TOURISM CHALLENGES AMID COVID-19 (TISC 2021) – Thematic proceedings

doi: 10.52370/TISC21570VM

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC EFFECTS ON THE HOTEL

INDUSTRY

Vesna Milovanović1

Abstract

The novel coronavirus pandemic has brought about significant disruptions

to hotel operations, affecting demand for hotel services and guests’
behavior, as well as financial stability of hotel companies and,
consequently, hotel employees. A hotel company is interconnected with
various partners in the supply chain, thus, the problem in hotel operation
is transferred upstream the supply chain. The aim of this article is to
present an overview of the COVID-19 impact on the hotel business, and
provisions to cope with the new reality, including safety measures,
technology application, quality of service, marketing communication,
human resource management, and the supply chain management. Many
authors believe that majority of these provisions will prevail in the post-
COVID-19 environment, as people will be more cautious regarding safety.
Apart from huge destructive impact, the present crisis will also have some
positive effects, such as improved innovativeness, resilience, efficient
communication and care for internal and external customers, all resulting
in improved quality of hotel service.

Key Words: hotel business, COVID-19, safety, quality, human resource

management, corporate social responsibility
JEL classification: I15, Z31

Introduction

A hotel is a commercial establishment which functions as a temporary

home of travelers. Hotels allow people to satisfy their basic human needs
during the trip, but also to relax, entertain, do business, and improve their

1
Vesna Milovanović, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Kragujevac – Faculty of
Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja, Vojvodjanska bb, 36210 Vrnjačka
Banja, [Link]@[Link]

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physical and mental health. Many hotels today strive to provide exceptional
service and create a unique experience for their guests. This goal can be
achieved through a pleasant environment, variety of services tailored to the
needs of a selected market segment, and with a help of committed
employees. The novel coronavirus pandemic has brought about significant
disruptions and challenges to hotel operations. It significantly affected
demand for hotel services and guests’ behavior, but also financial stability
of hotel enterprises and, consequently, hotel employees who face double
fear – the fear of infection and the fear of losing the job in a situation when
overall economic activity stagnates. A hotel is not an island on the market
as it is interconnected with various partners in the supply chain. Thus, hotel
businesses suffering from sudden and unpredictable disruptions transfer the
problem upstream the supply chain, affecting its main suppliers. The aim
of this article is to present an overview of COVID-19 impact on hotel
business and implications for coping with the new reality related to human
resource management, corporate social responsibility, demand
management, quality management, and supply chain management.

Discontinuity of the hotel business due to COVID-19

The contact-intensive nature of tourism industry makes it sensitive to the

development of infectious diseases (Sobaih et al., 2021). Yu et al. (2021)
posit that such diseases are spreading fast because of the growth in
population, tourism, and transportation. According to the World Tourism
Organization, there has been a 74% drop in international tourist arrivals for
2020 in the world (381 million in 2020 compared to 1.5 billion in 2019),
which brings international tourism to the level of 30 years ago. Estimated
loss in global GDP is over $ 2 trillion, while there are 100-120 million of
direct tourism jobs at risk (UNWTO, COVID-19 and Tourism: Tourism in
Pre-Pandemic Times). As a result, COVID-19 has particularly impacted
the hotel sector which faced dramatic drop in sales due to travel restrictions,
event bans, and fear of getting infected.

Regarding travelers’ behavior in times of COVID-19, it occurs that

domestic travel gains importance, as people tend to travel closer. Moreover,
tourists prefer open-air activities, nature, rural tourism, and road trips. The
main travelers’ concerns are health and safety measures, and cancellation
policies, while last-minute bookings have increased due to volatile and
unpredictable pandemic. Although closed borders and travel restrictions
made domestic tourism of prevalent importance, propensity to travel even
within the same country is dependent on people’s available income and
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savings, work arrangements, and their safety perceptions (Pappas &

Glyptou, 2021). Pappas and Glyptou (2021) find that COVID-19 has
affected accommodation preferences in a way that tourists prefer to rent a
house than to book a hotel room. Similarly, Zhang et al. (2021) assert that
COVID-19 severely impacted shared accommodation sector in which
interactions between hosts and guests are more intensive than in the
traditional hotel business. It was also found that, although in normal
circumstances demand-driven scarcity cues positively affected guests’
purchasing intentions, during the current pandemic the effect was the
opposite (Li et al., 2021). Scarcity cues signal a hotel’s popularity and
superior quality, what motivates people to visit it. However, in the current
circumstances, guests perceive such place as less safe, and prefer not to
visit it. This means that the pandemic has induced a shift in perceptions and
affected purchase decisions, where highly occupied places are likely to be
avoided.

