CHAPTER I

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The COVID-19 epidemic has hit the world economy very hard, leaving no

industry unaffected. In this study, this study aims to investigate the economic

effect of COVID 19 on service sector firms. This Pandemic hits the economy hard

that made the businesses devastated. During the crisis, Unemployment and

poverty are at an all-time low. It made also the economy closed and no sales at

all. This study will show how the pandemic affects the hotel and restaurant and

how this business can be seen slowly growing and recovering in a midst of New

Normal Post-Pandemic effect. A lot of countries healthcare systems have been

fully implemented the Vaccination against covid19 since it is already a

requirements for employees, customer and others. Beside from the Vaccination,

in every establishment must have also an equipment for the safety protocol of

everyone and that is having a sanitation area, clean and potable water, alcohol

and 1 meter Social Distancing Banner. Due to lack of awareness of having a

safety protocol during Pre-Pandemic and health care staff, the health care

industry took a hard time in taking care some patients who had illness. This

move seemed to be very effective in ensuring routine patients stay home,

allocating the hospital's resources toward designated COVID-19 wards. The

abrupt and strict lockdown in the urban and rural areas has halted traffic, and,
as a result, there has been a global decrease in the influx of road-related

emergency patients. Patient-engaged video surveillance and robotic intervention

to deliver medicine right to the patients' beds has kept the healthcare personnel

safe from contracting the virus.

On the other hand, Limitation on gatherings and suspension of flight operations

throughout the world has had a negative impact on this industry. Tourism and

other services related to it been so stress because of the limited movement of

people. Many Business needed to close temporarily to prevent other tourist

coming in their hot spots but some of it permanently closed because they are

already bankrupt. Due to coronavirus everyone got panicked and they’ve done a

Hoarding of all items and it cause a shortage of Facemask, Face shield, alcohol

and some instant goods. Because of the demand got higher, the supply got

shorter and it made them more expensive. Nielsen, the British Retail

Consortium, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia mentioned that the surge

in demand for essential products like rice and wheat, toilet paper, and various

other food items has been much higher than the last year (Sarfraz et al., 2018,

2020a; ABC News, 2020; Briefs and Books, 2020; Lobach, 2020; Saria and

Raheja, 2020; Bentall et al., 2021). Pak (2020). The health sector is the sector

most impacted by the pandemic; healthcare personnel are short of PPE and have

seen cases of infection. There has been a shortage of both beds and other
equipment, including ventilators. Within 6 months of the day COVID-19 was

initially announced in China, the spread of coronavirus was declared a global

pandemic. It has an unparalled impact on almost everything, including activity

and movement. It has left mammoth adverse effects on social, political, and

economic sectors, being irreversible in some sectors. The ripples of the COVID-

19 keep threatening people's health and life. Global and domestic governments

have imposed different levels and sanctions on their citizens, including travel

bans, restrict gatherings, stay-home orders, self-quarantine, and other business

closures and time-specific restrains. The countries whose economies are

hospitality-based have felt a significant negative impact on their economies as

travel, tourism, and services such as aviation have come to a halt.

The hardest-hit sector of all is travel and tourism because of partial and full

lockdown situations worldwide. The travel and tourism industry and other

associated sectors have fallen to a small fraction compared to what they

contributed in pre-COVID-19 times. Where other sectors like health, education,

public transport, media, and hospitality are starting to reopen following SOPs of

COVID-19, the travel and tourism sector is still at a halt due to its fragility to the

whims of the virus. Moreover, other sectors transform their operations to online

platforms to various degrees because of nature and adaptability. This sector is

facing challenges in adopting the electronic form of tourism: the lack of IT

infrastructure and technological advancement and limitation of implementing

technology-based tourism. In this regard travel and tourism sector behaves

differently by nature. Crises in the tourism sector are not new by any means, but

from an economic point of view, COVID-19 has a more devastating impact than

previous crises in recent history (Gossling, Scott, and Michael). Like all the

historical crises, this pandemic also brings irreversible damage to this industry.

Despite being under the discussion of researchers, e-tourism is still not

implemented to an extent where it can show resilience and fight against such

pandemics. Information technology and tourism have always had a challenging

relationship (Werthner and Klein, 1999).

This will define tourism in a completely different way. Many hotels already

implement robots to provide hotel and housekeeping services to mitigate the

human-to-human interaction (Afsarmanesh and Camarinha-Matos, 2000; Palmer

and McCole, 2000).

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This research addresses a vital questions, Primarily, What are the considerations

of the food and accommodation businesses in continuing their operations in

amidst of Post-Covid19 Pandemic effect? Secondarily, what are the key learnings

that industry can take from current conditions?

Furthermore, given the constantly evolving state and lack of literature, current

study attempts to summate the extant knowledge from previous similar crises

and substantiates it with the qualitative enquiry involving senior industry

practitioners and academicians.

