Abstract
Even in its cessation, the COVID-19 pandemic sustains its profound impact on human lives and on each sector of the global economy. Without exception, the dire consequences of curbing the spread of the virus’ effects by restricting mobility and travel at its earliest inception had taken a toll on the tourism industry. In contrast to previous global health crises, the COVID-19 effect is the worst and most prolonged, where the livelihoods of many locals and local businesses struggle to rebuild after restrictions were lifted in the last few years, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study looks into the challenges faced by SMEs within the tourism industry and their preparedness for developing and deploying a crisis management strategy during the pandemic. Qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews with SMEs from the tourism sector were analysed, and the results suggest that a number of factors, as well as how they relate to one another in various crises, would need to be addressed in order to develop a crisis management strategy in an organization.
Plain Language Summary
The goal of this study is to look at the problems that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the tourism industry face and how well they can make and use a plan to deal with a crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main goal of the study is to find out what problems SMEs face and how ready they are to handle emergencies. To get information, in-depth interviews with SMEs in the tourism field were done. The qualitative information from these interviews was later analysed to find similar themes and patterns. The results show that an organization’s crisis management approach is based on a number of factors, and it’s important to understand how they all work together. The results of this study show that SMEs in the tourism business had to deal with a lot of problems because of the pandemic. COVID-19 had a big and long-lasting effect on these businesses, which hurt the way people and companies in the area made a living. Also, the study shows how important it is to think about many different things when making a plan for handling a problem. Two things can be learned from this study. First, it shows how important it is for SMEs in the tourism industry to make crisis management a top priority and come up with plans to lessen the effects of future crises. Second, it shows lawmakers and industry players how they can help SMEs with their recovery efforts and make them stronger. But it’s important to remember that this study has some flaws. The results are based on qualitative data from a small group of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism industry, which may not be typical of all SMEs in the field. Also, the study is mostly about the COVID-19 pandemic and may not give a full picture of how other situations work. More research is needed to confirm and expand on these findings and make sure that SMEs in the tourism business have full crisis management plans.
Introduction
The tourism industry is significantly impacted by the increasing frequency of disasters and crises that range from natural disasters to human-induced incidents. Establishing an effective crisis management plan in organizations requires addressing multiple components and understanding how they interact in various crisis situations. Tourism is especially susceptible to various factors beyond the local economy, such as terrorist attacks, political instability, economic downturns, biosecurity risks, and natural disasters (Ritchie, 2004; Yozcu & Cetin, 2019). These events have had devastating effects on the global tourism business in recent times, but what sets a pandemic apart from previous crises is its characteristic as a “long wave event,” as pointed out by Hornmoen and McInnes (2018). This unique aspect of pandemics adds further complexity to crisis management in the tourism industry where tourist growth faces significant risks from natural catastrophes and crises, not only due to the direct harm they cause but also because of their unpredictable nature. Instances like the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) episode have highlighted such vulnerability and instability of the industry (Sausmarez, 2007). As a result, areas affected by crises of natural disasters that rely on tourism may experience a long-term decline in visitor numbers, infrastructure damage, and negative media coverage. These consequences could amplify the repercussions across the entire industry in the aftermath of a disaster (Fotiadis et al., 2021; Huang & Min, 2002; Huang et al., 2007; Orchiston, 2012).
The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak remains the worst infectious outbreak that is accompanied by a systemic worldwide healthcare crisis, a financial crisis, and an economic downturn. This recession is different from past health crises such as SARS, Ebola, and H1N1 as many countries opt to lock down the entire country or the most at-risk cities as safety measures. To an extent, prohibition of entry into their borders, securing measures that come with the inevitable decision that distinctly impacted the travel and hotel sectors, was necessary in controlling the pandemic. Many tourism destinations are forced to cancel bookings due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as many countries have opted for travel bans and country lockdown measures. As a result, as estimated by the UNWTO (2020), international arrivals declined by 22% in the first quarter of 2020 and continue to be predicted to drop by 60% to 80% for the year, resulting in a loss of between $910 billion and 1.2 trillion dollars. Furthermore, Welfens (2020) recently suggested that the macroeconomic and health-care elements of COVID-19 concluded that nations that expect stronger output growth with constraining impacts rely heavily on the tourist industry in terms of GDP contribution.
In this regard, the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment plays a significant role in the economies of many countries in terms of social inclusion, local employment, and innovation (Auzzir et al., 2018). According to Thorgren and Williams (2020), SMEs represent over 90% of all firms worldwide, making them the backbone of the world economy in both formal and informal business sectors. Despite that, SME is seen as one of the more vulnerable sectors due to their limited resources and financial limitations compared with large companies (Auzzir et al., 2018; Juergensen et al., 2020; Pedauga et al., 2021). This is especially visible during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the protracted lockdown and movement control period has led to SME entrepreneurs being exposed to different issues such as operational disruption, supply chain disruption, a shortage of internal funds to handle recurring operating expenditure, the risk of bankruptcy, and sparseness of government stimulation packages (Cowling et al., 2020; Lu et al., 2020). Furthermore, many of the affected SMEs failed to cope and manage the risks because of their limited financial capability and expertise or had to close down due to their inability to grasp these huge changes in the business environment (Juergensen et al., 2020; Pedauga et al., 2021). Although several studies have explored the relevance of being proactive and engaging in disaster preparation (Carmeli & Schaubroeck, 2008; Ghaderi et al., 2014; Wang & Ritchie, 2010), there is an ostensible need for a thorough knowledge of how SMEs perceive crises and prepare for uncertainty (Albattat & Mat Som, 2019), as the level of preparedness may determine fear of failure, which latter signifies the process of appraising threats in evaluative situations with the potential for failure (Conroy et al., 2002; Games & Mardiah, 2022). Thus, this suggests the importance of crisis preparedness in coping with future crises.
