Impact of Covid-19 on Customer Retention in UK Tourism Industry: A Study on Intercontinental Hotel

This research study focuses on the impact of Covid-19 on customer retention in the UK tourism industry, with a case study on Intercontinental Hotel. It examines the concept of customer retention, the measures taken by Intercontinental Hotel to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on customer retention, and the overall impact of Covid-19 on customer retention in the industry.

Foundation year project

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................3
Background.................................................................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Objectives....................................................................................................................................3
Research problem........................................................................................................................3
Research questions......................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................5
What is the concept of customer retention?................................................................................5
What is the impact of Covid 19 on customer retention of Intercontinental hotel?.....................5
What are the measures taken by Intercontinental hotel to reduce impact of Covid on customer
retention?.....................................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 4- RESEARCH USING SECONDARY DATA..........................................................9
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background
The pandemic COVID has created issues for almost all the industries and sectors. The
tourism industry of UK have also faced severe implications as due to different restrictions by the
government the movement of people stopped and people were forced to stay at their homes. The
industry of tourism is also facing issues in retaining their customers as there are certain issues
which are related with customer power (He and Harris, 2020). COVID-19 has provided
unprecedented impact on tourism industry as the industry is wholly dependent on their customers
but this was critical for the industry to retain their customers. The organisation taken for the
current research is IHG which is one of the biggest hospitality chain of Britain having presence
in global market.
Aim
To identify the impact of Covid Pandemic on customer retention of UK tourism industry.
A Study on Intercontinental Hotel.
Objectives
 To identify concept of customer retention
 To assess the impact of Coved-19 on customer retention of Intercontinental Hotel
 To identify measures for reducing Covid impact on customer retention of Intercontinental
Hotel
Research problem
The identified research problem for the current research is that due to outbreak of
COVID-19 the tourism industry is facing higher issues in which they are not able to retain
customers for longer period of time and manage their customer base as well (Weed, 2020). The
industry is facing issues for their survival in which they need to use such strategies by which
they can retain customers for longer duration and mitigate negative impact of outbreak of global
pandemic.
Research questions
 What is the concept of customer retention?
 What is the impact of Covid 19 on customer retention of Intercontinental hotel?

 What are the measures taken by Intercontinental hotel to reduce impact of Covid on
customer retention?

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
What is the concept of customer retention?
According to Khan, (2020), customer retention is defined as the ability hold by the
organisation so that to turn their customer as repeated buyers. This is the ability of organisation
so that to value their customers and provide them such service or product that they do not use
any other service or product from another organisation (BAYAT, 2020). This is essential for the
organisation that to include such measures by which they can increase their employee retention
so that to develop their market image and to attain higher profits in their organisation.
What is the impact of Covid 19 on customer retention of Intercontinental hotel?
According to Davies and et. al., (2020), the global pandemic COVID-19 has given
negative implication to customer retention as tourism industry was not able to interact with their
customers and this was the major reason that the organisation faced decrease in customer
footfall. On the other hand, due to different restrictions several businesses have shut down their
operations. The hospitality and tourism industry is based on customer loyalty and retention as
under this industry customers are directly communicated (Sharun and et. al., 2020). COVID-19
has given the fear of infection to individual and due to this individuals avoided public gatherings.
For mitigating such issues the organisation is needed to use various measures so that the industry
may overcome with the outbreak of COVID-19.
What are the measures taken by Intercontinental hotel to reduce impact of Covid on customer
retention?
According to Haines and et. al., (2020), COVID-19 there are certain measures which are
taken by the organisation so that to retain their customers and to overcome with the outbreak of
COVID-19. The organisation is taking additional safety and hygiene measures so that to provide
safe stay to their customers. On the other hand, the organisation is taking different attempts to
take feedback from their customers so that they can examine their service quality (Clarkson and
et. al, 2022). Besides this the company is providing easy booking facilities to their customers so
that easily customers can book their services.