The study holds relevance for the industry actors and decision makers as they

face crucial task of reviving and sustaining enterprises and industry at large. It is

imperative that viewpoints of key individuals are investigated for guiding others

who are engaged in managing and observing this segment.

1.2 Research approach

Data was collected by means of unstructured interviews with 11 participants. The

aim of using unstructured interviews was to allow the participants to guide the

direction of the research instead of using pre-formulated questions to guide the

research process. All participants had been working in pre-pandemic and post-

pandemic era and all of them are required to have their vaccine for the safety of

their customer and staff before we conducted interview. The participants are

professionals and most of them are in senior positions at work. Discourse

analysis was used to make sense of the constructions of the participants.

Discourse analysis is an approach that explores the underlying meaning and

motivation behind a text (Parker, 1992). A discourse is referred to as the

conversations and the meanings behind the conversations as understood and

articulated by a group of people (Parker, 1992). According to Forrester, Ramsden

and Reason (1997) Foucault argued that a discourse consists of acceptable

statements made by a certain type of community such as people who share

similar thoughts and ideas. The constructions that were articulated in this

research were analyzed using discourse analysis in order to understand the

meanings behind these constructions.

1.3 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

This study shows the effect and the alternative ways on how to cope up with the

new normal pandemic era. Every hotel required by the IATF to have an

equipment for the guests and visitors feels in form of virus. The company shall

provide each of their clients to have their own protective hygiene like alcohol and

tissues either wet of dry. The entrance should have temperature check and foot

rack with alcohol poured on the rag.

1.4 KEYWORD

Hotel industry, labour shortage, cleanliness & hygiene, guest service standard,

personal experiences, sustainability, competition, marketing techniques etc.

Hotel Industry-

The section of the service industry that deals with guest accommodation

or lodgings. By most definitions, the hotel industry refers not only to hotels, but
also to many other forms of overnight accommodation, including hostels, motels,

inns and guest houses.

Labor Shortage-

This happens because of the declining sales of each hotel. They had to lay off

men to survive the pandemic era

Marketing strategy-

Company will give their best shot to create more since the best advertisement is

through Recommendation from others who had best experiences.

 CHAPTER 2
FOREIGN LITERATURE

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, affecting almost

all countries and territories. The outbreak was first identified in December 2019 in

Wuhan, China. The countries around the world cautioned the public to take responsive

care. The public care strategies have included handwashing, wearing face masks,

physical distancing, and avoiding mass gathering and assemblies. Lockdown and

staying home strategies have been put in place as the needed action to flatten the

curve and control the transmission of the disease (Sintema, 2020).

Bhutan first declared closing of schools and institutions and reduction of business hours

during the second week of March 2020 (Kuensel, 2020, 6 March). The complete

nationwide lockdown was implemented from 1 August 2020 (Palden, 2020). In

between, movements were allowed, offices began functioning, schools and college

reopened for selected levels and continued with online class for others. More than

170,000 children in Bhutan from classes PP–XII are, today, affected by the school

closure. The impact is far reaching and has affected learning during this academic year

or even more in the coming days. Several schools, colleges and universities have

discontinued face-to-face teaching. There is a pressing need to innovate and implement

alternative educational and assessment strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic has

provided us with an opportunity to pave the way for introducing digital learning

(Dhawan, 2020). Research highlights certain dearth such as the weakness of online

teaching infrastructure, the limited exposure of teachers to online teaching, the

information gap, non-conducive environment for learning at home, equity and academic

excellence in terms of higher education. This article evaluates the impact of the COVID-

19 pandemic on teaching and learning process across the world. The challenges and

opportunities of online and continuing education during the COVID-19 pandemic is

summarized and way forward suggested. A relevant issue to better understand the

negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak is focusing in a particular country (UNWTO,

2020b). Since the first travel restrictions were implemented in China, hospitality firms in

the U.S. have been especially damaged from the beginning of the pandemic for several

reasons. First, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council the tourism and

hospitality industry contribution to the GDP of the U.S. was 8.6% in 20191. Travel and

spending from Chinese visitors in the U.S. are huge, being China the third-largest

source of overseas travel to the United States behind the UK and Japan2. In fact, the

Chinese market represented 7% of visitors and 16% of spending in 2019 in the U.S.

Besides, different from the 2003 SARS and the 2015 MERS outbreaks (also firstly
reported in China), the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the U.S. government to

implement restrictions all over the country, suggesting that the impact could be longer

lasting and more severe. Therefore, according to a January 2020 report by the

consulting firm Tourism Economics3, an expected 4.6 million hotel room nights will be

lost in 2020 in the U.S. - 8.1 million total through 2024 —, with states and cities around

the country feeling the impact.