Past studies have shown that much attention has been paid to understanding how the global tourism industry reacts to tragedies and crises such as the financial crisis (Li et al., 2010; Peckham, 2013; D. Zhang et al., 2020), political instability (Ioannides & Apostolopoulos, 1999; Knight, 2021), terrorist attacks (Bowen et al., 2014), biosecurity threats (Hall, 2005), and natural disasters (Demeter et al., 2021; Wright & Sharpley, 2016; Wu et al., 2021). Various scholars focused on the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs because of the imminent economic turmoil caused by this pandemic as well as the recovery plans to cope with the situation (Burhan et al., 2021; Chowdhury et al., 2022; Cowkertz et al., 2020; Cowling et al., 2020; Roggeveen & Sethuraman, 2020; Sahoo & Ashwani, 2020; Thorgren & Williams, 2020; Zighan et al., 2022). These studies further revealed that SMEs were affected by a variety of factors during this time period such as the nature of the business, the geographic location of the business, the economic condition of the country, environmental factors related to the company, and entrepreneurial, innovative, and adaptive capabilities during the crisis period. Despite the extensive research on SMEs that has gained attention among academics and practitioners, the focus on the tourism industry, especially the SME crisis preparedness of this sector, is fairly limited (Herbane, 2013; Klein & Todesco, 2021).
Novelli et al. (2018) posited that research on health-related crises and its indirect impact on tourism sectors, especially in underdeveloped nations are of lower priority and to date, researchers have predominantly skewed toward the SARS outbreak (2002) as a case study when discussing threats, especially health crises, to the tourism and hospitality industries (Kaushal & Srivastava, 2021). Hence, from now on, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to become a dominant reference point, along with the earlier health crisis, SARS. Additionally, according to Ghaderi et al. (2021), there is a gap arising from the type of investigation on organization preparedness in the context of SMEs, and COVID-19 might pose changes in the perception of preparedness. Thus, by adopting a qualitative approach, this study aims to explore the challenges posed by this crisis and the preparedness of the SME community in Malaysia in the tourism sector. In this study, it is essential to understand the challenges faced by SMEs, how SMEs in different parts of the tourism industry within the country plan and prepare for crises, and the approaches they take to overcome them. Accordingly, this study attempts to answer the following specific questions; (1) what are the challenges that are posted by COVID-19, (2) what are the capabilities needed for the SMEs to prepare in order to meet the challenge of COVID-19, and (3) what is the level of preparedness of SMEs.
In the following section, literature is reviewed pertaining to crisis preparedness, crisis challenges, tourism crisis preparedness, and SME in Malaysia. Then, the methodological approach is outlined, followed by the presentation and discussion of findings. Finally, theoretical and practical contributions and research limitations are presented.
Literature Review
Challenges During COVID-19
During the global COVID-19 crisis in 2019 to 2020, international borders throughout the world were closed, aircraft and other modes of transportation were grounded, visitors were forced to return home, and people in many regions of the world were locked down and confined to their homes (Becker, 2020; Gossling et al., 2020; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020). In this stressed context of COVID-19, where the global pandemic poses serious damage to travel, tourism, and affiliated sectors, the dispute concerning boosterism of a destination versus limits to tourism has erupted with renewed vigor (Haqbin et al., 2021; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2021). In order to contain this pandemic, travel bans, border closures, event cancellations, quarantine requirements, and the fear of spread have posed significant difficulties and challenges to the tourism and hospitality industries (Gossling et al., 2020), especially the SMEs that have a significant role in the tourism industry (Haqbin et al., 2021; Zehrer, 2009).
The current pandemic has been profound and is still unfolding in many different countries (Kaushal & Srivastava, 2021; Konarasinghe, 2020; Mohanty, 2020). As the pandemic has caused visible challenges in the country’s tourism sector (Kaushal & Srivastava, 2021), it has also triggered a potential job loss in tourism and hospitality, which has been estimated at 38 million, which is 70% of the industry workforce (Radhakrishna, 2020). In support of this, according to the Travel and Tourism Council (2020), one in 10 jobs in most of the country is related to the tourism and hospitality industries. Therefore, the challenges facing this industry would cause severe losses for businesses active in the field of tourism. This is especially true for SMEs, as they have limited resources in many different aspects of business (Juergensen et al., 2020; Pedauga et al., 2021).
The COVID-19 pandemic created an economic crisis that had significant and heterogeneous consequences for organizations around the world, including SMEs (Belghitar et al., 2022; Kraus et al., 2020). Breier et al. (2021) and Kazancoglu et al. (2022) asserted that the closing of businesses, a sharp drop in demand, the breakup of foreign value chains, and a lack of cash flow have all had a big effect on how organizations perform. Furthermore, not every company has the flexibility, resources, skills, and knowledge to comprehend this sudden and challenging shock. For example, SMEs are the hardest hit by this crisis because they lack the resources to innovate quickly (Belitski et al., 2022; Eggers, 2020). Also, they do not have much resources to tap into modern technology (Bresciani et al., 2021). The threats posed by COVID-19 and during challenging times have greatly influenced the function of the organization, especially SMEs. In particular, due to their limited capabilities combined with the resources that they possess, SMEs are unable to sustain themselves compared to other stakeholders. Meanwhile, the Malaysian SMEs illustrate that Malaysian SMEs had experienced a decline in earnings and that they had struggled to remain operating during the Movement Control Order, one of the reasons being that competition had intensified, causing many to struggle to find new ways to retain customers (Lai et al., 2020).
Crisis Preparedness
Crisis preparedness is an essential component of organizational management. As for crisis readiness, it encompasses tasks, activities, or actions that may lessen the loss of life or property in the case of a danger or disaster (Phillips et al., 2005; Veil, 2011). Crisis preparation includes a variety of measures aiming to minimize or lessen the effect of large risks and disasters, thereby creating resilience in the organization’s function. Preparedness requires foresight and planning to ensure the continued functionality of organizations. Regardless of how important this topic may be, many operators within the tourism industry place less emphasis on crisis preparation and planning (Ghaderi et al., 2014; Wang & Ritchie, 2013; Wang & Wu, 2018). No company is immune to a crisis because a crisis can occur at any time and for any reason. A company might be the intended or unintended victim of a crisis or cause one itself. Regardless of its source, a crisis can be devastating if handled poorly (Fields, 2017). Since SMEs are the backbone of any economy, and with the ripple effect of COVID-19 on economies all over the world, their protection has become more important than ever; therefore, crisis preparedness is essential to safeguard the survival and resilience of these SMEs (Engidaw, 2022).
