content analysis for government's and hotels PDF

A content analysis for government’s and hotels’
response to COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt
Item Type Article
Authors Islam, Salem; Elshwesky, Zakaria; Ramkissoon, Haywantee
Citation Salem, I., Elshwesky, Z., & Ramkissoon, H. (2021). 'A content
analysis for government’s and hotels’ response to COVID-19
pandemic in Egypt'. Tourism and Hospitality Research, pp. 1-34.
DOI 10.1177/14673584211002614
Publisher SAGE
Journal Tourism and Hospitality Research
Download date 03/01/2022 21:32:36
Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10545/625709

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A Content Analysis for Government’s and Hotels’ Response to COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt
Abstract
Drawing on the Situational Crisis Communication theory (SCCT), this study recapitulates the initiatives,
practices, and responses of the Egyptian government and chain-managed five-star hotels during the
COVID-19 global health pandemic. Subjective and objective content analysis is employed in this study.
Subjective content analysis is employed to examine newspapers, magazines, T.V channels, and official
pages on Facebook to determine the initiatives and practices adopted by the Egyptian government.
Objective content analysis is further used to determine the COVID-19 hospitality practices adopted by 22
chain-managed five-star hotels by examining their official websites. Thematic saturation was attained when
observations and analyses exhibited no new themes. Findings indicated that the Egyptian government and
chain-managed five-star hotels implemented a number of initiatives and practices focused on financial
policies, health and hygiene, workforce and training, marketing, domestic tourism, booking flexibility,
cancellation policies, community support, vacations, and contracts. This study contributes to crisis
management research by being one of the first studies to explore governments and hotel operations practices
and initiatives during the COVID-19 using Egypt as a case study. We discuss the theoretical and practical
implications during and post the COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19, situational crisis communication theory, content analysis, thematic saturation,
Egypt

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Introduction
SARS-COV-2 virus was discovered in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Declared as a global
health pandemic, it has brought a noxious economic impact all over the world (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020;
Wright, 2020) with unmatched universal travel restrictions since World War II (Gössling, Scott, & Hall,
2020). Tourism plays a significant role in the development of several economies of the globe (Senbeto &
Hon, 2020).
Inevitably, the pandemic has had a strong negative effect on travel and hospitality businesses
with enforced restricted mobility and social distancing measures (Gössling et al., 2020; Ramkissoon, 2020a)
adopted across the globe. Border closure of several countries have led to disruption in leisure, business, and
pilgrimage travel impacting severely on livelihoods (Majeed & Ramkissoon, 2020; Ramkissoon, mavondo,
& Sowamber, 2020). Governments across nations are struggling about how to assist the tourism sector to
operate during COVID-19 (DeWit, Shaw, and Djalante, 2020). The gross domestic product of travel and
tourism has been slumped by $ 2.1 trillion in 2020, a 23% contrast to 2019. Travel and tourism jobs have
been slashed by up to 75 million jobs in 2020 (WTTC, 2020). The global economic influence of the new
coronavirus COVID-19 is harder than the 2008 global financial crisis with the virus’s impacts visible in
nearly all sectors of the hospitality value chain. Attractions have been closed, events cancelled, and shops
and restaurants have not been operating over long periods of time. The accommodation sector continues to
suffer a tremendous impact with little or no business (Business Insider, 2020; Gössling et al., 2020). The
World Travel and Tourism Council predicts global unemployment rate is predicted to raise by 2.1
percentage points directly emanating from travel and tourism job loss (WTTC, 2020).
Crises have prompted managers to take decisions rapidly with insufficient information
(Stafford, Yu, & Armoo, 2002). Following the September 11, 2001 tragedy, some evidence shows hotel
managers reduced employees’ hours, while adjusting marketing strategies, and delaying capital
improvements (Taylor & Enz, 2002). Resources allocation and past crisis experience were argued as
predictors of crisis planning and communication procedures (Pennington-Gray et al., 2011) with top
management playing a vital role in having an effective strategy in place. In the current SARS-COV-2
pandemic, Chen, Huang, and Li (2020) report that China’s hospitality industry participated in the control