Table 1: The comparison of overnight stays between the first three quarters
of 2019 and 2020
2019 2020
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q1 Q2 Q3
Domestic tourists’
101.3 107.6 105.4 101.5 39.3 113.0
overnight stays
Foreign tourists’
108,3 106,4 105,8 93,2 8,9 17,9
overnight stays
Total overnight stays 103,9 107,2 105,6 98,3 28,1 74,9
Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Trends, III Quarter
2020, p.51

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia reports changes in the structure

of overnight stays for the period January ‒ September 2020 (Table 1).
There was a drop of 36% in overnight stays during this period compared to
the same period in 2019. The most significant year-on-year decline (94.6%)
was registered in April 2020, while in later months a slightly higher number
of overnight stays was recorded, but still significantly lower than in the
same period last year. Domestic tourists were the dominant users of
accommodation services in Serbia (80.8%), however, they realized 16%
less overnight stays than in the same period last year. Interestingly, in the
third quarter of 2020 the number of overnight stays of domestic tourists
was 13% higher compared to the same quarter of the previous year. This
could be the result of impossibility to travel abroad, especially for summer

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vacation, so domestic tourists have shifted to Serbian tourism destinations,

mainly to spas and mountains (Figure 2). After extremely poor results in
the second quarter of 2020, when the number of overnight stays of foreign
tourists compared to the same period in 2019 was lower by 91.1%, in the
third quarter the number of overnight stays of foreign tourists was slightly
higher, but still significantly lower (82.1%) than in the same period in 2019.

Figure 1: The structure of overnight stays by tourism destinations for the

first three quarters of 2020

Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Trends, III Quarter

2020, p.52

Hotel companies in Serbia were offered the Government’s economic

support with respect to the COVID-19 crisis. The support consisted of tax
policy measures (deferred payment of payroll taxes and contributions
during the state of emergency, with subsequent repayment of incurred
liabilities in installments beginning at the earliest from 2021; postponement
of advance payment of taxes on profit in the second quarter of 2020; release
of donation givers from the obligation of VAT payments), direct financial
support to private companies, and credit program of the Development Fund
via commercial banks for maintaining liquidity (Ministry of Economy of
the Republic of Serbia). There were also subventions for hospitality and
tourism companies which are among the most seriously affected by
COVID-19 (Acts of the National Assembly). Further, there was no constant
mandatory closure of hospitality companies, so they could function by
respecting safety measures (working time, social distance, wearing masks,
etc.).

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Many hotels worldwide provided accommodation to people who needed

isolation during quarantine period, as well as to displaced medical staff who
treated COVID patients (Kaushal & Srivastava, 2021). Such a new role of
hotels demands dealing with guests’ physical and psychosocial needs
(Jiang & Wen, 2020). Tourists being in isolation face negative sentiments
because of prohibited movement, fear of getting infected, and uncertainty
about the future. Wong and Yang (2020) found that hotel service quality
remarkably reduces the impact of quarantined tourists’ anxiety on their
feeling of loneliness.

Jung et al. (2021) assert that hotels faced an employment shock in terms of
significantly reduced number of employees, and a very high rise in the
number of employees being on temporary leave. Apart from modern
organizational changes that act as job stressors, such as new technological
solutions that require skilled personnel, downsizing, higher performance
expectations and other, COVID-19 has also appeared as a significant job
stressor as it directly affects job insecurity and employees’ fear of getting
infected. Work stress negatively influences employees’ wellbeing (Inoue
et al., 2018), motivation (Ünsar, 2011) and performance (Wang et al.,
2015), and positively affects their turnover intention (Akgunduz &
Eryilmaz, 2018). Job insecurity is found to be a significant stressor for
employees (Gaunt & Benjamin, 2007). Jung et al. (2021) illuminate that
perceptions of job insecurity of deluxe hotel employees negatively affected
job engagement, which is negatively associated with turnover intent. They
further posit that job insecurity caused by COVID-19 had higher negative
impact on job engagement of Generation Y than on Generation X,
illuminating that hotel management should consider perceived job security
as an important predictor of job engagement of the future predominant
hospitality workforce.