As this article was written, according to the WHO weekly update on 27th December

2020, the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. amounted to 18,648,989, with 991

deaths per 1 million population and 328,014 people death, being the U.S. the leading

and epicenter of the pandemic4. In such a context, the new coronavirus outbreak has

created massive global economic and financial shockwaves that have driven stock

markets down and that commodity prices have declined dramatically. Obviously,

hospitality firms have not been oblivious to this pattern. Previous literature on the

effects of epidemic disease outbreaks on financial performance of hotels (Chen et al.,

2007) and restaurants Kim et al. (2020) find that the outbreaks lead to a decrease in

stock returns. However, the negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak are expected to

be even worse. In this sense, it is important to compare and analyze the different
market behavior during and after diseases, so the negative effects over firms’

performance can be better managed.

Among all the hospitality industries, hotels are the first to be affected since the

restrictions for domestically/overseas travelling directly affect their core business (Chen

et al., 2007). For example, restaurants activity can be partially maintained with delivery

or take away services. Thus, using the events study method, this paper aims to analyze

the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on the stock prices of listed hotel companies in the

U.S. Specifically, we study the effects over the first 20 days after the COVID-19

outbreak in the U.S. (fixed on the 20th January 2020, when the U.S. authorities

confirmed the first cases) since our interest is focused on the initial shock effect.

Moreover, a comparison of the effects of the COVID-19 disease with previous relevant

epidemics in the U.S is made, such as the human salmonella infections that occurred in

2012, 2013 and 2014 in most of the U.S. states. Although the new coronavirus medical

effects are more related to the SARS or the MERS outbreaks, there are several reasons

for comparing with the salmonella diseases. On the one hand, the past coronavirus

outbreaks occurred in Asia, not directly affecting the U.S. market (Chen et al., 2007).

Actually, the SARS and MERS epidemics were rapidly controlled and did not affect the

hospitality industry beyond the Eastern Asia setting and in the short run (Ceylan and
Ozkan, 2020; Wilder-Smith, 2006). On the other hand, according to the information

provided by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the most recent

epidemic diseases affecting the hospitality industry in the U.S. are the salmonella

outbreaks5. Another reason for selecting the salmonella diseases is related to practical

reasons. Since the focus of this study is the hotel industry, it is need that the sample is

maintained during a sufficient period of time, and, for example, the SARS outbreak was

in 2003, when the majority of the hotels in our sample did not exist in their current

situation.

Nevertheless, although the new coronavirus outbreak has affected the core business of

the hotel companies, since people are not allowed to travel even inside the country,

corporate strategies may be acting as barriers to mitigate the negative effects, at least

at first. Thus, given that the study pays attention to the COVID-19 initial shock, we

expect that those companies with more flexible corporate policies can better face the

new circumstances in the short-run compared to those which cannot easily undo their

decisions. The ALFO (assets-light, fee-orientated) strategy, which is gaining more

attention in the hospitality industry and literature (Li and Singal, 2019; Demir et al.,

2019) can serve as a useful tool to mitigate the huge drop in the returns. Hospitality

companies have traditionally hold high fixed costs due to investments in land and

building. Such inflexibility to face economic shocks has led some managers to modify

their corporate strategies from a fixed assets-based model to a fee-based income one.

Companies can implement this asset-light strategy by either spending less to acquire

new property or selling properties to reduce the amount of fixed assets they have.

Accordingly, we expect that those companies involved in the ALFO strategy can easily

readapt their business and, hence, mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak in the

short-run. Our research contributes to the incipient and diverse literature on the effects

of the COVID-19 pandemic literature in several ways. First, as far as we are concerned,

our research is among the firsts to provide empirical evidence of the negative effects

that the new coronavirus outbreak has had on the financial performance of hotels.

Although it is an intuitive idea, it is no less true that the results show an extremely and

never seen before negative impact on hotels' stock prices for the U.S. setting.

Accordingly, when comparing the new coronavirus to previous recent epidemics

relevant for the hotel industry, it is demonstrated that global pandemics such the

current one, have more harmful effects over the hotels' financial performance. This

issue is especially relevant given that the pandemic is an unexpected event that cannot

be easily managed by both governments and managers. Thus, our study also provides

some practical implications since it is found that when companies are following more
flexible strategies, they can better face unpredicted and unknown events. Specifically,

the study shows that ALFO strategy reduces the negative impact of the COVID-19

outbreak on hotels’ stock prices and, hence, provide mangers with some tools to better

manage future pandemics.

1.1 TOURISM AND PANDEMIC

The world has experienced many epidemics and diseases and the literature examines

how they affect tourism. Blake et al. (2003) focus on the impact of foot and mouth

disease (FMD) on tourism in United Kingdom. FMD leads to nationwide decreases in

tourism expenditures of domestic and international tourists. The effect is also observed

on sectors not only directly related to tourism but also on other industries. Zeng et al.