In this issue, the effectiveness of tourism operators in managing crises and disasters highly depends on managers’ intention and seriousness in shifting their long-standing habits and preparing for unforeseen circumstances such as disasters and crises (Anderson, 2006; Pappas, 2018; Paraskevas & Quek, 2019). Although there are many negative impacts of various crises and disasters on tourism-related businesses, past studies suggest that the tourism operator is more likely to hesitate in preparing fiscal and financial resources for crisis planning and preparation (Ghaderi et al., 2014; Wang & Wu, 2018). This is because different tourism operators view crises differently, and this determines the organizational orientation and operational planning for crisis management (Hall et al., 2012; Prayag, 2018; Rousaki & Alcott, 2006). The SMEs managers refuse to take risks and misunderstand the connection between crisis management and strategy, and, therefore, with competitiveness (Yiannaki, 2012), and the awareness of the importance of crisis preparedness due to the sudden impact of the health pandemic such as COVID-19 is also being emphasized in recent research (e.g., Dirani et al., 2020; Hang et al., 2022; Sarmah & Chaudhuri, 2021).
Crisis preparation requires multiple resources, and the significance of crisis situations is often undervalued (Novák, 2015). The recent health pandemic, COVID-19, brought alarming information yet SMEs were not well prepared for crisis situations (Cowling et al., 2020; Mikusova & Horvathova, 2023). This finding aligns with Marjański and Sułkowski’s (2021) assertion that SMEs are unprepared to deal with uncertainty, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, according to Tilcsik (2016) and Mikusova and Horvathova (2023), efforts in preparation for a crisis are often essential, especially for SMEs.
From the perspective of a theoretical lens, acquiring such knowledge is vital to pragmatically realizing to what extent tourism-related businesses are preparing for the different crises that may arise in conjunction with their action plan on preparedness and resilience (Biggs et al., 2012; Hall et al., 2016, 2017; Prayag, 2018). Therefore, given the likelihood of crises and their consequences, crisis preparedness may be critical for organizational survival, especially for organizations that are related to the tourism industry (Wang & Wu, 2018), as a crisis-prepared organization is one that has the “capability to prevent, contain, recover, and learn” from a range of crises (Kovoor-Misra, 1996, p. 170). In line with this, Ghaderi et al. (2021) and Wang and Wu (2018) state that the possibility of crises and their consequences implies that preparedness is one of the core critical elements for organizational survival in general, and it is especially important for the hospitality sector. Thus, crisis preparation planning should take place to enhance the resiliency of the SMEs in the area of hospitality and help minimize interruptions to the business operation. In addition to that, interest in crisis management and resilience has been increasing over the last few decades, largely due to the unconventional nature of business disruptions and crises facing organizations.
Tourism Crisis Management
The uncertainty, perceived urgency, and high-stakes character of a crisis distinguish it from other recurring organizational difficulties (James et al., 2011). Furthermore, crisis scenarios are usually rare, unpredictable, and can significantly and adversely affect organizations and their stakeholders. The uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic causes devastation to many around the globe, especially in the economic sector, largely through the loss of financial, physical, and food security for many people (McKee & Stuckler, 2020). Furthermore, according to Farzanegan et al. (2020), to some degree, international travel would have contributed to the spread of the virus and the severity of the pandemic. Thus, the decision to travel is influenced by visitors’ impressions of the destination’s safety and security (Taylor & Toohey, 2007). As a result, the tourism sector would find it difficult to overcome the challenges posed by the health crises, which were predominantly subjected to negative media attention (Novelli et al., 2018).
Global crises, such as disease outbreaks, pandemics, and economic crises raise different concerns about the ability of global and regional tourism-related entities to respond to the crisis and develop recovery plans. The challenges posted by these global crises are not limited to economics but also affect other aspects that are more vulnerable, such as the tourism destination and communities affected, which are consistently overburdened by the disease epidemics. These communities, more often than not, lack the necessary resources to prevent the spread of epidemics when they occur. On this basis, it is clear that the measures taken to manage the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic have had an unparalleled socioeconomic impact (Dolnicar & Zare, 2020; Qiu et al., 2020).
As such, epidemic crises may cause major setbacks for the demand for a specific place, as travelers may choose to avoid certain destinations in the hope of not being exposed to such crises when visiting the destination (Seraphin, 2020). This argument is also shared by Reichel et al. (2007) and K. Zhang et al. (2020), who explain that perceived risk is often related to epidemic outbreaks that might influence travel behavior and destination choices. The current COVID-19 outbreak affects most of the tourism destinations, which are by far the most damaging (Assaf & Scuderi, 2020; Dolnicar & Zare, 2020; Karabulut et al., 2020). The consequences of the pandemic are expected to cause a substantial drop in various industries in tourism, including hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and car rentals (Sharma & Nicolau, 2020). With such a gargantuan loss that left a great impact on all affected industries, concerns should be raised with regards to the long-term prospects that can aid each industry. Subsequently, both the tourism industry and the government play a vital role in the recovery phase of the industry, as it will appear different than it did post-pandemic (Assaf & Scuderi, 2020).