Stergiou and Farmaki (2021) claim that pandemic is likely to influence

absenteeism through employees’ willingness and ability to show up for
work, causing in this way workforce shortages. Nevertheless, their research
shows that front-line hotel employees mainly believed they should work
during COVID-19 pandemic, feeling a moral duty to fulfill professional
obligation and be collegial. However, some external factors could affect
their ability to report to work, such as lack of motorized transportation if
they live far and are not willing to use public transportation. Also, childcare
or eldercare were found as important reasons impacting employees’
willingness to work in case when available care alternatives were perceived
as inadequate, so they prioritized family over work. Additionally,
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employees’ willingness to work was affected by the lack of guidance

regarding the correct use of equipment, behavior and employee
performance during the pandemic. The authors therefore conclude that
employees’ decision to work during COVID-19 crises depends on a
combination of personal beliefs/circumstances and external constraints.
Therefore, the management should help them remove constraints (e.g.
facilitate transportation, show care for the health protection of employees
and their families, provide sufficient information and training on safety
measures, etc.) in order to support their ability and willingness to work.
Milovanović (2014) found generally low level of hotel management
concern for employee training and motivation in Serbia, although these are
key factors for ensuring employees’ ability and willingness to work.

Shapoval et al. (2021) assert that during the pandemic COVID-19 personal
values are likely to deviate: "the strongly individualistic and masculine
American society has rediscovered compassion and empathy toward
coworkers, profound connection with family and friends, and focus on
emotional values, causing it to become less individualistic, materialistic,
and achievement-oriented, and more collectivistic. Sweden, which scored
very low on uncertainty avoidance and high on indulgence, expressed fear
and strong uncertainty about the hospitality industry’s future, which
reverberated into personal and professional lives." The authors have
identified negative effect of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry image
as a workplace, so attracting skilled workforce in the future may be
difficult.

The more intensive use of technology to support social distancing and

economic activity during COVID-19 pandemic, especially for hotel back-
office employees and managers, has created certain challenges, as Chadee
et al. (2021) unveil, working from home using digital technology can lead
to self-control depletion and further to employees’ disengagement from
work and withdrawal. Thus, physically displaced employees who work
from home using digital technologies are likely to have reduced affective
commitment. The authors find a moderating role of relational energy,
which may have a buffering effect in the relationship between digital work
connectivity and employee withdrawal through self-control depletion.
They recommend to the hospitality leaders to generate relational energy by
harmonizing employees’ work styles and promoting positive working
relationships.

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The modern business environment imposes the need for customization,

specialization and resilience, and, consequently, for cooperation. This
means that no single company can achieve competitive advantage on its
own, but rather as a member of a network. Such network comprises of all
actors involved in the process of delivering the value to the end customer.
Tourism supply chains are particularly vulnerable to different sorts of
crises, such as natural disasters, economic and political crisis, as well as
health crises, such as epidemics. Not all members of a supply chain are
equally affected, but the shock is transferred from the most affected
member upstream or downstream the supply chain (McCann & Myers,
2020). As tourism and hospitality companies are highly interconnected,
they share risks and consequences of any disruptions anywhere in the
supply chain.

Strategies and recommendations for coping with COVID-19

Nowadays, companies need to be highly flexible in order to be able to

follow changing customer requirements, to ensure consistency in quality
and price-competitiveness, and to create value for its owners (Milovanović
& Janošević, 2019). Due to economic consequences of the current
pandemic, people are more than ever prone to consider the value-for money
issues, meaning that the adaptability of companies is crucial for ensuring
higher quality at lower costs (Pappas & Glyptou, 2021). Hotel companies
have developed a number of strategies to deal with the COVID-19 crisis,
mostly relating to human resources management (HRM), demand
management, safety assurance and communication. COVID-19 has
affected the perceived quality of hotel services, where health protection and
safety have growing importance (Pappas & Glyptou, 2021). Therefore,
hygiene and other measures for health protection predominantly affect
accommodation decision making during the pandemic, and these elements
should be at the core of hotel marketing and quality management to reduce
potential guests’ fear and anxiety. As Yu et al. (2021) assert, hygiene
became the key predictor of hotel guests’ satisfaction, perceived service
quality, word of mouth, revisit intention, and hotel image. Guests evaluate
overall hygiene not only through spaces used by them, such as rooms,
lobby, restaurants, and so on, but also through personal hygiene of staff,
and spaces used by staff. In order to ensure effective hygiene management,
and reassure guests about the high level of safety, hotels may also use
services of the specialized hygiene companies.