(2005)) consider SARS as a short-term perturbation for tourism which causes financial

loses in the tourism industry through both international and domestic tourism in

China. Kuo et al. (2008) explore the effects of Avian Flu and SARS (severe acute

respiratory syndrome), on tourist arrivals in Asian countries. ARMAX model with

dynamic autoregressive and moving components and dynamic panel data

analysis document that the numbers of infections has a significant influence on tourist

arrivals for SARS-affected countries while no effect is found for the case of Avian Flu-

affected countries. Likewise, Mc aleer et al. (2010) compare the impact of SARS and
Avian Flu on international tourist arrivals to Asia. The effect of both diseases is

measured by the number of cases and deaths. Static fixed effects and dynamic

estimations show that SARS has a higher impact on international tourist arrivals than

Avian Flu both in the short and long-run. Although Avian Flu has a longer duration, the

impact of SARS is found to be more significant. The study of Rosselló et al.

(2017) includes a wide range of diseases namely Malaria, Yellow Fever, Dengue,

and Ebola and examines their effect on international tourism flows in affected countries.

The gravity model estimations show that infectious diseases cause a decrease in tourist

arrivals. Among others, Malaria and Yellow Fever have the most decisive role in

explaining tourist destination choices. A recent study finds that pandemics negatively

affect tourist arrivals in 129 countries for the period of 1996–2018 (Karabulut et al.,

2020).

LOCAL STUDIES

MSMEs are more vulnerable to financial shocks compared to larger enterprises due to

fewer assets and more limited cash reserves (Price, 2020). When governments started

imposing lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, certain MSMEs were forced to shut

down and lay off employees, while others struggled to maintain a positive cash flow

(Karr et al., 2020). These challenges and uncertainties paved the way for rapid impact
assessments on MSMEs. Lim et al. (2020) conducted an online survey for the UNIDO

Philippines field office. The online survey received 235 responses. In addition, they

evaluated supply and value chains, human resourcemanagement, business continuity

planning, MSME recovery, and industry innovation.

This was done to to determine the impact of Covid-19 containment measures (e.g.,

quarantine, social distancing) and responses to Philippine enterprises' operational and

financial problems and to identify gaps and areas for improvement. During the survey

period, Covid-19 containment measures prevented around 60 percent of respondent

firms from operating. Around 55 percent of non-operational firms reported job losses,

with 30 percent reporting complete workforce losses. Despite being permitted to

operate during the ECQ, around 50 percent of non-operational firms were unable to do

so due to various challenges. Supply chain coordination remained a challenge for

Philippine businesses. Businesses raised concerns about workforce shortages and

employee anxiety during the containment period. Lack of business continuity plans

could have jeopardized raw material availability, efficient transportation of goods and

human resources, and workplace safety measures during crises. The Philippines'

businesses will need help to recover after being paralyzed by the Covid-19 containment

measures. Firms expected both benefits and drawbacks from new investments to
support the "new normal." Hill et al. (2020) assessed the impact of the pandemic on the

private sector in the Philippines. In this case, 600 employees and 16 employers

responded. Work, households, health and well-being, and employer perspective were

studied. The pandemic hit the Philippines' private sector employers and employees

hard, according to the survey. Employees reported significant financial and personal

strains. Almost half of employees in the hardest-hit industries have had their jobs

suspended, terminated, or reduced. Covid-19 increased financial stress for three out of

five employees. Two out of five employees said Covid-19 pressures harmed their health.

The fiscal impact and disruption caused by Covid-19 were rated an eight or higher by

14 of the 16 businesses. Almost all businesses surveyed said the Covid-19 pandemic

was costly and disrupted operations. Business partners were severely affected and

unable to function. Insufficient cash flow impeded maintenance of staff and operations.

The immediate financial costs of the Covid-19 health crisis are significant for both

employees and employers. This survey was followed by the World Bank's Covid-19

impact assessment survey of Philippine firms (Piza et al., 2021). The online survey drew

13,878 responses from all sizes and industries. Some areas examined were markets for

demand and product markets; supply and input markets; access to finance and

liquidity; digital solutions; uncertainty. The government-imposed regulations on some

managers (9 percent), while others closed voluntarily (21 percent). Seven percent of

businesses permanently closed. Firms lost sales. Businesses reported lower sales from

July to November 2020 than from April to July 2020. Limited operation (58 percent) and

inability to visit (38 percent) became issues. Job losses slowed in November 2020 (38

percent). Many companies cut hours (19 percent) and wages (11 percent) to save

money (16 percent). Only 3 percent of companies hired new workers. It was a common

problem. Sixty-six percent of businesses couldn't afford a month's payroll and supplier,

tax, and loan payments. Despite cautious optimism about sales and job growth in the

coming three months, many businesses expected financial difficulties. Then nothing

happened. In November, more companies used personal loans than in July 2020 (44 vs.

