Dr. Keith Clinkscale: How the Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism Industry Survives Post-pandemic

The KPI Institute recently interviewed Dr. Keith A. Clinkscale, the Strategic Planning and Performance Management Director at Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, to find out how the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry has been recovering from drought during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here is an excerpt of the interview, which will be published in the next issue of Performance Magazine – Print Edition.

TKI: Can you share any “legacy” management practices that have lost their relevance in recent years? 

Dr. Clinkscale: Our recognition of operating in “silos” is driving more team collaboration. Some of the legacy practices in government were about “staying in your lane.” Many departments and organizations develop vertical expertise. Sometimes, they do it without input or knowledge of what is happening to their left or right. The trend is to move forward, collaborate, team up across disciplines, and generate more creative solutions through diverse and different perspectives.

TKI: What are your major challenges in managing performance? 

Dr. Clinkscale: One of the major challenges in managing performance is busy people. Sometimes people think they are too busy to manage performance. However, they are too busy not to measure performance. Taking a deep breath and looking at the data can position organizations to do the right thing based on data. Repeatedly convincing them of this can be a challenge.

TKI: What does the corporate performance management system of the future look like in the hospitality, travel, and/or tourism industry? 

Dr. Clinkscale: In the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry, the future of corporate performance management systems will make tracking trends over five years faster and easier.

We need to see how people respond to travel, hotel stays, and vacation activities. It is essential for us to understand what people value, and we need this information quickly, easy to decipher, and frequently as things change every day.

Keep an eye out for Performance Magazine – Print Edition No. 23 to be released on Amazon and TKI Marketplace this October, to dive more into our conversation.  For further updates. visit and follow The KPI Institute’s LinkedIn page.