From the perspective of crisis management for SMEs, it is indeed true that, with their lower formalization of crisis management planning, SMEs stand to be more exposed to borderless risk activities and failure cascades (Herbane, 2013; Smith & Fischbacher, 2009) than larger corporate entities. In line with this, according to Koppel and Tsernikova (2022), larger enterprises have previously set crisis management plans for similar situations and possess redundancy reserves, whereas SMEs are often dependent on their regular income and are financially unable to continue business activities in a crisis situation, especially during the recent health pandemic. There is not much emphasis placed on long-term measures, such as how to overcome the crisis-induced conditions, both internal and external, after the lockdowns. Thams et al. (2020), who looked into the assessment of economics for the tourism industry, suggest that SMEs should implement strict and structured crisis management activities to minimize the severity of crisis impact, whereby the SMEs activities need to be clearly identified and fully incorporated so that they are better prepared to manage different crises. A study by Kukanja et al. (2020) and Koppel and Tsernikova (2022) on managing crises in SMEs found that the majority of the SMEs did not have crisis management plans, and they reacted to the crisis by taking cost-cutting measures, which is not a long-term plan. In line with this, according to Yeh (2021), given the financial hardship SMEs face during the COVID-19 outbreak, prioritizing tasks is more vital than ever and is considered a component of successful crisis management. Therefore, crisis management in the area of SME tourism should be enhanced to further reduce disruption to the business.
SME in Malaysia
SMEs play a significant role in contributing to the economies of many countries, and they are crucial in terms of social inclusion, local employment, and innovation. There are various definitions of SMEs which differ from country to country based on the status of the country and level of economics of the country. Since this study is focusing on Malaysia, the definition adopted was endorsed by the Malaysian SME Corporation in 2020. According to the guidelines for SME definition issued by SME Corporation Malaysia (2020), a business will be classified as an SME if it fulfills all three conditions in terms of the qualifying criteria, type of establishment, and shareholding structure. For manufacturing (including agro-based) and manufacturing-related services, SMEs are defined as companies with a sales turnover of less than RM25 million or fewer than 150 full-time employees. As for primary agriculture and services (including ICT), SMEs are defined as companies with a sales turnover of less than RM5 million or fewer than 50 full-time employees (SME Corporation Malaysia, 2020). Specifically, the criteria are as follows (Table 1):
Definition of SME in Malaysia.
In the tourism sector, SMEs are one of the predominant stakeholders, and they play an important role as direct providers, brokers, and distributors of goods and services (Font et al., 2016; Morrison et al., 2010). Therefore, the local economies greatly benefit from the retention of tourism revenues, which is high among SMEs. Parallel to that, according to Garay and Font (2012), the overall SMEs contribute to broader community involvement and development, as well as wealth redistribution in the area of tourism. Despite the fact that many entrepreneurs have attempted to build their own businesses as SMEs, many of them have failed to sustain their businesses over a long period of time (Johara et al., 2017), as the majority of such SMEs do not last more than a decade after being established due to various struggles within the business industry (Gbireh, 2013; Ngoasong & Kimbu, 2016, 2019). Not only that, the crisis would also further pose different challenges to the vulnerable tourism supply systems (Becken & Hughey, 2013), as it would interrupt the demand at the tourism destinations, resulting in a long-term detrimental impact on the location and the sector (Granville et al., 2016). The reason being that the tourism and hospitality industries are vulnerable to various types of challenges, including political instability, natural disasters, pandemics, and economic downturns.
With these threats that take place under unexpected circumstances and business operations that result in huge financial burdens and pressure for management and staff, while various variables have contributed to SME failure, the inability to appropriately manage risks is the most crucial factor (Gbireh, 2013). This resonates with the need for developing solutions for businesses to protect themselves against such adversities, including, but not limited to, the purchase of insurance. (Rejda, 2012; Williams & Balá, 2015) and crisis plan and preparedness (Pappas, 2018; Paraskevas & Quek, 2019; Wang & Wu, 2018).
According to various scholars (Abdullah et al., 2008; Low et al., 2001; Ong et al., 2011), in Malaysia specifically, most of the past research has mainly focused on the listed companies compared to SMEs. Thus, this study stresses the SME entrepreneur since, as stated by Hallak et al. (2015), these businesses play a critical role in job creation, economic and image stimulation, and the long-term growth of the destination. Furthermore, tourism SMEs account for a significant amount of many nations’ GDP (Pikkemaat et al., 2018), making the current research more relevant. Furthermore, the failure rate of SMEs in emerging nations such as Malaysia usually exceeds 50% (Khalique et al., 2011; Nik et al., 2016). As a result, it is vital to understand the conception of an organization’s success from the perspective of SMEs owners.
Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT)
This study is guided by the Situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) proposed by Coombs and Holladay. As a crisis communication theory that focuses on organizations’ reactive reactions to crises, SCCT categorizes crisis types based on the perceived amount of responsibility that organizations have in the event of a crisis. Stakeholder perceptions of different sorts of crises lead to varied attributions of blame, according to this theory, which is used to direct an organization’s communication response (Coombs, 2019). SCCT is a prescriptive theory that offers a stance for organizations to take when developing a crisis response that is based on how responsible the organization is seen as being for the disaster. SCCT is a commonly used theoretical framework in crisis communication that directs the progression of crisis response (Kim & Sung, 2014).
According to Coombs (2019), if an organization is viewed as a victim, the stakeholders ascribe virtually little blame for the crisis to the organization. On the other hand, if organizations are regarded as more accountable for other types of crises, further rhetorical methods may be required in addition to the ethical ground reaction to make the organization look more accommodating in accepting the emerging amounts of responsibility. This is because, if the organization is not to blame for the event of the crisis, the SCCT suggests that the organization’s communication response should only include the ethical base response, which “includes instructing information in the form of warnings and directions for people to protect themselves from harm” and “adjusting information in the form of expressions of concerns and corrective action” (Coombs, 2019, p. 157). Hence, by applying this SCCT in this study, the focus is solely on the institution’s use of the ethical base response, as the event is not attributed to the organization.
Methodology
In-depth, semi-structured interviews were deployed to achieve the objectives of this qualitative study, focusing on semi-structured interviews with different managers or owners of the tourism industry. Firstly, the study investigated the crucial issue of tourism crisis preparation, which is relatively understudied as there is minimal information available. Therefore, in order to properly understand how these tourism managers, prepare for various crises and disasters in unpredictable contexts, more extensive research is required (Ghaderi et al., 2014). Second, as the aim is to extract important organizational stimulations for crisis planning and preparation (Wang & Ritchie, 2012), through extensive and in-depth discussion with managers, qualitative research may be more effective in extracting essential themes and underlying subjects, which can then be used in subsequent studies.