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Sobaih et al. (2021) show the importance of planned resilience for

successfully coping with pandemic. Proactive managers, who developed a
plan in the case a pandemic occurs, were able to positively respond to the
COVID-19 crisis. Similarly, Rivera et al. (2021) suggest that hospitality
management should develop contingency plans for low probability events
that could have a significant harmful impact. They argue that the major
elements of a crisis recovery agenda are strategy evaluation and strategic
control, crisis communication and control, resource management, and
collaboration with stakeholders. Furthermore, these authors find
communication with the local media for positive marketing as a highly
critical strategy for recovery, as it helps rebuilding tourists’ trust in safety
at a logging place. Business associations and destination management
organizations are also found helpful for the recovery. Kaushal & Srivastava
(2021) highlight the need of multiskilling, optimism and better crisis
preparedness, along with increased sense of hygiene. Hu et al. (2021) reveal
that during the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have prioritized safety
and social responsibility, thus protecting employees from both physical and
economic threat. This is achieved by implementing safety measures and
conducting business activity in order to ensure employment, although the
latter may not be the best option in financial sense.

Hu et al. (2021) showcase that employees’ deep compliance with COVID-

19 procedures follows a four-stage psychological process, starting with
increased risk and health awareness (1st stage), which stimulates
implementation of safety measures (2nd stage), which in turn motivate
behavioral adaptation (3rd stage). Employees’ increased confidence in the
effectiveness of safety measures prompts the integration of these measures
into their normal daily work practices (4th stage). To facilitate employees’
deep compliance with safety measures, the hotel management should
demonstrate a commitment to workplace health and safety to employees by
prioritizing and promoting safety, and actively following the established
safety procedures (Hu et al., 2021).

Management communication to employees during the pandemic is found

to have a great impact on organizational trust (Guzzo, 2021). Employees
pay attention to how management is following social norms and guidelines
from experts and authorities related to crisis. If the management’s attitude
is not in line with safety recommendations, employees are likely to develop
negative attitudes. Crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, pose an
uncertain context for employees who need a support and are prone to evoke
different emotions toward organizations, such as gratitude, anger, fear, etc.
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Thus, the management should demonstrate a concern for employees’ well-

being, and should not prioritize business goals over employees’ safety in
order to save its reputation, keep the employees and increase their
psychological capital.

Wong et al. (2021) found that during the COVID-19 crisis hotel employees’
job satisfaction and organizational commitment remarkably affected job
performance, perceived well-being, and prosocial behavior, while the
influence on turnover intention was not significant. The pandemic made
hotel employees fearful about the job security, as many were laid off, sent
to unpaid leave, faced cuttings in compensations etc., and they ignored
traditional work stressors as long as they had the possibility to work and
earn for living. That is why employees with low satisfaction and
organizational commitment had low turnover intention. The mentioned
authors suggest that hotel management must provide support to employees
in form of mentoring, team building, stress-release workshops and other
stress-management programs Kim, Kim & Lee (2021) find that employees’
safety behaviors such as safety compliance and safety participation are
positively influenced by workplace safety climate. Managers should
therefore foster a safety climate at the workplace, and also consider
communication transparency as it proved to have a significant positive
moderating effect in the relationship between safety climate and safety
motivation.

