The General Managers’ role in luxury hotels, during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from 45 countries

Abstract

The tourism industry, untenable in the absence of core elements such as safety, security, stability, and free movement, and reliant on the operational specificities of the hospitality sector, is vulnerable to incidents of economic, political and social instability, natural catastrophes and pandemics. The unpredictability and volatility associated with such incidents pose severe challenges, both at a macro and micro level; stakeholders must be prepared to mitigate ill effects and ensure the viability of the industry when disaster strikes. In recent years, the industry has faced challenges due to economic crises (e.g. the 2009 European recession), terrorism (e.g. the 2015 Paris attacks), political unrest (e.g. the 2011 Arab Spring), natural disasters (e.g. the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean), war (e.g. the ongoing Syrian conflict), and pandemics (e.g. the 2003 SARS pandemic) (Zopiatis et al., 2019). Despite the pivotal role of General Managers (GMs) during contingencies and unpredicted events, very few studies focus on the capacity and preparedness of GMs to effectively deal with a crisis. Responding to this gap, the current study utilizes the areas of crisis management, resilience, and human resources in order to explore the impact of the pandemic on the industry’s operational norms, and the role of general managers (GMs) in both managing the COVID-19 crisis and planning contingencies for recovery.