The aforementioned research goals and body of literature served as the foundation for the interview tool; henceforth, the four recurring constructs served as a guide for the interview questions: (i) mitigation; (ii) preparedness; (iii) response; and (iv) recovery to establish if any of these steps had been applied during the period of crisis. A total of nine questions were produced from these themes as a guide for the semi-structured interviews, which created an unobtrusive flow between the interviewer and informant.
In terms of interviewer bias, it is generally known that interviewing abilities as well as the degree to which they depart from typical interviewing behavior affect how the informants respond to the questions (Schaeffer, 2018). According to Kühne (2023), informants may draw conclusions about interviewers based on their outward appearance and would tailor their answers to general stereotypes to gain interviewer approval during the session. Understanding that the outcomes are systematic (correlated) to interviewers’ best practices, two interviewers were briefed on the instrument that would be used to guide the session and were consistently present for all of the twelve sessions conducted using similar protocols from the introduction to the conclusion of each interview. Only the informant’s differences in their roles in the local tourism industry will henceforth determine the breadth and depth of their unique responses obtained during the session. As the instrument served as a guide, any responses from the informant that may lead to additional questions and further laddering were then explored by the two interviewers.
Sampling
As suggested, destinations that have experienced crises should have a greater motivation to be better prepared for future crisis events (Ghaderi et al., 2014; Hall & Prayag, 2020; Wang & Ritchie, 2012, 2013). However, in the tourism sector, circumstances throughout the Covid-19 period have had an impact on SMEs that in turn influence their capability and effectiveness to handle times of crisis dependent on their business type, location, environment, innovativeness of their owners, and capacity to adjust (Burhan et al., 2021; Chowdhury et al., 2022; Cowkertz et al., 2020; Cowling et al., 2020; Roggeveen & Sethuraman, 2020; Sahoo & Ashwani, 2020; Thorgren & Williams, 2020; Zighan et al., 2022). With that said, primary data were collected from interviews with business managers from different tourism segments and localities in Malaysia through purposive snowball sampling with consideration of the diverse nature of SMEs in the tourism industry. The criteria for sampling were ascertained to be individuals from sectors that have been significantly affected by the pandemic or have experienced the “ripple effects” of several damaging events, especially the global crisis and COVID-19 in the Malaysian tourism and hospitality industries. Samples include resort owners, hotel owners, tour agencies, souvenir shop owners, and food operators in Perak, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, Kedah, Penang, and Selangor. The informants were recruited from social media and through the researchers’ networking with already-selected informants. Similarly, this sampling evolves throughout the course of the study, where the researchers continue to reflect and add on to the sampling based on each interview outcome because remote interviewing eliminates many issues with informants that are not proximate to the researcher (Foley et al., 2021).
Francis et al. (2010) recommended a preliminary sample size of n = 10 to represent the sample population where it is sufficient for interviews, with a focus on the current population in dense Malaysian towns in the Peninsula. According to Schreier (2018) and Patton (2015), the analysis of qualitative studies emphasizes the breadth and depth of information more than sample size. Moreover, Saunders et al. (2018) posited that the criterion of saturation is dependent on its theoretical saturation, whereby no additional data can be found to develop new categories due to similar instances being seen over and over again. The enforcement of COVID-19 interstate travel restrictions affected the interviews that were arranged between June and September 2021. Henceforth, all interviews were conducted via Zoom video conferencing software with an average of 30 to 45 min and several through email contact to encourage social distancing as per the request of the informants.
Based on the list of informants pooled for this study, summary statements from each interview session were gathered to shed light on various themes. The informants were identified and tagged based on basic information about their business backgrounds as per the following (Table 2):
List of Informants Interviewed.
The informants were asked about their backgrounds, personal interests, careers, and involvement in the organization that they are affiliated with. The interviews were recorded using the Zoom application feature, and its .mp4 formats were transcribed for coding purposes.
Findings and Analysis
Thematic analysis was deployed to analyse and report patterns or themes. Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) through ATLAS.ti software was utilized for this purpose and to highlight concepts relevant to the research objectives. The coding is derived from the available literature and guided by keywords such as “Covid-19 challenges,”“crisis management,”“crisis preparedness,”“impact to tourism,” Malaysia. Emergent codes were also integrated into the totality of the coding frames, where researcher observations were confirmed and enhanced. 32 codes were developed from the analysis, which belonged to two major code groups, namely “Challenges” and “Preparedness,” which garnered 181 quotations (Figure 1).
Derived and emergent themes from the coding analysis.
However, codes with percentage shown to be less than 2% from the quotations identified were rendered insignificant. Henceforth, after cleaning up the data, these are the pertinent codes that were seen as prevalent. Subsequently, this study will deliberate on the top five codes or constructs that were discussed that achieved more than 10% total frequency of quotations (Table 3).
Emerging Themes From Interview.
As representatives of SMEs, it is encouraging to see that owners and managers of homestays, small hotels, travel agencies, and food operators agreed that during COVID-19, the ability to deploy an immediate disaster planning solution was of utmost importance and was an act that was unforeseen during the time of the pandemic (14.4%). However, in doing so, the managers shared that one of the major challenges faced during COVID-19 included the frequent changes in regulations and standard operating procedures (SOPs) laid down by the government that deterred any plans the SMEs may have at hand, which included customer check-in and interstate travel restrictions (14.4%). These manifest that the ideas gave latent interpretations to the role of SMEs as important organizations in society and the need for their top management to determine visibility and the operations of the tourism industry, which are largely determined by consumer decision-making (13.3%), in which travelers are hesitant to partake in travel activities during the advent of COVID-19.