Agarwal (2021) points that any mishandling of guests during the current
pandemic is likely to provoke their momentous negative reactions, but also
to attract the attention of media, what may cause a long-term harm to the
hotel’s reputation. In order to ensure adequate treatment of hotel guests
during the pandemic, hotels should pay special attention to the HRM
practices which should result in employee’s excellence in delivering high
quality service. Apart from increasing employees’ capabilities, training and
development during the pandemic also have a motivational effect. Agarwal
(2021) asserts that HRM practices should consider the employees’ personal
lives in order to enhance their job performance and well-being. This means
that employees would be better motivated and empowered to perform well
at work if they are supported to overcome certain difficulties in their
personal lives, especially during the pandemic. Personal burden usually
inhibits employees from performing well at work and creates stress. By
responding to societal needs hotels can increase employees’ wellbeing,
and, consequently, their performance. Agarwal (2021) explains why some
hotels cannot achieve desirable outcomes although they managed all
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organizational factors of wellbeing. The key is to include personal factors

of wellbeing, which means to help employees to manage their personal
lives.

While job insecurity is commonly found to negatively influence

employees’ wellbeing and performance, whereas positively influencing
turnover intention, Agarwal (2021) finds that job insecurity has actually
increased work efforts and performance of hotel staff due to the fear of job
loss during the pandemic. She further emphasizes that HRM flexibility
helps reducing the stress and anxiety of hotel employees caused by
ambiguity and uncertainty, while organizational support together with
HRM practices led to reduced feeling of helplessness. Moreover, hotel
employees’ psychological wellbeing can be enhanced through consistent
communication, positive relationships, authentic leadership, training,
coaching, mentoring, personal life support, and corporate social
responsibility (CSR). In fact, HRM practices enable employees to cope
with new role-performance challenges brought by the pandemic, while
participating in CSR activities strengthens employees’ belongingness to the
company. Qiu et al. (2021) argue that investment in CSR activities during
crisis is useful to companies’ financial welfare. Particularly, the authors
find that CSR activities positively impact the value (stock returns) and
stakeholder attention of hospitality companies during the COVID-19
pandemic, and that community-related CRS (such as charitable giving,
voluntary services, room and/or food provision, disaster relief etc.) is more
beneficial for stock returns than customer- and employee-related CSR
(hygiene standard improvement, social distancing, medical assistance,
training, discounts). The community especially appreciates hospitality
corporate philanthropy during crises, so engaging in CSR in difficult times
may significantly improve corporate image and draw tremendous public
attention, which positively influences investor decisions. In order to attract
public attention, hospitality companies’ CSR activities during the
pandemic should be reported by mass media.

Breier et al. (2021) argue that business model innovation (BMI) might be
an efficient way to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. They provide evidence
that BMI is applied during and after crisis to create new revenue streams
and secure a higher level of liquidity. The business model represents a
configuration of a company’s value proposition, value creation, and value
capture approach (Clauss, 2017). Thus, modifying these components of
business model with respect to the nature of crisis and available
opportunities, companies have potential to improve performance. Cheah et
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al. (2018) find that environmental turbulence nurtures BMI, where BMI
plays a mediating role the relationship between market turbulence and
hospitality firms’ performance. According to existing research, Breier et al.
(2021) summarize that BMI helps hospitality companies working in
turbulent environment to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
Moreover, they argue that BMI is crucial for companies’ success in the
contemporary dynamic environment, while external forces, such as
globalization, changes in the competitive environment, new technological
opportunities, changes in behavior, etc. foster BMI. These authors find that
available time, pressure and the role of very frequent guests are driving
factors for a BMI. The COVID-19 crisis has created enough pressure on
hotel companies to innovate their business model, while the drop in demand
and lockdown has increased available time for decision-makers. The
authors further argue that "a crisis can result in new perspectives and profit
potentials for firms that seize the opportunity of change" (p. 7).

González-Torres et al. (2021) assert that during the crisis, such as COVID-
19 pandemic, the hotel business objectives should be redirected from cost
reduction and operational efficiency to liquidity control, labor relationship
and demand management, emphasizing the role of inter-organizational
relationship management within the supply chain. They also accentuate the
need for cooperation with competitors in order to influence favorable
regulatory framework, and to promote destination so to recover the
demand. This means finding balance between cooperation and competition,
and focusing on differentiation based on quality and safety. In order to
prevent long-lasting devastating effects of COVID-19, Pappas and Glyptou
(2021) suggest the collaboration of hospitality companies and tourism
destinations, local and national authorities, as well as international
collaboration because tourism is predominantly based on international
tourist flows. In order to control the negative effects of pandemic, there is
a need to manage tourism supply chain as a whole, not each its segment
independently. Furthermore, Smart et al. (2021) recommend to the hotel
management to search for low cost opportunities in the financial market as
a way to maintain financial stability. According to these authors, each
market segment’s resiliency to crises should be evaluated and new market
segments should be explored in order to spread the risk and ensure demand
in different scenarios.