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of the virus as part of its social responsibility; hotel owners provided free accommodation services for
medical staff who contributed to the COVID-19 treatment. The researchers indicated that several tourism
businesses are providing a full refund to tourists who have had to revisit their travels as a consequence of
the pandemic. Hotel managers implemented remote working, paid and unpaid leave, and reduction of a
permanent and temporary salaries in a few destinations (Haak-Saheem, 2020).
Several studies (e.g., Israeli et al., 2011; Lai & Wong, 2020; Sager & Mavrot, 2020; Sanfelici,
2020) have investigated the practices availed by governments and hotel operations during periods of crisis
management. While there is a plethora of COVID-19 studies, scholars note the need for more research on
crisis management (Ramkissoon, 2020a; 2020b), how hotels have/are responding effectively to infection
diseases, exploring their hygiene and health care practices during COVID-19 (Jiang & Wen, 2020). There
is a need for more studies utilizing the huge secondary data of COVID-19 pandemic (Hasab et al., 2020;
Jiang & Wen, 2020). Liu-Lastres, Kim, and Ying (2020) affirmed that there is a critical need for further
research on crisis management and organizational resilience in the tourism industry. It is vital to investigate
how tourism organizations can manage crises and risks (Majeed & Ramkissoon, 2020; Paraskevas & Quek,
2019).
Stakeholders including employees, the local community, suppliers, customers and others are
often negatively influenced by crises. This study draws on the Situational Crisis Communication Theory
(SCCT) through the lens of the situational crisis in the COVID-19 pandemic. SCCT is considered as one
of the most implemented theoretical frameworks in crisis communication (Kim & Sung, 2014). SCCT
indicates the importance of analysing negative impacts of crises and applying strategies and practices to
protect an organization’s reputation. SCCT focuses on how to use crisis response strategies to protect an
organization's reputation from negative impacts (Coombs, 2007). Based on Kim and Sung (2014), crisis
response has two principal elements: (a) base crisis response (i.e., guiding information and modifying
information) and (b) reputation management crisis response. SCCT recommends that guiding and
modifying information are base responses needed for all crises (Sturges, 1994). Recently, Liu-Lastres, Kim,
and Ying (2020) stated that creating effective crisis responses has a profound importance.

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Across the globe, many governments and co-actors are working on preventing the spread of
COVID-19 with a number of coping strategies being implemented (Hao, Xiao, & Chon, 2020). Stimulus
packages and government interventions will play an important role in combatting the harmful impact of
COVID-19 on jobs and the economy (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020; Wright, 2020). This exploratory study,
using Egypt as the research context draws on SCCT theory and contributes to hospitality management
literature spotlighting government and hotel operations practices and initiatives during the COVID-19
global health pandemic. Based on data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics
(CAMPAS), there are 782,900 employees in accommodation and food services in Egypt (CAMPAS, 2020).
Tourism has constantly been subject to periodical downturns during COVID-19 (OECD, 2020). In March
2020, with rising COVID-19 cases in Europe, tourism decayed distinctly in Egypt, with 70 and 80% of
hotel bookings being cancelled (ECES, 2020). The virus has shut down Egypt's tourism sector, leading to
losses estimated at one billion U.S. dollars monthly (CGTN, 2020). The circumstances remain to worsen
as global travel continues to be restricted across the globe. A further loss in tourism revenues over the next
few months, probably lasting until the end of 2021 and perhaps beyond is anticipated. The main objectives
of this study represent in (1) How the Egyptian government managed the COVID-19 global health
pandemic to support its hospitality industry? (2) How chain-managed five-star hotels in Egypt responded
to the COVID-19 global health pandemic?
Literature review
Government’s response to COVID-19
At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine was expected to take at least 18 months as
advised by experts (Elmousalami & Hassanien, 2020). Recently, there are many vaccines against COVID-
19 in development (Reiter, Pennell, & Katz, 2020). However, some segments of communities seem to be
quite hesitant in getting vaccinated (Chou & Budenz, 2020). It is recommended that governments embrace
a multi-stakeholder approach (Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2016; Ramkissoon, 2020a) to enable businesses to
start getting back to a ‘new normal’. There is an urgent need to ensure that the key stakeholders are
consulted including the local community (Hassan & Ramkissoon, 2020; Ramkissoon & Sowamber, 2020)
whose voice is often not adequately listened to.

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Some countries and regions such as Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam managed COVID-19's spread
building on the 2003 SARS experience (DeWit et al., 2020). With a view to protect businesses over the
long term, governments are working on nationalising or renationalising airline assets (see Baum & Hai,
2020). Fiscal stimulus packages were implemented by governments to protect public health and provide
more income stability to residents (DeWit et al., 2020). For instance, the Chinese government has set fiscal
and financial policies, provided special fund support, reduced tax and rent cost, and provided services
electronically (Chen et al., 2020). In Dubai, the government provided international workforce with the
permission to stay until the end of 2020, for those who lost their jobs as a consequence of the pandemic
(Haak-Saheem, 2020). The Indonesian government worked on the reallocation of fiscal policy, labour
protection, rescheduling of loan repayment from SMEs, and tax incentives policy (DeWit et al., 2020). The
Moroccan government invested in awareness campaigns sensitizing people about the harmful impact of
COVID-19 (de Freitas & Stedefeldt, 2020).
There are restrictions set by many countries to avoid social congregations (Seetharaman, 2020). The
government in Rwanda postponed commonwealth heads of government meeting and provided funding to
support all businesses highly impacted by the global COVID-19 health pandemic (Rwigema, 2020).
As for Egypt, tourism is a dominant sector. The 2018/19 earnings from tourism provided USD 12.6
billion (4.2 % of GDP) to the economy (CBE, 2020). Egypt has had more than its fair share of crises. Based
on Radwan (2017), during the Egyptian crises such as the political turbulence in 2011 and the Russian
aircraft crash crisis in Sinai in 2015. The majority of four and five-star hotels in the Sharm El-Sheikh and
Hurghada cities of Egypt were not very satisfied with the support provided by the governmental bodies to
allow their business to sustain in the marketplace. In particular, they were not satisfied with financial and
technical support, and with initiatives taken to promote domestic tourism by the government. In addition,
there were no incentives including tax exemption, revoking due debts, minimizing loan interests, and
insurance.
Even though the revolution of the 25th of January 2011 and the financial crisis of 2008 had
witnessed demand downturn for hotels and other tourist facilities in Egypt, official bodies did not handle
these crises effectively to mitigate negative impacts. Strategies implemented for crisis management

