Challenges and Responses of Hospitality Industry towards COVID-19 Pandemic

This essay discusses the challenges faced by the hospitality industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses of companies towards it. It explains the impact of pandemic on the industry, challenges faced by the industry, and recommendations for the industry to overcome these challenges. The subject of the essay is hospitality industry and the course code and college/university are not mentioned.

Individual Essay

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Explain and discuss the business Issue...................................................................................1
Response of companies towards the pandemic positively/negatively....................................3
Recommendations and suggestions........................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References:.......................................................................................................................................5
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Hospitality industry is a broad, wide and significant sector of hospitality industry which
encompasses several other businesses which are engaged in delivering customer comfort, leisure,
entertainment and satisfaction to the maximum potential. Evidently emergence of pandemic has
stroked many industries and economies at large scale but hospitality industry had hit really hard
and overcoming with great difficulties due to several challenges caused by the COVID-19 (Miles
& Shipway, 2020). Further mentioned report talks about the numerous challenges aroused with
the consequences of pandemic within leisure, hospitality, and travel industry along with how
businesses within these industries are opting a way to overcome these challenges.
Main Body
Explain and discuss the business Issue
Outbreak of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc in the entire world leading to a mass lockdown and
sluggish economic growth around the world and presented several unprecedented challenges
before many industries and hospitality industry was not spared too. The highly infectious and
prolonged corona virus has put into danger the present and future survival of the industry. The
report address two main concerns related with the challenges faced by the business under the
umbrella of huge hospitality industry and what learning they have gained so far in order to
overcome these difficult challenges (Shin and Kang, 2020). Since the companies are imposing
restrictions on travel ban, closure of geographical boundaries and slow down of economic
growth rate has declined the demand and patronage of hotels, travel companies, cruises, themes
parks, historic monuments, airlines, restaurants, beaches, etc., are at halt and affected the several
people associated with these businesses. Due to this almost all the hotels reservations got
cancelled, airlines reimbursed the partial amount to travellers, people associated with the
industry lost their jobs for instance, hotel employees, airline and cruise staff, tour operators,
guides, drivers and some other artists who used to provide entertainment and recreational
satisfaction to the guests through their services. People across the world are dealing to overcome
from the pain caused by the pandemic as many has lost their loved ones, people barely earn
money to meet their basic needs due to heavy job loss and emotional instability due to the
concern for future (Kang and et. al., 2021). Below mentioned are the few challenges that are
faced by the hospitality industry at a global scale:
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One of the significant challenges faced by the industry is high fixed and variable
expenses to keep the business alive. Amidst pandemic when there was shut down around the
world, businesses in hospitality industry were dealing with maintaining adequate amount of
working capital to run daily business operations while there were no occupancy in hotels and
minimal sales at other businesses (Richards and Morrill, 2021). Apart from these governments
mandated social distancing and cleaning ordinance vary nation to nation, city to city which have
influenced the profitability of the business under hospitality industry. Due to the sudden
announcements of lockdowns across globe, some of the travellers were stuck in some nations
which becomes difficult for airline industry to move them from one place to another. Many
guests prolonged their stay in hotels and other accommodation areas due to which hospitality
industry faced high cost of running business with minimal occupancy and huge amount of money
invested in the well being of guests and employees who were deputed for serving and catering to
the needs of guests.
Low occupancy is the another concern for hospitality business as when the lockdown was
at peak there was 0% to 20% occupancy rate and in order to meet their break even, hoteliers at
least required a minimum occupancy of 40% which also lead to the rise in cost and decline in
overall profitability of the business under broad hospitality service industry. Then there was a
heavy lay off across the entire industry as hospitality industry employs foreign workforce along
with some local workforce who retuned back to home amidst pandemic to take care their family,
relatives and friends (Kim, Bonn and Hall, 2021). There is a low demand of workforce and high
supply to talented workforce which caused disturbance in the hospitality industry on a large
scale. Governments of different nations are handing the pandemic distinctively which is
impacting overall industry. For instance high restrictions of travelling and compliance with
certain standards and policies by the government at several regions along with mandatory
COVID Tests, banning citizens from nations which have high active cases of COVID positive,
social distancing, quarantine for minimum day of 14 days prior or after travel etc., are all the
factors which is becoming obstacles in bouncing back the industry. Another challenge that
hospitality industry is facing health and wellness of employees and customer as soon as the
hotels and other business units reopens. Governments are actively intervening in the hospitality
