Abstract
Hurricanes have caused billions of dollars in damage to the hotel industry in Florida, significantly affecting tourism flow. The unpredictable impact of hurricanes makes sustaining profits challenging. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that hotel leaders use to sustain tourism profits following a hurricane. The theory of image restoration provided the conceptual framework for the study. Data was collected from company documents and semi-structured interviews with 5 hotel leaders in Central Florida. Transcribed data were coded then validated using member checking during the data analysis, which revealed 5 themes: storm impact, accommodations, operations, communications, and planning. Results indicated the relevance of the theory of image restoration to help hotel leaders get operations back to normal following a hurricane by emphasizing how effective crisis response strategies can help create opportunities to sustain profits beyond tourism. Results may be used by hotel leaders to sustain profits and support their communities during hurricane recovery by providing accommodations, safety, and security to stakeholders other than tourists, such as first responders, state, and residents.
Highlights
Tourism is one of the most economically important global industries, yet its survival relies heavily on the mobility of tourists [1]
The tourism industry is far from static, and the hotel sectors of the tourism industry are vulnerable to a variety of natural and human-made hazards, which pose risks to staff and guest safety, as well as operations and profits [27, 8, 24, 10]
The results revealed strategies surrounding hurricane responses that hotel leaders and tourism operators can consider when seeking to understand (a) storm impacts, (b) accommodations, (c) operations, (d) communications, and (e) planning when tourism profits decrease in disaster-prone areas
Summary
Tourism is one of the most economically important global industries, yet its survival relies heavily on the mobility of tourists [1]. To repair or restore the image, maintain the value of the business, and gather valuable information on how to implement strategies to sustain profits from tourism following a hurricane may be challenging for hotel leaders. Determining the real causes and effects, and planning decisions and actions to undertake when face with hurricanes consequences has become complex to tourism businesses like hotels, bars, restaurants, and recreation centers which already have other business challenges. Tourism business managers may use the findings of this analysis to integrate hurricanes crises and strategies to sustain their business activities over time [6]. Many researchers analyzed the impact of tourism activities on business profitability and sustainability; less attention was paid to hotel managers’ strategies to improve decision-making following a hurricane [9, 13, 11]
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