Crisis Management in Tourism: A Case Study of Hilton

This case study focuses on the crisis management strategies of Hilton in the tourism industry during the pandemic. It discusses the factors affecting the profitability of the hospitality sector and recommends best practices for crisis management. The goal is to identify the best strategies for managing Hilton so that it can deal with the concept of crisis management. The vision is to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality by delivering exceptional experiences. The past operations of the tourism sector and the present and future operations of Hilton are also discussed.

PROJECT BRIEF - POSTER
OVERVIEW
 Crisis management refers to situation through
which company has to deal and manage with
unexpected events.
 During the time of pandemic, the major impact was
on tourism industry and due to that there has been
drastic decrease in profitability of the organization.
 Moreover, due to this uncertain event there has
been change in taste and preferences of customer
that has impacted negatively in growth of the
company.
 In addition to this, Hilton has to make use of
strategies so that it can attain its goals and
competitive advantage (Saroj and Pal, 2020).
 Furthermore, Hilton is one of the leading
organization that provide tourism and hospitality
services to their customer and it is the major source
of earning revenue.
VISION GOALS
The goal of the research is to identify the best
strategies for managing Hilton so that it can
deal with the concept of crisis management.
Along with this, the objective of research was
to discuss about the factors that are affecting
the profitability of hospitality sector in
general.
Another object is to identify reason for
managing crisis by Hilton and to
recommend them the best practice of crisis
management (Trachsler and Jong, 2020).
 Moreover, company need to make use of
effective strategy as it will contribute in
dealing with the future risk that can arsis
due to drivers of external and internal factor
of business environment.
 To fill the earth with the light
and warmth of hospitality
by delivering exceptional
experiences – every hotel,
every guest, every time
PAST OPERATIONS
 Tourism sector has faced various challenges during
the year of 2010-2020 that are related to crisis
management.
 In year of 2019 there was downfall in growth rate of
tourism sector of UK by 18% and government as
well as private industry has spender h £ 5.5 billion
amount of money in the tourism sector in year of
2020 which was level by 19% compare to year 2019.
 Moreover, in the time of pandemic there was
increase in spend per visit in 2021 in context to pre
Covid period that has resulted in higher length of
stay of visitor (Coomb and Laufer, 2018).
 Although in 2019 major issue face by travel
industry is that due to sharing of economy tourism
country was declined. The sharing economy
basically means to collaborate use of goods and
services by companies and it is way cheaper than
purchasing.
REFERENCES
 Berbekova, A., Uysal, M. and Assaf, A. G., 2021. A
thematic analysis of crisis management in tourism: A
theoretical perspective. Tourism Management. 86.
p.104342.
 Coombs, W. T. and Laufer, D., 2018. Global crisis
management–current research and future
directions. Journal of International Management. 24(3).
PRESENT OPERATION
Organizations like Hilton who are having their widely present operations are
experiencing great recovery now in the market.
The performance of the organization in Covid-19 has not been remarkable yet it would
be fair to say that it has notched up better Crisis management.
Hilton is one of the biggest giant of this sector. The present revenue of the company is
around 5.79 billion USD. At the same time, the total assets are 15.44 billion USD
(Crick, Chaudhry and Crick, 2018)
FUTURE OPERATIONS
The future of Tourism sector can be cited positive.
In last couple of years specifically in 2018-20, the tourism sector got befitted due to global crisis came in
the form of Covid-19.
The growth was 61% in 2019, and in 2020 it has been 69% so if the same trends are being remained in
future then the tourism sector will be notching up higher performance.
Hilton's hotels which is getting operated worldwide is having need to fabricate “Sustainability plan”
which will make it thrive in the upcoming time.