36 percent). However, informal lenders (19 percent) and nonbank financial institutions

(13 percent) remained the main sources of financing (11 percent). Micro and small

businesses were most affected. Greater firms closed or underperformed than micro and

small firms. Digital solutions generated 10 percent of sales and 2/3 of revenue. Firms

desired government grants, new credit, or loans to increase liquidity. Existing

government grant and loan programs could help (i.e., public awareness campaigns and

transparent processing). The International Labour Organization did their own survey to

determine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on diverse types of businesses (ILO,
2020). Their respondents were 1,066 enterprises: 570 from Indonesia, 282 from Peru,

70 from Myanmar, 37 from Colombia, 31 from Ghana, 30 from Tunisia, 29 from Bolivia,

and 17 from Pakistan. The hotel, tourism, and catering industries accounted for 7

percent of all respondents. The following were the primary findings of the impact

assessment: (1) revenues, orders, and cash flows were all negatively impacted; (2)

reduced workforce through a variety of measures; (3) enterprises required immediate

assistance with cash and short-term loans, as well as relief from fixed costs; (4)

clarification of official measures and post-lockdown regulations; and (5) advice on

strategy, finance, and logistics was needed. More advice from experts were needed on

infection prevention, business and contingency planning, supply chain management,

product and sales diversification, virtual training, and labor laws, among others. The

Center for Global Development (CDG) in China conducted a similar Covid-19 impact

assessment (Dai et al., 2020). Two-thousand six hundred sixty-eight random samples

were taken from state-registered businesses. These samples are fairly typical of Chinese

MSMEs. In addition to predicting short- and long-term effects, they looked at economic

impacts on the industrial chain upstream and downstream. They discovered that a

whopping 80 percent of businesses had not resumed operations. Assuming an extended

epidemic, 20 percent of the surveyed businesses would be unable to operate for one
month, and 64 percent would be unable to operate for three months. Resumption of

work policies should be industry-specific rather than generic.

Based on the results of these impact assessments, the common themes or variables

that arose from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic can be grouped into the "4Ps":

People, Profits, Processes, and Partnerships (Dai etal., 2020; Hill et al., 2020; ILO,

2020; Lim et al., 2020; Piza et al., 2021). An assessment tool called The Six-Step Covid-

19 Business Continuity Plan (2020), designed by the ILO’s Bureau for Employers'

Activities (ACT/EMP), provide a similar insight. This tool is intended to support and

assist MSMEs during the pandemic. Its goal is to determine an enterprise's risk profile

and vulnerability to Covid19 in terms of its impact on People, Processes, Profits, and

Partnerships, as well as to design a business's risk and contingency system.

For 2 years living in pandemic, business already adapt the new normal environment.

People already accept the covid19 is just around the corner and all we have do is keep

our self-clean, and healthy. Although it is not easy to move on from the horror of

pandemic but we should consider that we need grew more to help also our staff to live

their own life by having a good job, paid salary and benefits even though it is risky to

communicate to others and

 CHAPTER 3

Research
methodology

3.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter the research methodology used in the study is described. The
geographical area where the study was conducted, the study design and the
population and sample are described. The instrument used to collect the data,
including methods implemented to maintain validity and reliability of the instrument,
are described.

3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH AND DESIGN

A qualitative approach was followed. Pritha Bhandari (2020-2022) define qualitative

research involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or
audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-
depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research. Qualitative
research is used to understand how people experience the world. While there are
many approaches to qualitative research, they tend to be flexible and focus on
retaining rich meaning when interpreting data. Surveys may be used for descriptive,
explanatory and exploratory research in this study the information was collected
through self-administered questionnaires distributed personally to the subjects by the
researcher.
Common approaches include grounded theory, ethnography, action research,
phenomenological research, and narrative research. They share some similarities, but
emphasize different aims and perspectives.
A proceeding of Naturalistic inquiry which understands community were the
researchers observe, describe, and interpret the experiences and actions of the
selected group of people and cultural context.
 3.2.1 Sample Size
10 working women, 5 working men, and 8 HR managers and 7 staff of these hotels
in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan Region 1. Each of number of the staff that was
mentioned above are in different departments and were considered to probe the
level of certainty of each employees. Besides this, HR managers were selected for
identifying the perception of recruiters.
3.2.2 Hotels selected under the Study

2-5 STAR hotels were taken in this study. 2 hotels and 2 resorts were chosen for
conducting the present study

 Majoha Hotel
 El Ciudad Fernandino
 Urdaneta Garden Resorts
 Lisland Resort Urdaneta

Table 3.1 Details of Sample selected for the study

Hotels and Resorts # of employees # of Bed/ Room
Spaces

Majoha Hotel 20 30
El Ciudad Fernandino 21 25
Urdaneta Garden Resort 15 15
Lisland Resort Urdaneta 15 10

The study was conducted at several hotels and resorts and these are Majoha Hotel,
El. Ciudad Fernandino, Urdaneta Garden Resorts, Lisland Resort Urdaneta Which fall
under Region 1 Urdaneta City, Pangasinan 2428. Each hotels and resorts has
different numbers of rooms for their guests. The majority clients of Urdaneta
Garden Resorts, El Ciudad Fernandino and Majoha Hotel are foreigners who’s in
vacation and nowhere to stay at and the others are couples who celebrate their
anniversaries and families for special occasions like birthday party, reunion and
 other gatherings.