Subsequently, most SMEs were more concerned about the return on investment on their current resources and how their tourism-centric businesses could turn around and benefit consumers in a different way, such as by offering alternative services and products. Further to this, 12.7% more of the managers spoken to agreed that the use of communication portals is important in ensuring the sustenance of business during the pandemic to create awareness and rapport with the public on the business and to keep the interest going, while their agility in devising new marketing strategies is also a prerequisite to sustaining an SME (12.7%). Equally important to this is the top management’s disaster contingency planning (11.6%) that could prepare for future crises, particularly concerning the pandemic, considering that there has been experience handling such an uncertain year.
Further to this, SMEs find that the congruence of policies in favor of their business and stakeholders is a game changer (11.6%). In addition, as a construct, consistent updates in disaster planning among the SME team would be able to uphold or create firm awareness of the progress and developments of the business and its relevance to the local socio-economic environment. The managers that were contacted believed that despite having facilities and bigger budgets for such marketing programs after experiencing the pandemic, support from local agencies and government bodies is important to provide skills training and motivation for SMEs to ensure that they understand market trends as well as follow policies and regulations set by authorities (11%).
Challenges—Regulation
In sustaining business during the pandemic, one of the main challenges is complying with the rules and regulations imposed by the authorities. The travel and movement restrictions definitely pose an obstacle to reaching out to the public as well as allowing the consumer access to travel operators and travel-related SMEs. This is in line with the research by Villace-Molinero et al. (2021), who state that the information is changing rapidly and the level of uncertainty about the future is very high; therefore, authorities have got to convey current, real, reliable information as it will create a challenge for the people in the industry protocol. IHO1 found that the moves have affected any possibility for growth at her resort; thus, in her opinion, the government should review the regulations in consideration of the flailing economies of the business sector and lax the rules to allow travel for customers that adhere to SOP.
[…] vaccination has to be sped up. We have to achieve immunity as soon as possible and thirdly is all about vaccination and this registering, I think they should allowed anybody with IC and just go and vaccine everybody, get everybody vaccinated. And then the interstate travel um they have to uplift as soon as possible. Because um actually there’s a travel bubble which they ask (Right) people to go through agents la what what what what (Yes), it doesn’t work, it doesn’t make any difference to us [IHO1].
Food operators also suffer from the same predicament in which taxes and logistics are implemented for the delivery of goods. For IFB10, the Movement Control Order further limited the expansion of their young business in Langkawi as the business is dependent on logistics and delivery companies.
Our problem.. when we want to expand to bring our products outside Langkawi, we are facing tax. For this product here we can only sell RM3.50 per bottle. But when when it comes to agents outside Langkawi, these products jump up into RM6. Yes, so in Sungai Petani, we are selling between RM5.50 to RM6 per bottle [IFB10].
Moreover, simple check-in procedures have been made difficult from the imposing of rules that deter the interest of those who need to travel for business.
Previously before this FMCO um we are actually quite relaxed in terms of um the SOPs. Um because we are non-regulated right, so um any business is good business. […] They need an accommodation, we give them a place to stay. Now FMCO, the whole um string of strict um SOPs, we asked for MITI letter, we asked for verification and um you know budget hotels, we asked them to sign the declaration that saying that: “Where are they from? Which company? The name of the employer?”, you know, and we even asked for a reference of the MITI letter. So because em we got frequent checked by the police [IMHO4]
ITA5 of a SME travel agency commented that it is essential for private sector operators to understand and work with government policies surrounding the pandemic, as there are many opportunities that can be derived.
I really welcome & happy to see Europe country Govt have come out some incentives & benefit to thank you people went for injection, example, US, give free concert, free holidays packages, free museum entrance ticket, Korea govt allow their own citizen with complete 2 doses, not need 14 days quarantine when they in out korea. Malaysia can also practice, as such like free Genting Outdoor Theme Park Tickets, 50% discount, when you want to purchase any travel packages from MOTAC websites market places, MOTAC can work lot of partner, to target for stable the market & also make sure we can walk out from after pandemic [ITA5].
For IH03, the rules and regulations definitely limited their exposure to potential customers, not only because they do not have beach front, but by adhering to the standard operating procedures, it actually encouraged more people to come as well as created a safe zone for both the customers and hotel operations.
We have lowered our room rates drastically to try and bring in more sales. We also implement and follow the standard rules (for guests and staff) such as taking temperature when they enter, checking-in on the MySejahtera app and providing hand sanitizers at various spots around the lobby. From June-Dec 2020, every guests who stays with us would be given a small care-kit containing face masks and a discount voucher which they could use to purchase other necessities like hand sanitizer / tissues at the convenience shop within our building. We also sanitize the guest’s rooms after the guest’s check-out of the room. [IH03]
Challenges—Decision Making
It cannot be denied that customers have the purchasing power that determines the value of the tourism industry, thus their attitudes and behaviors toward traveling in the pandemic are significant to the growth and sustenance of small and medium enterprises (SME). With the growing risks of the pandemic progressing into an endemic with the slow rejuvenation of the tourism industry, customers are now becoming more self-sufficient in making their own decisions in terms of travel arrangements, diminishing the role of travel agents in the pandemic. This is exceptionally visible during the pandemic as it will likely influence traditional decision-making processes (Chell, 2013; Villace-Molinero et al., 2021). The impact of deploying a communication strategy would enhance efforts to empower the public, enable consumers to become better informed, and give them a more knowledgeable, personally confident position from which to take decisions and act in line with public health measures (Depoux et al., 2020; Lawton & Page, 1997; Villace-Molinero et al., 2021). This is because, according to Gursoy (2019) and Villace-Molinero et al. (2021), reliable communication and proper information are essential during pandemics to ensure that the public feels safe to travel. For travel agents, the situation has become dire as their main focus is to coordinate and provide travel services that are relevant to their customer’s needs. Since their services are rendered unnecessary, the role of travel agencies needs to be revised.
