the key to getting the best out of disinfection and HVAC systems in a world with COVID-19. He added that the key thing was to “strike a balance between air quality, human health, comfort and energy consumption”.

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