Sustainability vs Uncontrollability: COVID-19 and Crisis Impact on the Hospitality and Tourism Community

Dear Colleagues,

As we all know, the fast-moving and unexplained COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting the hospitality and tourism industry. This current crisis will irrevocably change our industry, academic engagement, and customer behaviors. The industry is often forced to weather situations beyond its control, such as natural disasters, weather changes, global warming, and novel viruses such as SARS-CoV (emerged and spread in 2002 and 2003), MERS-CoV (became epidemic in 2015), norovirus (first identified in 1968), and COVID-19 (began proliferating in 2019).

Historically, when confronted with uncontrollable circumstances, such as pandemics or natural disasters, industry and academia are both pushed to respond drastically; each will alter the course of daily life, innovate new practices, and quickly respond to shifts in culture. These immediate responses cause drastic fluctuations within the industry and academia and are, ultimately, unsustainable. The journal Sustainability invites submissions regarding this topic for a Special Issue entitled “Sustainability vs. Uncontrollability: COVID-19 and Crisis Impact on the Hospitality and Tourism Community”, for which more information follows.

Hospitality and tourism organizations across the industry are struggling; sustainability is especially hard during a crisis. Permanent and temporary layoffs are inevitable for the survival of many global hospitality and tourism organizations. COVID-19 outbreaks limit traveler mobility and hotels observe a drop in occupancy rates and revenue per available room (RevPar) as travelers stay at home. The airline industry is equally impacted, with worldwide airline companies seeing a staggering 100% decline in net bookings. It is clear that uncontrollable factors and events in the world adversely affect the hospitality and tourism industry and its performance, and these are only few examples from the industry’s chaotic situation.

Customers are also frustrated and frightened by the changed policies and the “new normal,” so they have developed a new consumer behavior to which the industry must adapt. The key to success for all hospitality and tourism organizations is to identify early indicators of these consumer actions and provide proper service based on the current customer behaviors.

College students are also highly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The shelter in place order was declared in several states, and schools are closed until further notice. Usually, breaks and vacations are a time of rejoice for students, but this unbounded and forced break make their learning experience unsustainable, unenjoyable, and chaotic. The closure of universities and additional services to students, including advising, housing, testing, health and wellness facilities and services result in financial aid, accessibility services, and business office operations being available virtually, though somewhat limited. The student learning environment has rapidly changed from in-person courses to distance learning. In addition to these changes, many students are going through financial hardships due to the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak. As this challenging time persists, some even face emotional and psychological issues.

Hospitality and tourism educators need to make necessary changes to their methods, teaching modes, and strategies both during and after a crisis. Ideally, a teacher should be provided with the necessary resources that are helpful for the altered educational conditions in a timely manner.  Despite all these changes, teachers’ emotions (such as frustration and fear) should not affect students’ behaviors and performances, regardless of their role as equal sufferers in the pandemic. Thus, educators should be provided with equal fiscal and mental health resources. 

It is essential to examine if the hospitality and tourism industry and academia have responded properly to overcome these challenges sustainably. If yes, then what are the strategies and solutions now being developed and adjusted to prepare the hospitality and tourism community, including businesses, employees, customers, students, and faculty, to sustainably survive before, during, and after a crisis? If not, then it is never too late to scrutinize how the hospitality and tourism community can sustainably respond to a crisis, but not be vulnerable to attacks from uncontrollable factors and events.

In line with this, Sustainability invites submissions in the form of case studies, literature reviews, research articles, research notes, and viewpoints for a Special Issue on “Sustainability vs. Uncontrollability: COVID-19 and Crisis Impact on the Hospitality and Tourism Community.” The goal of this Special Issue is to compile timely responses to the needs of the hospitality and tourism community during an uncontrollable crisis and point toward the eventual benefits and sustainability of fostering wellbeing within the community. 

This Special Issue calls for papers in the areas listed below, but not limited to:

• Sustainable operation and management strategies and development
• Cases of overcoming a crisis in the hospitality and tourism industry
• Crisis management
• Risk management
• Sustainable corporate level policies and responses
• Sustainable cost and expenses management for crisis management
• Long-term and sustainable implications for the hospitality and tourism industry
• Sustainable action agenda/action guide
• Development in sustainable incident management and scenario plans
• Developing sustainable contingency plans
• Sustainable new order system
• Sustainable ways for global hospitality and tourism recovery post-COVID-19
• Corporate social responsibility and sustainability
• Responses to and strategies and practices for a crisis that support a sustainable student learning experience and a sustainable learning environment
• Academia’s role in hospitality and tourism during the uncontrollable situation 
• Sustainable human resources strategies for employees’ personal life and career security
• Changes in hospitality and tourism customer behavior and the impact on the industry and sustainable management and operation

References

1. Frenzel, A. C., Goetz, T., Stephens, E. J., Jacob, B. (2009), Antecedents and effects of teachers’ emotional experiences: An integrated perspective and empirical test, In Advances in teacher emotion research, (pp. 129-151). Springer, Boston, MA.
2. Hargreaves, A. (2001), Emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers College Record, 103, 1056–1080.
3. How covid-19 is interrupting children’s education. The economist, Available online: 
4. https://www.economist.com/international/2020/03/19/how-covid-19-is-interrupting-childrens-education (accessed on  23 March 2020).
5. How higher education is reacting to the new coronavirus pandemic. INSIDE HIGHER ED, Available online: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/23/live-updates-latest-news-coronavirus-and-higher-education (accessed on  23 March 2020).
6. Key consumer behavior thresholds identified as the CORONAVIRUS outbreak evolves. INSIGHTS, Available online: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2020/key-consumer-behavior-thresholds-identified-as-the-coronavirus-outbreak-evolves/ (accessed on  23 March 2020).

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Sustainable management and operation
• Uncontrollability
• Crisis management
• Viral disease impact on the hospitality and tourism industry
• Sustainable learning environment for students
• Sustainable teaching environment for educators
• Academia’s role in a crisis
• Corporate role in a crisis
• Hospitality and tourism community