3.2.3 Demographic profiles of the study

3.6.1 The demographic profile of the Industry Recruiters: the demographic profile is
shown in the form of a table. The tabular form of the profile is as follows:

Table 3.2: Details of the Demographic profile of the Industry

Recruiters
Particulars Categories Frequency Percent
Male 5 33.3
Gender Female 10 66.7
Total 15 100.0
HR MANAGER 4 26.7
Designation HR ASSISTANT 4 26.7
CHAMBER 7 46.6
Total 15 100.0
0-25 5 33.3
25-30 3 20.0
30-35 3 20.0
35-40 3 20.0
Age More than 40 1 6.7
Total 15 100.0

In this table, the ratio of male and female selected for the sample is 33:67. And
among all the respondents, 8 belong to HR Manager/Assistant category and 7
belong to other Staff Category. According to age, 33 % respondents belong to 0-
25 age group, 20% respondents from 25-30, 20% from 30-35, 2% from 35-40,
and 6.7 % from more than 40 age group. It shows that there is enough workers
in a certain area to keep it clean and safe.

3.3 Sampling technique

In most of the research studies, the amount of work is always limited by two
constraints, time and resources. With these limitations, the sample was drawn so

that it might be representative for the study.

For this purpose, at the initial stage the stratified sampling was used in this study.

Stratified sampling defined as specific subgroups are present in their sample. It

also helps them obtain precise estimates of each group's characteristics. Many

surveys use this method to understand differences between subpopulations

better. Sample that involves dividing the population into segments (strata) and

randomly sampling from each stratum Therefore, the 4 hotels were selected for

study.

At the next steps, the purposive sampling technique was used to select the HR

managers. The purposive sampling was used due to constrain of the busy

schedule and limited number available in the hotels. A purposive sampling units

are selected because they have characteristics that you need in your sample. In

other words, units are selected on purpose in.

Each of the Hotels mentioned should have NEW NORMAL GUIDELINES

implementing as of this days. Since the Inter-Agency Task Force for the

Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) authorized the

resumption of operations of lodging businesses last month, more and more hotels

are adapting to the new normal. Despite the drastic decrease in leisure travelers,

hotels proved essential during the pandemic, providing a place to stay to

returning OFWs, stranded tourists, and business travelers.

But of course, a lot has changed in the processes and overall experience. Hotels
must follow Memorandum Circular No. 2020-002, released by the Department of

Tourism (DOT), which enumerates the “New Normal” health and safety guidelines

for the operations of hotels and other accommodation establishments. Dr. Renzo

Guinto, M.D., Dr.PH. (2020) says hygiene Pass is very much in line with current

international and national guidelines on infection prevention and control for the

accommodations sector.

3.4 Methodology of Data Collection

A questionnaire was chosen as data collection instrument. A questionnaire could also

be known as paper survey it is a printed self-report form designed to obtain
information that can be gain through the responses of the subjects. This is similar in
interviews but is it tend to have a lesser depth questions.

Data was collected with the assistance of questionnaires to evaluate the employees'
of the hotels and resorts Questionnaires were decided upon because of the following:

 They offer a fast, efficient and inexpensive means of gathering large amounts

of information from sizeable sample volumes.

 These tools are particularly effective for measuring subject behavior,

preferences, intentions, attitudes and opinions

 Most of the items in the questionnaires were closed, which made it easier to

compare the responses to each item.

 They ensured a high response rate as the questionnaires were distributed to

respondents to complete and were collected personally by the researcher.

3.4.1 Questionnaire designing

In this study, two questionnaires were constructed separately for industry recruiters

and working women. Both questionnaires were developed on the basis of existing

literature. The questionnaire was based on an instrument used by Brownell (1994),

and Ng and Pine (2003), Yan Zhong (2003) and used with their permission. And the

questionnaire for the working women was also based on the literature review. This

instrument was already used by Albert Bandura and in this study prior permission

were taken by Albert Bandura. The benefit of using these instruments was that it

provided stronger validity and reliability due to its prior use and evaluation. The

questionnaire was created with an idea of preparations of all employees inside of the

hotels and it was subjected to all position including chamber or hotel maid.

Below is the format of the Questionnaire.

 Hotels and Resorts Preparations for New Normal Concepts
I. Questionnaire
Instructions: Check ( ) The boxes if it is present and already prepared. Put an (X) if it’s not.