Regarding the use of information technology and robot service in

particular, it was found that during the COVID-19 pandemic these
technologies are more welcome by people than it was before the crisis, and
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this preference is explained by perceived threat which showed significant

moderating effect (Kim, Kim, Badu-Baiden et al., 2021). Using robots
helps increase protection of both guests and staff as the human contact is
being minimized. Robots are useful in improving guest service as
sometimes direct interaction between guests and hotel staff can lead to
negative outcomes, affecting hotel’s reputation and financial success.
There can be achieved a higher level of consistency in quality of service,
and mistakes can be substantially reduced. Kim, Kim, Badu-Baiden et al.
(2021) point to the main benefits of artificial intelligence adoption in hotel
operations for both hotels and guests, such as efficient service delivery,
customization, reduced labor costs, increased productivity, flexibility,
safety and potentially lower service costs. However, human service is at
core of the hotel service and it is hard to overcome. The loss of social
relationships can negatively affect customer satisfaction. Moreover, there
are guests who are not conversant with technology and are therefore fearful
of using robot technologies. These authors express the view that the current
health crisis might change guests’ mindsets and attitudes towards new
technologies, especially because the concern for hygiene and safety may
retain importance in the future.

Foroudi et al. (2021) assert that COVID-19 disease has resulted in "many
psychological, economic and socio-cultural influences on hospitality
stakeholders, some of which may last for years" (p. 5). The authors
highlight that individual behavior is impacted by beliefs and perceptions,
so the perceived health risk should be lowered in order to increase the
customers’ buying behaviors. That is, hotels should reassure the potential
guests about the high level of health safety. In this regard, safety
certifications proved to be useful. Business association of hotel and
restaurant industry in Serbia (HORES), with the institutional support of
Serbian Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, has created
a label "Clean & Safe" (Figure 2) for hotels and other hospitality businesses
that fulfill safety standards designed according to the World Travel and
Tourism Council’s protocol. The aim was to assure potential guests that
they can have safe vacation. Standards help to achieve necessary level of
hygiene and health protection of guests and employees in hotels and
restaurants, thus mitigating risk of contamination with COVID-19. The
label is used as a marketing tool to communicate safety to guests via hotels’
website, [Link], as well as via the website of HORES. The
certification is valid 6 months and is not mandatory.

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Figure 2: "Clean & Safe" label for hotels fulfilling safety standards during
COVID-19

Source: Business association of hotel and restaurant industry – Serbia,

[Link]

Conclusion

Literature overview of the hotels’ struggle to cope with COVID-19 crisis

in 2020 provides many practical implications for hotel managers who strive
to keep the business alive. Some successful actions used by hospitality
companies worldwide are related to the main stakeholders such as
employees, customers, and the community. These include increasing safety
provision through strict hygiene standards, employee trainings and
motivation, social distancing, more intensive use of digital technology
instead of human contact, intensive marketing to promote safety, safety
certification, orientation towards domestic tourists, more attractive offers,
medical assistance, charity giving and room/food provision for those in
need especially for displaced medical staff and quarantined tourists,
business model innovation, and so on. Some of the empirical findings
particularly stress the importance of taking care of employees as they are
concerned for the personal health and for the health of their families, while
being at the same time afraid of losing the job. Also, many factors were
identified to impact employees well-being, motivation, safety behavior,
and turnover intention during this crisis and, accordingly,
recommendations are provided for hotel managers to successfully manage
human resources during the pandemic, such as building safety culture,
ensuring communication transparency, helping employees’ to overcome
difficulties in their personal lives, providing tools, trainings and clear
instructions with regard to safety, following social norms and
professionals’ guidelines, caring more for employees than for profit, and so

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on. Many authors expressed their belief that numerous changes introduced
during the COVID-19 pandemic will prevail in the future. Anyhow, to be
prepared for the similar scenario that might happen in the future, hotel
managers should pay more attention to crisis management, including risks
identification and evaluation, development of different scenarios and
strategies for coping with the potential crisis.

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