Crisis management in high-category hotels in Serbia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the level of importance and performance (usage level) of hotel crisis management measures during the different phases of a crisis: Before-Crisis phase, During-Crisis phase, and After-Crisis phase, and to determine the significant gap between these two levels by surveying the managers of the high-category hotels in Serbia. The questionnaires were filled out by the managers of 162 high-category hotels in Serbia (four-and five-star hotels) during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic caused the sharpest decline in the tourism sector around the world, thus the crisis management applied in tourism enterprises will have a crucial role for the tourism industry in surviving this pandemic. The hotel managers' responses were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The applied methods include the descriptive statistical analysis, paired-samples t-test, and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). Empirical results showed that hotels were adopting various crisis management measures during the different stages of the crisis, also, the implementation of certain measures significantly affected the business operations of hotels. In addition, hotel crisis management considers that measures implemented during the Before-Crisis phase, During-Crisis phase, and After-Crisis phase are of great importance.