industry to keep it safe, hygiene and secure from deadly rapidly spreading corona virus (Grima,
Dalli Gonzi and Thalassinos, 2020). Business firms are spending huge amounts in taking
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necessary measures and strictly compliance with the governments pre-defined standards and
practices related with safety and well being of employees and their valuable customer (Novelli
and et. al., 2018). For the successful implementation of proper and desired safety and hygiene
standard hospitality industry is facing a great challenge in educating and training employees with
regards to safety protocols and precautions to prevent from the disease. Social distancing and use
of sanitizer has become mandatory and core part of daily life which have inhibited into the life of
people and essential tool to cope up with the deadly virus.
Response of companies towards the pandemic positively/negatively
Companies in the hospitality industry are preparing for the reopening of the industry and removal
of travel bans across nations and liberal travel policies by the government to boost up the
hospitality industry giving positive signage to the business that this industry will flourish and
bounce back again. Businesses in hospitality industry have learned a lot from great challenge and
difficulties posed by pandemic are proactively preparing themselves for the upcoming future of
hospitality business. Hotels prefer to have minimal occupancy in hotels to meet the safety and
hygiene standards along with adhering to social distancing protocols and measures suggested by
government (Didier and et. al.,2021). For instance, hotels are becoming tech-savvy by
integrating automation and internet based technology to make client reservations, check-inn, and
check-outs; making payments, ordering food, interacting with concierge in the hotels, mobile
keys and high tech rooms and room services. Airline industry has started offering web check inn
and e-tags for the baggage without having interaction with the staff personnel. Apart from that
airline carriers are reserving seats with 50% of the aircraft capacity to mitigate the spreading of
virus. Not only this, Pandemic has offered wide range of opportunities for the hospitality
industry as there is new innovative business ideas providing ideal solutions to deal with
pandemic and giving a boost to the sluggish and slow down economy. Business travellers prefer
to attend meetings over zoom rather than visiting a place physically or preferring nearby places
which is increasing the popularity of the unknown and undiscovered places along with heavy
bookings of hotels that had low occupancy rates through the entire season.
Recommendations and suggestions
From the above findings it has been revealed that it is imperative for hospitality businesses to
ensure highly safety and security of the working personnel and staff to make them feel secure
and deliver high quality of services as per their level of expectations (Yazir and et. al., 2020). As
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hospitality business faced a problem of adequate amount off working capital, which can be
avoided by having liquidity management strategies, reducing and realigning cost and having
working capital for crisis management will prevent the business to ran out of cash and ensure
smooth running of business. High cancellations rate were another problem which led to the
declining in the sales of hospitality business, employing a flexible date system and option for
refunds will allow the companies to gain the trust of customers and reschedule their trips after
the lockdown or any other crisis (Caligiuri and et. al., 2020). Furthermore, it is also recommend
for the hospitality business to focus on flexi services rather than a value added services as people
are becoming more concerned related with the health and safety for their relatives and
themselves, therefore, hospitality business must take some additional time to conduct cleaning
and hygiene activity in the hotel property.
Conclusion
From the above mentioned report it has been revealed that due to the strike of pandemic
several industries were badly affected and hospitality industry was not an exceptional one. It has
posed several challenges in front of the businesses which have proved to be a great learning and
better opportunities for further growth and prosperity of the hospitality industry. Companies are
proactively coming with a innovative solutions to help the industry in grow and bounce back
from the greatest havoc caused by deadly virus COVID-19.
.
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References:
Books and Journals
Caligiuri, P., and et. al., 2020. International HRM insights for navigating the COVID-19
pandemic: Implications for future research and practice.
Didier, T., and et. al.,2021. Financing firms in hibernation during the COVID-19
pandemic. Journal of Financial Stability. 53. p.100837.
Grima, S., Dalli Gonzi, R. and Thalassinos, E., 2020. The impact of COVID-19 on Malta and it’s
economy and sustainable strategies.
Kang, S.E., and et. al., 2021. The Stress-Induced Impact of COVID-19 on Tourism and
Hospitality Workers. Sustainability.13(3). p.1327.
Kim, M.J., Bonn, M. and Hall, C.M., 2021. What influences COVID-19 biosecurity behaviour
for tourism?. Current Issues in Tourism, pp.1-7.
Miles, L., & Shipway, R. (2020). Exploring the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Catalyst for
StimulatingFuture Research Agendas for Managing Crises and Disasters at
International Sport Events. Event Management,
Novelli, M., and et. al., (2018). No Ebola… still doomed”–The Ebolainduced tourism crisis.
Annals of Tourism Research. 70. 76–87.
Richards, G. and Morrill, W., 2021. The challenge of COVID-19 for youth travel. Anais
Brasileiros de Estudos Turísticos-ABET.
Shin, H. and Kang, J., 2020. Reducing perceived health risk to attract hotel customers in the
COVID-19 pandemic era: Focused on technology innovation for social distancing and
cleanliness. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 91. p.102664.
Yazir, D., and et. al., 2020. Effects of COVID-19 on maritime industry: a review. International
maritime health. 71(4). pp.253-264.
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