The Impact of Pandemic Crisis on the Restaurant Business

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for a health crisis and, at the same time, for a sharp drop in activities of economic sustainability, particularly in tourism management, and has consequences in most countries that are still difficult to measure. The objective of this research is to identify restaurant entrepreneurs’ perceptions about the future, government measures, strategies they will apply, and lessons learned for the future after the mandatory lockdown of restaurants and hospitality establishments related to pandemics. The framework was developed through content analysis with line-by-line coding applied to questionnaires collected online from Portuguese restaurant entrepreneurs. The results reveal the existence of common concerns to all entrepreneurs in the restaurant business for the post-pandemic period, about the measures that the governments should implement, and about the strategies and lessons learned for the future. Resilience in face of the future, fear of a lack of appropriate government measures, strategies designed for markets with greater immediate availability, and the creation of working capital are visible concerns in the restaurant business.

Perceived risks from drone food delivery services before and after COVID-19

“…“Low-touch and high-tech” would be a new service normal to cater the needs of customers under pandemic (Shin and Kang, 2020). However, entrepreneurs in the restaurant business sector have anxieties about post-pandemic period because they have not prepared the new business model that can be adapted well in post-pandemic (Madeira et al , 2021). Therefore, in the long-term perspective, it is critical for researchers to offer new insights and implications to the hospitality and tourism industry about not only how to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis but also how to prepare post-pandemic period according to newly emerging customers’ needs and wants (Gursoy and Chi, 2020).…”

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Tourism Industry: Applying TRIZ and DEMATEL to Construct a Decision-Making Model

“…Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, the previous literature has not found a crisis solution for tourism industry stakeholders. Most of the early literature may be limited to the exploration of a wide range of issues related to the quantitative or qualitative nature of second-hand data analysis related to tourism issues [23][24][25][26][27], tourism management issues and related strategic issues under the pandemic [28][29][30][31][32][33], and the satisfaction issues of accommodation and restaurants under the pandemic [34][35][36][37]. Some of the researchers study the economic issues that affect the tourism industry in the COVID-19 pandemic [38][39][40][41][42][43][44], discuss the psychological issues of travel stakeholders in the pandemic [45][46][47][48][49][50], or perform research on Tourism and Virtual Reality (VR) [51][52][53].…”

Adaptações na gestão de unidades de alimentação e nutrição durante a pandemia da Covid-19

“…Diante disso, configura-se que os fatores que geraram tantas falências de restaurantes não foi somente a pandemia, mas também as características inerentes a cada setor e a crises internas já implantadas (Madeira, Palrão & Mendes, 2021) devido à falta de conhecimentos e práticas gerenciais competentes anteriores. Logo é necessário que os restaurantes fiquem atentos a mudanças de negócios e do padrão de compra dos consumidores ocasionadas pela pandemia, para preservar a saúde dos empreendimentos evitando levá-los à falência.…”