Your NameRPDr. Fayez Shriedeh

Management Practices in Response to COVID Pandemic: Wellness Centers

Your name

Program

School of Hospitality@ LTUC

Abstract:

Keywords:

1.0 Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is challenging industries around the world. Preventative measures to combat the spread of the virus, such as mandated business closures, physical distancing, reduced community mobility and travel restrictions, have been especially devastating to the hospitality industry (Gossling et al., 2020). Perhaps one of the more vulnerable subsectors has been wellness -related hospitality businesses. These businesses often rely on tourism and international air travel and many of resorts’ verticals, are synonymous with gatherings of large groups of people in close proximity (Shivdas, 2020). Unfortunately, these features, within which this industry thrives, also abet the spread of the virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020).

Wellness centers stock price closed at an all-time high on Friday, a sign that these centers’ fleet-shrinking strategies are paying off financially — even as they leave consumers fuming. Major Wellness centers last two years dropped off more than 52% sales as the pandemic crushed demand (MOTA, 2021), according to MOTA (2021), more than 1 of every 3 wellness centers that were in service before the pandemic are no longer available.

The industry backfire illustrates that the post-pandemic recovery, while strong, may not be entirely smooth. As more wellness businesses reopen, many report trouble hiring enough workers to cope with surging demand. “The covid shock was unlike anything we have experienced before. As we go into the recovery phase, we’re going to see friction and disruption in the normal flow of economic activity,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial economist for Oxford Economics. “It’s going to be a bit erratic and disrupted, but the pace of growth will be very strong.” (Torbati and Lynch, 2021)

This paper offers a methodology for studying and implementing micro-level practices of crisis management in the wellness centers in Amman. In the conclusion, suggestions for future research and useful information for managers of wellness facilities are provided.

1.1 Aim and Objective of the Research

The aim of this research is to investigate crisis management practices that are used in response to Covid-19 in the wellness center in Amman. Therefore, the objective research is to investigate crisis management practices that are used in response to Covid-19 in the wellness center in Amman.

1.2 Research Question

What are the crisis management practices used by wellness center in response to Covid-19?

1.3 Rationale of the Study

Given the importance of Hospitality for the world economy and the sector’s impact on social and environmental issues, the damage caused by a crisis threatens not only the national economy but also the livelihoods of many tourist destinations. Therefore, it is worth monitoring crisis management strategies to minimize the negative effects.

The study results will provide a valuable addition to the knowledge obtained from other studies on the crisis management practices that are used by wellness center in Amman. The study is valuable because it adds to the literature on crisis management.

The decision maker in the wellness center ………also might have a deep insight into which practices managers actually use during an industry crisis and which practices consider important.

1.4 Research Scope

The aim of this research is to investigate crisis management practices that are used in response to Covid-19 in the wellness center in Amman. Accordingly, the study targeted the supervisory, middle and executive level of management to answer the survey questions. Wellness center …were chosen due to the lack of studies on crisis management practices during Covid-19 Pandemic in Jordan.

1.5 Research Structure

The whole research will be completed by following proper structures. The overall structures of the research are given below using a table:

Sections	Descriptions
Introduction	This section will provide a basic overview of the research topic “ ………………………………..”
Literature Review	Several literature has been reviewed to understand and implement the research question properly. The literature review will give a deep idea about the wellness center.
Research Methodologies	The most common research methodologies are qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative methodology is used for implementing the research on the particular topic perfectly.
Primary and secondary research	The most relevant information for the research purpose will be collected from the primary and secondary sources. Questionnaire will be used for primary data collection. And, published articles, newspapers and websites will be used for secondary data collection.
Data analysis and findings	The collected data will be analyzed by using particular procedures so that appropriate findings can be generated from the research. The findings will be represented using numerical information.
The efficiency of the research methodologies and other alternatives	This section will show whether the research methodologies appropriate identified and captured the goals and objectives of the research (Jankowicz, 2007).
Conclusion and recommendations	This part will conclude the overall research and provide some recommendation for the business owners. The overall findings from the report will be given here in a summarized form.