CHAPTER 3- METHODOLOGY
Research Philosophy: This is considered as the method which are aimed at developing
the research in such manner that objectives can be attained in systematic manner. There are two
types of research philosophy such as positivism and interpretivism. For the current research
interpretivism research philosophy will be used by the researcher so that to acquire in-depth
information related with research topic.
Research Approach: These are the methods which are divided into two types such as
inductive and deductive (Daniel, 2018). For the current research inductive research approach will
be followed so that to examine theory within the research.
Research Strategy: There are different research strategies that can be used within the
research such as action research, grounded theory, case study, survey and many others.
Researcher will select case study for the current research so that related information with the
research topic can be accumulated (Ravitch and Carl 2019).
Research Choice: There are two types of research choice such as quantitative and
qualitative. For the current research the researcher will use qualitative research choice so that to
gather in-depth and relevant information related with research topic (Liamputtong, 2020).
Data Collection: Data collection is of two types such as primary and secondary. In the
current research the researcher will be dependent on secondary data collection method so that to
manage the research and to acquire related information (Robson and et. al., 2020). The major
advantage of secondary data collection method is that this will include theoretical perception
within the research and using books, journals and different articles information can be collected.
Data Analysis: For the current research thematic analysis will be used by the researcher
so that to manage relevancy within research and to develop authenticity as well. This will assist
the researcher in carrying out the overall research in accurate manner.
Time framework: Time framework is defined as the time given to the researcher in
order to complete a research. For the current research the researcher will use Gantt chart so that
to provide scheduling to each and every activity within research. With the help of Gantt chart
delays within the project can be avoided so that by executing overall activities research can be
managed (King,, Horrocks and Brooks, 2018). Using Gantt chart direction can be provided to the
research in terms of covering research activities.

CHAPTER 4- RESEARCH USING SECONDARY DATA
Presenting findings
From the above gathered information using literature review this can be concluded that
customer retention is the aspect which is related with gaining of customer loyalty in the
organisation. In order to gain success this is significant for the organisation that to retain their
customers for longer period so that they can get growth opportunities. In the context of COVID-
19 the hospitality industry suffered from heavy losses in which the company has seen negative
impacts over their business functions.
Illustration 1: Contribution of travel and tourism to GDP
The implication of global pandemic COVID-19 has created issues within hospitality
industry in terms of managing their customers and their retention in the organisation. This has
been observed that due to sudden lock-down customers cancelled their bookings which has
created issues for the hospitality and tourism business to manage their operations (Michaud and

et. al., 2020). The hospitality industry is directly related with their customers so that in the
presence of such issues the industry is facing issues in their survival and growth.
During pandemic the tourism industry managed their business with limited resources and
this manner they were not able to meet customer expectations in overall manner. For managing
the business functions the hospitality and tourism industry is needed to acquire such strategies by
which overall business benefits can be acquired.
Summarising findings
From the above findings this can be concluded that customer retention is one of the
greatest measure which is needed to be acquired by the organisation so that to provide specific
edge to the business. In terms of hospitality business there are certain reasons due to which the
organisation is not getting customer retention in terms of COVID-19. The hospitality industry is
needed to adopt such measures by which they can mitigate negative impact of COVID-19 and
manage customer retention for their organisation.
This can also be concluded that hospitality industry is having wide scope for the
customers and businesses as the industry is linked with their customers and during the period of
COVID the organisation have faced issues in retaining their customers (CANA, 2020). In the
light of COVID-19 this has been observed that it is essential for the organisation that to adopt
safety and hygiene measures so that proper assistance in retaining customers can be made. For
the hospitality and tourism industry this is significant that to retain their customers and to
develop proper edge into the market.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
From the above discussion this can be concluded that customer retention is the major
aspect which is needed to be acquired within an organisation. During the outbreak of COVID the
hospitality industry have faced severe issues in context of retaining customers and managing
businesses in proper manner. After the COVID outbreak hospitality industry was needed to adopt
different measures such as safety and hygiene, continuous customer feedback and different
others so that business functions can be managed in effective manner.

REFERENCES
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CANA, D., 2020. THE IMPACT OF THE CURRENT CRISIS GENERATED BY THE
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King, N., Horrocks, C. and Brooks, J., 2018. Interviews in qualitative research. Sage.
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