Alex Altshuler and Joshua Schmidt
This paper aims to explore the concept of resilience both through conceptual lenses and an applied relevance and importance to the tourism and hospitality industry in the context…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the concept of resilience both through conceptual lenses and an applied relevance and importance to the tourism and hospitality industry in the context of identifying the most effective approaches to cope with the worldwide epidemic of COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper is based on a comprehensive literature review and strategic interdisciplinary analysis as a basis for comprehensive policy recommendations.
Findings
This paper suggests five clusters of globally applicable measures and approaches aimed to enhance the resilience of the tourism and hospitality industry in the face of COVID-19 and more broadly in the face of other regional and global large-scale disasters: fostering adaptive and creative leadership; humility and cautious navigating through a deep uncertainty; flexibility in building on the unknown; enhancing social capital; and developing mutual respect and positive interconnectivity among the various stakeholders.
Originality/value
Through policy-driven applied conceptual analysis, this paper provides the various audiences in the travel and hospitality sector across the globe with an original, flexible and strategic approach to effectively respond to the multiple cascading effects of COVID-19.
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The interview with Mr Itsik (Isaac) Peres aims to provide a set of insights from the field – through global, Middle-Eastern and Israeli lenses – on some of the major challenges…
Abstract
Purpose
The interview with Mr Itsik (Isaac) Peres aims to provide a set of insights from the field – through global, Middle-Eastern and Israeli lenses – on some of the major challenges for the tourism industry in the face of COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper consists of an academic interview with Mr Itsik (Isaac) Peres and presents an engaging discussion between the experienced and knowledgeable tour guide and a scholar of resilience.
Findings
Mr Peres calls for a balanced approach that views health considerations as the top priority but at the same time believes that the tourism industry may – at least partially – adapt itself to the global pandemic and operate through a “new normal” during COVID-19. It is also claimed that there is no conflict between necessary international standards and local knowledge, creativity and adaptation measures. Mr Itsik Peres also addresses the potential major local and regional opportunities for the tourism industry and for the society as a whole that may emerge because of the new Abraham Accords (a peace treaty between Israel, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed in August 2020).
Originality/value
This paper presents an original and comprehensive analysis of the major challenges and solutions for the tourism industry in the face of COVID-19 through the lenses of an experienced professional in the field. The interview provides the reader with short-term and long-term “take away” messages for more effective and adaptive functioning of the tourism industry – during the COVID-19 epidemic and following its hopeful end.
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Joshua Schmidt and Alex Altshuler
This paper aims to discuss how the tourism industry is contending with the economic and interorganizational challenges wrought by the COVID-19 outbreak and heightened by a lack of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss how the tourism industry is contending with the economic and interorganizational challenges wrought by the COVID-19 outbreak and heightened by a lack of communication between the government and local businesses in the state of Israel. The researchers examine the dependency of the tourism industry on the general preparation programs that were developed and are currently being deployed by the relevant national stakeholders and question whether instead, it should use the pandemic as a catalyst for formulating its own nuanced tourism-travel-and-hospitality-oriented strategies and procedures.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying an ethnographic-based mix-methods research approach, this paper draws on insights from data compiled by fusing existing theoretical and emerging practical knowledge with empirical research (qualitative and quantitative) conducted among numerous relevant macro (governmental/centralized industry) and micro (hotels, travel and tourism operators and service providers) stakeholders as well as potential consumers.
Findings
It is essential that national and local government bodies form collaborative interorganizational relationships with local stakeholders to jointly activate case-specific hospitality and travel-specific risk mitigation management strategies. Moreover, the pandemic laid bare the tentative and fragile nature of the globalized tourism industry supply and demand chains, a condition that may be remedied via a pivot toward using national or even regional supply chains and goods and service providers. Within Israel, such changes could lead to increased economic benefits that extend beyond the tourism industry to provide certain security-related benefits.
Originality/value
Relating to idiosyncratic factors relevant to an Israeli cultural context, this paper uses the ethnographic field-borne familiarity of the researchers with the tourism and travel industries in Eilat and the Dead Sea to offer applicable suggestions for leveraging certain industry resources to both meet the demands of the present-day circumstances and cultivate a multifaceted organizational web of macro and micro social, economic and environmental networks so as to foster a more diversified and therefore resilient local tourism and travel economy.
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Clive Bingley, Edwin Fleming and Sarah Lawson
REGULAR READERS of this column will have noted, perhaps with relief, the self‐restraint I have applied in recent months in connection with the game of cricket, not a word about…
Abstract
REGULAR READERS of this column will have noted, perhaps with relief, the self‐restraint I have applied in recent months in connection with the game of cricket, not a word about which have I imparted to you throughout the summer.