[…] And that, even though government allowed travel agencies to arrange that what is that called..tourism packages. But we don’t see any so far, I can only speak on behalf of my company, we don’t receive any enquiry for that. So, most of the corporate clients, they tend to er.. cancel their travel planning. Whatever they can do via Zoom or via erm.. what is that called.. Google Meets or anything, they won’t even travel. So er, during this one year plus, the business is really heavily affected by COVID [ITA8].
However, in the case of hotels, informant IHO2 shared that the fear of contracting COVID-19 is still a major concern for travelers, and any form of travel spreads the paranoia of close contact with the disease.
This place used to be packed during weekends, now during COVID no one comes as they practice social distancing, we have breakfast we have barbecue, we have budget and all you know, but then now, we cannot make it like that, because it’s very tough and then um people not spending really much on that, because we have to do our promo and everything so ya, that’s why [IHO3].
This was further proven by an excerpt from IHO3, where a hotel operator found that the pandemic has contributed to the enhancement of safety and the standard operating procedures (SOP) of hotels and has since become a priority for travelers during COVID-19. Having the appropriate practices in place has resulted in positive feedback from the customers, who are able to make reservations on their own and evaluate reviews on the hotel themselves, which is reassuring.
So far, customers are happy with the services provided and do not complain even though we have shortened the daily Front Desk services from 16 hours to 10 hours. Customers understand that many hotels are also needing to cut costs as much as possible [IHO3].
Due to the pandemic, travel-related retail and food experiences have also declined, and food operator IFB2, who runs a snack business, has to resort to online means to make a sale and reach out to a wider range of clients.
I feel that e-commerce sites like Shoppee really helps to expand the idea local flavours because I get orders from Kelantan, Terengganu and a lot from KL. Because if I sell only in Langkawi, nobody buys it because my targets audiences are tourists. When I put it in shops in Langkawi, its local food, none of the locals buy it and I have to spend money on commission.
Preparedness—Disaster Planning Solution
According to informants ITA7 and ITA9, the size of manpower in a travel agency is not a priority compared to the ability of staff who are multi-skilled to face challenges during the outbreak of the pandemic. The added advantage of multi-skilling employees may also reflect in the retention of their usefulness during lean seasons or in low demand (Kaushal & Srivastava, 2021; Kyriakidou & Maroudas, 2010). As a travel agency, it is important that all parties involved be able to coordinate themselves during a contingency, especially at a time when the number of travelers is declining.
Ok so, actually my team is all the drivers and the tour guides, that’s all. Everybody is the salesman, everybody is the after-sales service, we do the same things. So, for example, I got a PSV license also, I can drive my bus, so that’s why I don’t need to pay any salary to anybody. Ok, for the company, just sharing the profit that’s all. This is my system.. maybe.. ok, but this is only for team is less than 10 ppl, I think it works [ITA7].
Informant ITA8 had also resulted in cutting back on expenses and letting go of staff as during the Movement Control Order in Kuala Lumpur had become severe that they all had to work from home.
In contrast, boutique hotel operator IH02 was advantageous due to its location. It was important for the management to fall back on models of previous promotion and marketing that were already successful in the past, as those have had a good track record. Aside from reshuffling the types of packages that are made available to tourists in Perak, they also took advantage of the travel restrictions that were not imposed on the state, as at the time they only involved the urban cities of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, and offered special discounts and incentives for Perak residents. Similarly, they were able to enforce more engagement on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok to create awareness on these platforms. This is consistent with Kuckertz et al. (2020), who highlight that it is essential to be innovative in marketing strategies. Haqbin et al. (2021) and Winarsih et al. (2021) further strengthen this idea by stating that businesses should adopt digital media as an approach to marketing during crises, especially for SME. IHO1 was unable to provide a variety of options like IHO2 due to the resort’s close proximity to Kuala Lumpur’s city center. Nevertheless, they were able to reassure their clients whose plans were cancelled that they are able to extend their booking when conditions of the lockdown allow them to travel again, although not without incurring additional costs on the part of the small resort.
So that that is um the thing that I’ve prepared for the second time. So don’t have much um loss on cash. So now it’s all about people are trying to asking for refund, but we said: No, sorry it’s promotion, so just wait until the new date.. whenever it’s open, unlimited um time, so ya [IHO1].
This goes to show that an extensive part of the solution is dependent on good management of funds. This is because past literature shows that SMEs have limited resources in many different aspects of business (Juergensen et al., 2020; Pedauga et al., 2021). Therefore, analysing and managing the financial condition of the business to minimize the impact and disruption of the operation is important in sustaining the business, especially for SMEs during the crisis (Hossain et al., 2022; Morrish & Jones, 2020). In the case of IMH04, the hotel management company does not have a gazetted crisis management plan, but due to its sheer size as an umbrella for much smaller companies, good management of finances is the key to sustaining the business in the pandemic.
It’s um it’s more on um financial planning, is not crisis management plan, you know. Cash flow is our crisis management plan. um how long can we sustain is our plan. We can have RM100,000 you know, but can the RM100,000 um help us for the next six months, or the next three months?[…] I work with um team of five people each hotel so there’s 10 of us, so 10 of them in the hotel […] so I started detailing our expenses, rental you know, salaries in one lump sum, I told them: “Look, these are numbers, if everybody is willing to take a 30% keep, on on their salary so um it will help us to survive another four months [IMH04].
Preparedness—Diversification
Having experienced the pandemic for almost 2 years, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have learned how important it is not to rely on a linear business model but to draw up other strategies to create a better brand architecture for their business. According to Burhan et al. (2021) and Hossain et al. (2022), as a business operator, especially for SMEs, capabilities to revise offerings are crucial to ensuring sustainable business operations during the COVID-19 crisis. For travel agency IMM6, the organization intends to restructure the appeal of the institution and rehire experts relevant to their field to promote the tourist attraction offerings from their agency to customers from Asia and the Pacific. For ITA9, with the travel restrictions now slowly relaxed, the travel agency is now focusing on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and offering training in tourism operations. The company will also look into current trends that are also related to travel experiences, such as food delivery and catering. IHO2 is also seizing the opportunity to create engagement with existing and potential customers through such ventures, which could enhance the brand of their resort.
