A content analysis for government’s and hotels’ response to COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt

Abstract

Drawing on the Situational Crisis Communication theory (SCCT), this study recapitulates the initiatives, practices, and responses of the Egyptian government and chain-managed five-star hotels during the COVID-19 global health pandemic. Subjective and objective content analysis is employed in this study. Subjective content analysis is employed to examine newspapers, magazines, T.V channels, and official pages on Facebook to determine the initiatives and practices adopted by the Egyptian government. Objective content analysis is further used to determine the COVID-19 hospitality practices adopted by 22 chain-managed five-star hotels by examining their official websites. Thematic saturation was attained when observations and analyses exhibited no new themes. Findings indicated that the Egyptian government and chain-managed five-star hotels implemented a number of initiatives and practices focused on financial policies, health and hygiene, workforce and training, marketing, domestic tourism, booking flexibility, cancellation policies, community support, vacations, and contracts. This study contributes to crisis management research by being one of the first studies to explore governments and hotel operations practices and initiatives during the COVID-19 using Egypt as a case study. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications during and post the COVID-19.

Place Affect Interventions During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It would also be important to bring innovative approaches in urban planning. Scholars recommend incorporating more green and blue space for community health and well-being (Majeed and Ramkissoon, 2020;Salem et al, 2021).…”

“…Some countries e.g., Australia has had the establishment of strict restrictive conditions with the prolonged international border closure to curb the spread of the virus (Adekunle et al, 2020). The prolonged pandemic continues to have policymakers debate on the public health safety measures and business recovery across several nations (Salem et al, 2021).…”

“…COVID-19 also brought destructive impacts on other businesses globally (Salem et al, 2021). As a consequence, many staff have been dismissed, or having had to work from home.…”

“…Several people whose livelihoods depend on the travel and tourism industry have suffered greatly from flight cancellations, and closures of tourism businesses including the accommodation and restaurants. There have been some initiatives and government funds to continue supporting those impacted (Abate et al, 2020;Salem et al, 2021).…”

Social Bonding and Public Trust/Distrust in COVID-19 Vaccines

“…Social bonding interventions will also be needed to prepare for a post-pandemic context where reinforcement of social bonds or fostering new bonds is likely to play a key role as people deal with separation and loss and other challenges encountered during COVID-19 [29,47]. Many people continue to deal with the economic consequences as many businesses have closed down, impacting livelihoods [29,48,49]. Scholars, medical doctors, and behavioral psychologists continue to emphasize the detrimental impacts of COVID-19 on mental health [47,50,51].…”