1. Sanitation Area

2. Washing Area

3. Temperature Check

4. Foot Racks with alcohol

5. Signage for “Social Distancing”

6. Signage for Proper Hygiene

7. Alcohol/Wet Wipes/ Tissues

8. Clean Comfort Room

9. Sanitized Room

10. Well Ventilated Room

II. Questionnaire
Instruction: Answer the following questions.

1. How does the hotel prepared for New Normal Concept?

____________________________________________________________________________

2. What are the preparations done after the IATF declared we are in new normal concept already?

____________________________________________________________________________

3. Is your preparations enough to secure your customer feel secure and relax?

____________________________________________________________________________
Respondents:

____________________________

Signature over Printed name

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS

The results of this comparative study are presented in this chapter. The gathered data

from the hotel and resorts employee will be used for checking if they are prepared for

the New Normal policy and to know if the clients are safe from checking in and using

their facilities. Since COVID-19 outbreak has presented unprecedented circumstances

before the fragile tourism and hospitality industry. The highly infectious novel

coronavirus continues to thwart the sector and raises serious questions about the

present and future survival of the sector.

OVERVIEW

The research addresses two important concerns, first, pertains to the major challenges

that hospitality and tourism industry faces amid current conditions; and second relates

to the vital learnings for the industry. Further refinement of existing crisis management

models is critical in new evolving crises (Jiang et al., 2019). Based on the findings,

three key areas are suggested to refine and expand the conventional crisis

management framework in tourism and hospitality.

First, the pre-event and early symptom was merged into one phase. The occurrence

and magnitude of crises are often unpredictable, but it remains feasible to expect a

crisis at some time (Ghaderi et al., 2014; Ritchie and Jiang, 2019). Therefore, hotel
managers need to develop an effective signal detection as the first line of defence in

crisis management (Paraskevas and Altinay, 2013). Even though crisis management

planning may not be effective in dealing with complex and unprecedented crises

(Paraskevas, 2006), hotels could be proactive in saving financial resources to ensure

cash flow when their revenues are dropped in emergency and crisis phases.

Second, key strategies of the hotel sector in response to the pandemic were integrated

into a well-accepted crisis management model (Faulkner, 2001; Novelli et al.,

2018; Ritchie, 2004). While Fig. 2 was presented as a linear framework, it is important

to note that these strategic responses are not necessarily applied in only one specific

phase. Rather they can be employed simultaneously, albeit with different priorities for

different hotels in different countries (e.g., cost-cutting measures and lobbying efforts

may continue well into the recovery phase). Third, the findings also suggest that some

key contextual factors (i.e., hotel sizes, hotel resources and government

regulations/support) have strong influences on the hotel sector's responses to the

crises. These contextual factors were thus added in Fig. 2 to expand the traditional

crisis management framework. On the one hand, this research note reveals that large

hotel chains are, in general, better equipped than small and medium-sized hotels in

pandemic crisis management. Large companies possess stronger brands, better

communication technologies, a proven record of management experience, strong

financial support and also lobbying power (Ritchie et al., 2011). On the other hand, this

finding poses the question of whether the government should focus on providing more

support and favorable regulations for smaller hotel businesses. The data showing the
skills in order of importance from the first study are shown on the first table. The skills

were ranked on their importance on a scale of 1 – 5, 5 being the most important.

(Table 4.1)

MEAN

MAJOHA HOTEL 4.2

El Ciudad Fernandino 4.2

Urdaneta Garden Resort 4.1

Lisland Resort Urdaneta 3.8

Table 4.1 RATE OF HOTEL AND RESORTS FACILITIES

In table 4.1 shows the selected well-prepared suits around Urdaneta City, Pangasinan

and arranged by its high rate of their facilities.

Table 4.2 Equipment use for New Normal policy at Hotel and Resorts around Urdaneta

City, Pangasinan (Put Check ( ) The boxes if it is present and already prepared. Put an (X)

if its not.

1. Sanitation Area

2. Washing Area

3. Temperature Check

4. Foot Racks with alcohol

5. Signage for “Social Distancing”

6. Signage for Proper Hygiene

7. Alcohol/Wet Wipes/ Tissues

8. Clean Comfort Room

9. Sanitized Room

10. Well Ventilated Room

In the second table (Table 4.2), the equipments needed to make the place safe and a

healthy environment. This are based on what the IATF mentioned should have in every

hotels and resorts for them to operate for the new normal business operation.

4.1 Results of the Comparative Analysis

This chapter presents the findings of the comparative study. The impact of current

corona virus outbreak till date has long surpassed those that were observed during

SARS epidemic in 2002−2003. Corona virus cases stand at over 10 million worldwide

and the reported deaths due to the infection have crossed 500,000. As the IATF policy

under Corona Virus, the Rules and Regulations was made for the business to operate

regularly and that is to have a safe area from virus contamination and avoid spreading

it from the environment were as weak, young people and an old one can be an easily

target. The government decided to set a standard from each business and that is to

have well- ventilated suits, clean and sterilized utensils, and Decontaminated building.