2.0 Literature Review

The current literature on crisis management in tourism and Hospitality focuses primarily on general prescriptive models (techniques) that provide general guidelines for coping with different crisis situations such as terrorism (Baxter & Bowen, 2004), and natural disasters (Pforr & Hosie, 2010). The majority of research efforts were primarily directed to violence activities relevant to the tourism industry and recommendations for preparations for times of terror. Pizam and Mansfeld (1996) analyzed different occurrences of terrorism in the tourism context whereas Blake and Sinclair (2003) detailed the reaction of the USA hospitality industry to the terroristic events of September 11, 2001. In addition, Ritchie (2003) stressed the importance of a holistic approach to crisis management in hospitality, as hospitality crisis management can be vastly improved through the application of crisis and disaster theories and concepts from other disciplines.

Alternative models generally focus on business crises, although the scientific literature barely mentioned the economic crisis effects on tourism prior to the financial crisis of 2008. The majority of studies (published before 2008) present crisis management from a historical, descriptive, or comparative perspective. Lerbinger (1997) categorized crisis according to external and internal factors that generated different business crisis types. Mansfeld’s (1999) historical review suggests that one method for coping with crisis is by using extensive marketing. Other studies have sought to improve theoretical models to forecast sudden major changes in economic systems and business cycles that could potentially lead to crisis situations (Puu, 1991).

Nevertheless, to date almost no research has examined specific micro-level practices in the wellness industry with focusing on a health pandemic. No similar studies have been conducted in Amman. The only studies that have addressed the specific operational activities to manage crisis situations and evaluate their usage in the hospitality industry are those conducted by Israeli and Reichel (2003) and Israeli (2007) on the Israeli hospitality industry and Okumus and Karamustafa (2005) on the Turkish hospitality industry. Therefore, this study will focus on the management practices of wellness centers in response to health crisis of Covid-19.

The study used Israeli (2007) techniques to develop four major categories of crisis management: marketing, maitenance, government assistance, and human resources. This model can aid in evaluating different crisis management techniques. As the selection of specific techniques in a given industry is crucial (Yoon & Hwang, 1995), the list of techniques with general guidelines can also be assembled for specific problems in different areas of hospitality industry.

Reference List

MOTA (2021). Statistics 2022. [online] www.mota.gov.jo. Available at: .

Baxter, E., & Bowen, D. (2004). Anatomy of tourism crisis: Explaining the effects on tourism of the UK foot and mouth disease epidemics of 1967-68 and 2001 with special references to media portrayal. The Inter- national Journal of Tourism Research, 6(4), 263–273.

Pforr, C., & Hosie, P. (2010). Crisis management in the hospitality industry: Beating the odds? Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.

Pizam, A., & Mansfeld, Y. (1996). Tourism, crime and in- ternational security issues. Michigan, UK: Weily.

Torbati, Y. and Lynch, D. (2021). How the COVID pandemic led to a rental car crisis just as Americans are ready to bust loose. [online] The Seattle Times. Available at: .

Gossling, S., Scott, D. and Hall, C.M. (2020), “Pandemics, tourism and global change: a rapid assessment of COVID-19”, Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

Blake, A., & Sinclair, M. (2003). Tourism crisis management: US response to September 11. Annals of Tourism Research, 30, 813–832.

Ritchie, B. W. (2003). Chaos, crises and disasters: A strategic approach to crisis management in tourism industry. Tourism Management, 25, 669–683.

Lerbinger, O. (1997). The crisis manager: Facing risk and responsibility. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Mansfeld, Y. (1999). Cycles of war, terror and peace: Deter- minantsandmanagement ofcrisisandrecoveryofthe Israeli tourism industry. Journal of Travel Research, 38, 30–36.

Puu, T. (1991). Chaos in business cycles. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 1(5), 457–473. Israeli, A. A. (2007). Crisis-management practices in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26(4), 807–823.

Israeli, A., & Reichel, A. (2003). Hospitality crisis management practices: The Israeli case. Internatio- nal Journal of Hospitality Management, 22(4), 353–372.

Okumus, F., & Karamustafa, K. (2005). Impact of an economic crisis: Evidence from Turkey. Annals of Tourism Research, 32(4), 942–961.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020b), “Considerations for travelers-coronavirus in the US”, available at:

Shivdas, S. (2020), “Shut casinos hit Caesars as COVID-19 puts gambling industry in survival mode”, Reuters, 11 May, available at:

Jankowicz, A.D. (2007). Business Research Projects. [online] Biblio.com. Thomson. Available at: https://www.biblio.com/book/business-research-projects-jankowicz-d/d/1286842420