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included undertaking marketing campaigns, providing technical and financial support for individual hotels,
providing proper security service, encouraging domestic tourism, participating in international tourist
exhibitions, and hosting international events (Mohammad, Jones, Dawood, & Fayed, 2016).
In the COVID-19 context in Egypt, government has suspended all flights and locked hotels,
restaurants and cafes since March 2020 (CGTN, 2020). The Egyptian government had set regulations
following the recommendations of WHO. In addition to its tourism and hospitality sector, COVID-19 also
had a harmful effect on Egypt’s manufacturing and foreign financial sectors. The Egyptian government
implemented some procedures to help small and medium enterprises (El-Khishin, 2020). It has provided
extra human and financial resources needed to prevent the outbreak of the virus (Hasab et al., 2020).
Tourism and hospitality businesses’ response to COVID-19
September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, SARS pandemic in 2003, and the global economic crisis in
2008 are some well documented crises which impacted on global tourism (Gössling et al., 2020; Henderson
& Ng, 2004; Leung & Lam, 2004). Content analysis of newspaper and television coverage in 2009 was
employed to explore the coverage of the SARS pandemic in the media in the Netherlands. Media coverage
was described as exhaustive and disturbing, and alarming (Vasterman & Ruigrok, 2013).
The media and academic literature also documented that COVID-19 continues to impact tourism
and hospitality (Deb & Nafi, 2020), evidenced by job loss in some of the large chain hotels e.g., Marriott
and Hilton (USAToday, 2020), and airlines (e.g., British Aiways, Qantas). Gössling et al. (2020)
highlighted that tourist attractions and the accommodation sector proclaimed the greatest slump in their
staff figures. In March 2020, Hilton Worldwide advised lenders to get a discreet $1.75 billion under a
revolving loan to save money and to sustain elasticity “in light of the dilemma in the global markets” (Skift,
2020).
The pandemic has had a destructive detrimental effect on the hospitality industry globally (Gössling
et al., 2020; Majeed & Ramkissoon, in press). Moreover, firms reduced employees' salaries, had staff laid
off, and implemented work from home (Jasmine, 2019). Wang, Hong, Li, and Gao (2020) argue marketing
innovation strategies need to be properly implemented during this pandemic e.g., reservations cancellation

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due to COVID-19 crisis. Vardarlıer (2016) recommends avoiding dismissing employees during a crisis by
rearranging wages, reorganizing hours of work, and abrogating bonus and rewards payments. Moreover, it
remains critical for hotels to carry out emergency procedures, cleanliness and sanitation practices, and
health screening of personnel to manage crises related to infectious illnesses (Henderson & Ng 2004). Te
health and safety of staff remains paramount in the COVID-19 pandemic (Rosemberg, 2020) and other
crises.
Several small businesses impacted by COVID-19 have opted for employees’ layoffs (Bartik et al.,
2020). Seetharaman (2020) highlighted organizations have had many employees’ hours reduced as a
consequence of the virus. A number of restaurants continue to mitigate the negative effects of this pandemic
by local food delivery and using online sales tools to provide their services and products (Jones, 2020).
Restaurants try to build resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing sanitary legislation
and food safety practices, training their staff on hygiene and sanitation, and using social media to announce
implementation of health and hygiene to build consumers’ trust in food and beverage services (de Freitas
& Stedefeldt, 2020). The survival of hospitality businesses is based on increasing the demand for their
services and products (Gursoy & Chi, 2020). Additionally, digitalization in delivering products and
services, redesigning products, innovative delivery channels, designing alternative digital products and
services, and participating with specialists in ecosystem are some of the important strategies to face this
pandemic (Akshiq, Rezapourgham, & Ramkissoon, 2020; Seetharaman, 2020). Hao et al. (2020) exhibited
that the hotel industry in China adopted innovative measures to revitalize performance and protect
employees and customers via implementing social responsibilities. Moreover, Elbaz et. al (2020)
investigated the influence of work–leisure conflict (WLC) on the performance of employees in Egyptian
hotels and travel agencies through the mediating role of employee burnout related to emotional exhaustion,
cynicism and professional efficacy.
According to Radwan (2017), as a result of the Arab Spring and the political turbulence in 2011,
the tourism and hospitality industry in Egypt had witnessed a demand downturn minimizing employees’
wages. In November 2015, several countries including Russia and Britain stopped their international flights
after the Russian aircraft crash in Sinai, Egypt. This led to a great decrease in hotel room sales, hospitality