The no. one rule to enter in this premises is to wear a facemask. The Hotel and Resort

should have a complete equipments and some of that are an alcohol rack and

temperature check.
 CHAPTER 5

RECOMMENDATION

The recommendation of the study is based on the statement of the problem,

surveys and in line with the current event which is new normal approach of

selected hotels and resorts at Urdaneta city. Data analysis is “the process of

bringing order, structure and meaning to the mass of collected data” (de Vos

2002:339). This chapter discusses the results of the data analysis of the survey

conducted within the hospitality industry. This study is subject to certain

limitations that must be addressed. Some of them are highlighted here and

future directions of research have been indicated. First and foremost the

research is based on the qualitative analysis that although uses interview

responses from managers or senior personnel, may not justifiably work toward

generalization of the results. Thus, with the problem at hand robust empirical

investigations are deemed necessary in immediate course to study the

pandemic’s industry impacts and make model-based estimations and

recommendations. However, this research makes a sturdier point in giving an

exploratory stance to trigger other empirical investigations. The researches from

here can take various variables exhibited as sub-themes and major broad themes
that accumulated through perspectives obtained from the industry experts and

may operate them in future investigations.

Several other themes may surface and some factors manifested from current

research may not apply in other scenarios, which remains a strand that could be

picked in future researches. Random samples from diverse geographical and

cultural setups may contribute toward newer findings. It is also important to note

that situation is still evolving and the matters that were prominent a few weeks

or months ago may not be as influential now, for instance the rise and decline in

the number of cases and its varied manifestation in various geographical

settings. This increases the relevance of studies that factor in the temporal

change in the circumstances. Going forward, there certainly would be need of

more dedicated issues dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak for ensuring

literature captures its evolution and recommends practices to mitigate the

impacts. One more limitation in the study is that it mostly takes into cognizance

individuals working in higher positions in hotels with few senior individuals from

academics. The study didn’t consider other stakeholder’s viewpoints. This leaves

a glaring gap for future researches to consider other players in the leisure

industry like travel intermediaries, airlines, restaurants at destinations, locals at

destinations, other accommodation providers, travel and hospitality students and

even different levels of employees’ etc. Addressing to these limitations can fill
potential lacunae and improve understanding of scholars and practitioners

toward dealing with the ongoing crisis and minimize future fallouts. In most

social research, the analysis entails three major steps executed in the

Following order:

 Cleaning and organizing the information that was collected which is called

The data preparation step,

 Describe the information that was collected (descriptive statistics)

 testing the assumptions made through hypothesis and modeling

(Inferential statistics).

5.1 Sample

The target population is the staff of 4 selected hotels and resorts namely

MAJOHA HOTEL, El Ciudad Fernandino, Urdaneta Garden Resort, and Lis land

Resort Urdaneta. The total sample of staff members are 80 and the total sample

of guests being 71.

5.2 Flexibility Measures

Update cancellation policies, including new measures specifically for epidemics,

natural disasters, and different levels of international alert. Allow modifications

up to 24 hours before arrival for current and future prepaid reservations. Offer
comfort with more flexible upgrades that allow guests to have a better room to

be able to work from and to have more space in the case of unexpected

quarantines.

The options and ideas that we can implement to mitigate the Coronavirus are

becoming more and more varied. The idea with this section is to adapt these

measures to work against COVID-19 in hotel establishments and guide guests

through an enjoyable vacation stay. To assist in this process, we have analyzed

and adapted measures that are not always carried out, but are nonetheless

recommended by SUMMA health workers to enter and leave home. If we do not

have automatic doors, use disinfectants before entering the hotel and again once

inside, before taking the elevator to the rooms. Having a doormat at the

entrance encourages guests to dry their shoes. This doormat should be changed

regularly and cleaned with authorized disinfectants. Provide guests with garbage

bags to put packages and suitcases in while not being used. It is important that

once they are in the hotel room or the tourist apartment, their suitcases are

stored inside the bags. Make available to guests masks and a designated trash

bin for those already used. Elevator rides should leave a minute between uses

and only one person per trip. Being flexible with check-in and check-out times

will help to prevent your guests from waiting on the street or in common areas

spending unnecessary time near others due large lines.

Hotels must consider being prepared from being questioned by their guest as

being serve in the new normal era.

Staff training

Can staff answer possible questions? Will the hotel need certifications of some

kind? Can staff’s job duties be changed to perform new functions?

Need for new technologies

Does my hotel’s booking engine allow the flexibility I need? Do I have the right

cleaning equipment? Do I have the software applications needed to reserve

additional services? Does my team have time to implement all these changes?

Does my website transmit security to visitors?

Up until now your hotel has thought about reducing costs as much as possible,

but in the coming weeks and months, we will have to accept this situation as

“normal” and begin implementing measures to increase reservations. We are

living in a unique situation where we must react quickly and socially responsibly

while always looking out for the safety of our guests and employees.
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