Rural hotel resilience during COVID-19: the crucial role of CSR

Abstract

The hospitality sector has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the situation of rural accommodation is particularly noteworthy due to its close relationship with the environment. In this context, the role of CSR as a strategy that contributes to social, economic, and environmental well-being takes on a crucial role. The main objective of this paper is to contribute to the early scientific literature analysing the influence of CSR strategies on the resilience of rural hotels in the wake of COVID-19. A total of 100 Spanish managers' responses were analysed through PLS-SEM. The findings demonstrate a positive and significant impact of CSR strategies on resilience levels, and the effect of resilience on hotel performance. Additionally, we have found a mediating and moderating effect in the above-mentioned relationship. In terms of moderation, we show that the relationship is intensified when hotels possess an official sustainability certificate. And in terms of mediation, COVID-19 actions carried out by rural accommodations mediate the CSR-resilience relationship. Thus, the contribution of this study lies in providing solid long-term strategic alternatives based on sustainability to enable rural hotels to cope with cyclical crises and provide new insights in the hospitality industry literature.

Rural tourism in India: case studies of resilience during crisis

“…The three broad learnings which emerged from the cases were employee retention, leveraging digital and diversifying customer base can serve as learnings for organisations working in the rural tourism sector and to make them more future-ready. And the use of CSR funds was also used as a strategy to recover from the crisis, which has also been investigated earlier by Marco-Lajara et al (2022). These learnings could be leveraged by the management of these facilities, and the broader findings of the study also have implications for policymakers who are formulating policies for the sector.…”

“…The three broad learnings which emerged from the cases were employee retention, leveraging digital and diversifying customer base can serve as learnings for organisations working in the rural tourism sector and to make them more future-ready. And the use of CSR funds was also used as a strategy to recover from the crisis, which has also been investigated earlier by Marco-Lajara et al. (2022).…”

Contemporary sustainability themes in tourism and hospitality during and post COVID‐19: Critical review and a step strategies forward for post the pandemic

“…We also found several studies about the social pillar of sustainability in the context of the tourism and hospitality industry. The significant research works include “the social side of tourism for social and ecological justice after COVID‐19 (Higgins‐Desbiolles, 2020)”, ‘various CSR actions and consequences post‐COVID‐19 in the hotel industry (Afshan et al, 2021)’, ‘restaurant CSR (Ou et al, 2021)’, “the role of CSR in extending community support during COVID‐19 (Chen & Hang, 2021)”, ‘rural hotel resilience and CSR during COVID‐19 (Marco‐Lajara et al, 2022)’ (Camilleri, 2022). Based on our observations, we call on the research community to explore how various corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, deliberations, decisions, and actions may bring significant sustainable outcomes to the tourism and hospitality industry during and post‐Covid‐19.…”

Homestay businesses’ strategies for adapting to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic: A study in Vietnam

“…Research on the resilience of tourism and hospitality organizations against crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic has been emerging since the pandemic started (e.g., Sharma et al, 2021). In the accommodation sector, recent studies have investigated the responses and adaptive mechanisms of large hotels, particularly in terms of their human resource practices (Su et al, 2021), general managers’ responses (Giousmpasoglou et al, 2021), corporate social responsibility (Marco-Lajara et al, 2021), and marketing and promotions, (Hoang et al, 2021), However, although research has been conducted on the resilience of rural hotels during COVID-19 (e.g., Marco-Lajara et al, 2021), there are no scholarly investigations into the adaptation strategies of homestay businesses and their service delivery processes, leaving a significant knowledge gap. Drawing on the concepts of business resilience and hospitality service delivery practices, this study aims to explore the strategies for adapting to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.…”