OVERVIEW
Crisis management refers to situation through which company has to deal and manage with unexpected events.
During the time of pandemic, the major impact was on tourism industry and due to that there has been drastic decrease in profitability of the organization.
Moreover, due to this uncertain event there has been change in taste and preferences of customer that has impacted negatively in growth of the company.
In addition to this, Hilton has to make use of strategies so that it can attain its goals and competitive advantage (Saroj and Pal, 2020).
Furthermore, Hilton is one of the leading organization that provide tourism and hospitality services to their customer and it is the major source of earning revenue.
Moreover, issues that has been faced by Hilton is that there is various factor present in environment and it has affected overall performance of company.
Thus, in order to be successful leading company Hilton has to come up with the innovative idea of dealing the crisis as it occur any time.
Sustainability is also major issue so for maintaining the market position it has to conduct market analysis from time to time in order to analysis the factors and to implement effective marketing strategies.
Thus, Covid has been one of the most common crisis which has been faced by tourism industry in the recent time.
GOALS
The goal of the research is to identify the best strategies for managing Hilton so that it can deal with the concept of crisis management.
Along with this, the objective of research was to discuss about the factors that are affecting the profitability of hospitality sector in general.
Another object is to identify reason for managing crisis by Hilton and to recommend them the best practice of crisis management (Trachsler and Jong, 2020).
Moreover, company need to make use of effective strategy as it will contribute in dealing with the future risk that can arsis due to drivers of external and internal factor of business environment.
The motive of research is to support tourism sector so that it can retain in their customer and run their business again as they are the major contributor in developing the economic growth of country.
Furthermore, the research will help other scholars to gain knowledge and theoretical concept regarding management of uncertain events.
VISION:
To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality by delivering exceptional experiences – every hotel, every guest, every time.
PAST OPERATIONS
Tourism sector has faced various challenges during the year of 2010-2020 that are related to crisis management.
In year of 2019 there was downfall in growth rate of tourism sector of UK by 18% and government as well as private industry has spender h £ 5.5 billion amount of money in the tourism sector in year of 2020
which was level by 19% compare to year 2019.
Moreover, in the time of pandemic there was increase in spend per visit in 2021 in context to pre Covid period that has resulted in higher length of stay of visitor (Coomb and Laufer, 2018).
Although in 2019 major issue face by travel industry is that due to sharing of economy tourism country was declined. The sharing economy basically means to collaborate use of goods and services by
companies and it is way cheaper than purchasing.
For example, Air Bnb is one of the most common example such as instead of staying in famous hotel customers can visit in someone house on rent with alternative accommodation facilities at cheaper price.
Thus, high competition like this has affected Hilton sales growth.
In the report of 2017 there was threat posed to hotel an online travel agency like Airbnb that has forced famous hotel to level up their game.
In addition to this, Google Monopoly of the online travel space has also affected performance of Hilton. Moreover, Google flights, Maps and Trips has decrease the overall profitability in the year of 2017 as
well as consumer was also declined (Berbekova, Uysal and Assaf, 2021).
Furthermore, there are various challenges that have been based by the company in terms of crisis management as well as employee are required to change their roles and responsibility so that it can delegate and
complete task on time.
At present the Tourism sector operations are showing positive trends and organizations such as Hilton are able to perform with their full of capacity.
But the surge is not as much fast as it should be. There are still some gapes when it comes to number of tourists coming to the organization, revenue collection etc.
As in the carried out research it has been seen at present the organizations are not spending much in term of marketing expenditures.
If just seen the UK growth in term of GDP so at present in Q1 of 2022 it was around 11.8%.
It was -19.40% in the Q2 of the year 2020.
So it would be fair to say that at present the market is showing positive trends and it is supposed to work in favour of Tourism sector.
Hilton is one of the biggest player of tourism sector and such market trends are having their direct impact on the performance of the organization.
The organization is being operated in many nations with its range of other companies who are working being under a single umbrella.
At present if consider the latest data provided by Hilton hotels. Then it has made profits of around 5.79 billion USD in the year 2021 (Sharples and Marcon-Clarke, 2019)
The same is being carried out and organization is making greater profits.
The present operations are looking quite promising and it can be concluded that the organization is looking lucrative with its present scenario.
As per the carried out research it can be pointed out that the sector is still recovering and striving to grab its profit making position back.
But form last couple of quarters the performance has been quite lucrative in nature and pouring out great profits.
The forecasts made by government are also navigating in the same direction.
In the future with growing economic development and ability of people to spend more, would be leading to bigger growth in the sector.
With this regard, the organization is supposed to pay attention to some areas such as Economic Viability, Social equity, Environmental Protection etc.
Hilton is supposed to change the way it is delivering its services.
The organization may offer green products and may work on R3s so can reduce pollution.
For fulfilment of this aim, it can come up with “Green policy” for future where environment protection would be given priority (Kumar and Nafi, 2020)
At the same time Social equity is another essential point. Where it is supposed to work on health of all its clients and employees.
Hilton may eradicate non healthy products from its portfolio and may work on hygienic things so can uphold the notion of health and safety.
People are more likely to get attracted towards such things or products where their health is given priority so by aligning with these programmes' organization may hike its sustainability.
Working on Economic viability would give it upper hand, the organization is well-known for its higher priced services.
Which cannot be afforded by normal people so with this respect, may also offer some reasonable services to its clients.
There is need to have a strong recovery plan. The performance of the entity has not been as same as it was before Covid-19.
There are number of efforts are being made by the management yet the results are taking time to come in its favour.
So, the organization may fabricate long-lasting plan in order to succeed the present market circumstances and can be more lucrative.
REFERENCES
Trachsler, T. and Jong, W., 2020. Crisis management in times of COVID‐19: game, set or match. Journal of contingencies and crisis management. 28(4). pp.485-486.
Present operation:
Crick, D., Chaudhry, S. and Crick, J. M., 2018. Risks/rewards and an evolving business model: A case study of a small lifestyle business in the UK tourism sector. Qualitative Market Research: An International
Journal. 21(2). pp.143-165.
Kumar, S. and Nafi, S. M., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism: Recovery proposal for future tourism. GeoJournal of Tourism and Geosites, Year XIIII Vol, 33.
Sharples, L. and Marcon-Clarke, G., 2019. Collaborative approach to mentoring in the tourism sector: Embracing new partners to enhance an industry programme. Tourism and Hospitality Research. 19(1).
pp.132-136.
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