What innovations would enable hospitality in South Africa to rebuild?

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to address the following questions: What is the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry in South Africa? Which innovations and strategies are in place to rebuild hospitality in South Africa?Design/methodology/approachThis article emanates from the resent pandemic situation, and it is structured to include conceptual information drawn from the literature, empirical study and industry observation. These were conducted in 2020 and 2021 using, concepts from the literature, online questionnaires and observation to gather data about the impact of COVID-19 on hospitality operations across South Africa.FindingsHistorically literature shows that the hospitality industry positively impacts the economy and employment However, the pandemic greatly affected these contributions. The findings reported in the empirical study revealed that the pandemic affected business operations and employment and caused financial hardship for the industry.Originality/valueThere are relatively few studies that report on the issues relating to the pandemic and the hospitality industry in South Africa. This paper contributes to the literature regarding a pre-COVID-19 overview, the impact of the pandemic and the innovations and strategies in place to rebuild the hospitality industry.

What do hotel managers think of employee rewards? An exploration of five-star hotels in Cape Town

“…Furthermore, managers reported that the pandemic had an adverse effect on the employment dynamics of hotels as the five-star establishments had to retrench some employees and reduce working hours or shifts. This is consistent with the study conducted by Nyathela-Sunday et al, (2022) in the hospitality industry in South Africa, which showed that 47.1% of employees were temporarily laid off, 54.2% of businesses had lower compensation, 37.4% of firms retrenched employees, 12.5% had to furlough employees, and 23.9% of businesses encouraged employees to work from home. This confirms COVID-19 has had a catastrophic economic impact on hospitality businesses, particularly in the South African hospitality industry, resulting in changes to how the industry operates (Sao Joao, 2021).…”

Conclusion: what innovations would enable the tourism and hospitality industry to re-build?

“…Nyathela-Sunday et al. (2022) discuss the current pandemic situation and include conceptual information emanating from the literature and an empirical study conducted during 2020–2021 using online questionnaires to various hospitality establishments across South Africa, via Google forms through emails and other online communication platforms.…”