We try to diversify um we sell what we can sell, sometimes um there’s a time that we sold um frozen beef and then there’s so many things we try to just do and sell, ok. And then um my management um there’s one girl - management, she handles the um queries from guests, the one that needs refunds, the one that handles the order, and it seems to get good response [IHO1]
For the hotels, finding newer and more refreshing locations would also create fresh perspectives on their resort. IHO2 argued that despite operating in a different state altogether, the management is pooling the necessary resources to diversify their business to appeal to audiences with different wanderlust.
[…] next (resort) will be in Pahang. We are planning to expand, as you can see in this picture, all the good beaches are in Cempedak, Cherating, Balok, towards Terengganu.Now Tourism Pahang will open beaches to the south of Cherating which we fell is important to capture among our potential customers [IHO2].
Preparedness—Communication
Furthermore, according to IHO2, the hotel is surviving due to the rapport he has built over the years with its clientele. Even though the business seemed bleak, the ability to use all available platforms, particularly social media, to reach out to stakeholders is one of the pillars of crisis management. It is especially helpful when managers and employees of the company are not able to be physically present and there is a limited budget for SMEs to operate the communication channel. This emerging theme is consistent with past studies (Haqbin et al., 2021; Hossain et al., 2022; Koppel & Tsernikova, 2022; Villace-Molinero et al., 2021) that state that technology in reactivating tourism is an essential tool. Technology is especially useful for performing repetitive tasks, handling a large volume of data, helping customize the offer, and running proximity marketing.
Okay, our advertising punya platform i’m doing sales on social media. It’s 90% social media, another 10% is booking.com. And then we got a viral last two years, we’ve got 1.6 million shares around all over Facebook in Malaysia, so ya . And then our Facebook has loyal,active followers and they communicate with us consistently. So they know our predicament and still know that we are on the radar [IHO2].
For a big management company like IMHO4, not only communication with customers but also communication with other hotel managers is also a strategy in handling the crisis, so they would be able to seamlessly work with other stakeholders that could provide them with possible monetary and marketing gains to revive the business.
[…] we talking about um marketing assistance, you know? Now that they are under the umbrella, do they even enjoy the perks of marketing group marketing? Because we work with people like Caring, Guardian [brands] you know, to improve all our marketing into their quarterly brand marketing actions. Caring, they have a small booklet that they give out to their customer, so, we are one of the preferred hospitality partners, where where all our properties will come into the booklet, [IMH04]
While many of the managers are looking into how to articulate marketing initiatives, IH03 is more inclined to retain and enhance their most important asset and stakeholder, the employees. Aside from communicating with potential customers, they feel that their employees deserve to be kept in the loop of information.
We do what’s right by the staff and public. We try to keep team morale high by finding new things for the staff to do as a team of which keeps them moving so that they don’t get too bored or demotivated. We also try to have casual chit chat with them about their families and find out if any of them are struggling during this difficult season and see how we can help them out [IH03].
Meanwhile, as an SME, informant IHO1 finds that being with like-minded hotel operators and travel-centric businesses allows them to study trends and also help reassure each other on future business developments.
thank god because it’s a family business, so we don’t have um.. we can sustain la, hopefully. Um so if these were to happen again next time, we are well prepared. The thing is um me in Janda Baik, there is um um association. Resort association of Janda Baik. We always um discuss, we always um keep updating everybody and then asking everybody else, getting in touch, just talk to them, you know. [IHO1]
From the aspect of leveraging on social media, a recent media report stated that YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook were the most used social media among Malaysians (Carvalho et al., 2023). This information presents a valuable opportunity for tourism operators to harness the power of these widely utilized social media platforms and effectively engage with their target audience. Over time, the meaning and significance of brands have been undergoing a gradual shift through the said platforms and networking. Various aspects, such as ownership, brand relationships, iconic representation, and cultural associations, have all contributed to this evolution. As brand management becomes more complex, numerous stakeholders become involved in the brand and corporate identity through digital engagement. In order for this relationship to work between brand and corporate identity, company owners and employees must be involved in its corporate culture (Pongsakornrungsilp et al., 2021).
Conclusion and Recommendation
Theoretical Contribution
This study has underlined the importance of disaster preparedness as well as the willingness of SMEs to participate in crisis planning and preparation in Malaysia. This study contributes by looking into the more micro level of the tourism industry, especially the SMEs, as past studies have mainly focused on the recovery stage (Aliperti et al., 2019; Haneberg, 2021; Mair et al., 2016; Ritchie, 2008; Thukral, 2021). The results of the current study add empirical evidence to the literature on crisis challenges and preparedness in contributing to tourism, especially in the context of SME. The results that outlined the challenges and preparedness in the area of health crises focusing on the area of hospitality and SMEs are able to contribute toward health-related crises as this area, according to Mair et al. (2016), Kaushal and Srivastava (2021), and Yu et al. (2021) is lacking.
This study also contributes to the body of knowledge on hospitality crisis preparation in a variety of ways. To begin, it responds to demands for empirical study on the crisis planning and readiness of hospitality organizations in various locales in order to enhance tactics and practises (Ritchie & Jiang, 2019; Wang & Wu, 2018). Second, the research improved on Kovoor-earlier Kovoor-Misra’s (1996) concept of organizational crisis readiness by incorporating “high or low urgency of crises” and “high or low severity of crises,” which necessitate different reactions and preparation measures. Third, in the context of Malaysia, crisis readiness is determined by both organizational factors and management traits. However, learning leadership and a diversified management strategy, on the other hand, are important factors in hospitality managers’ crisis preparedness that have not been thoroughly examined in the literature. Furthermore, this study also responds to calls for empirical study on the crisis preparedness of hospitality in the context of SMEs, as COVID-19 might pose changes in the perception of preparedness (Ghaderi et al., 2021).
Managerial Contribution
The new study has a number of practical consequences for hotel management and other practitioners in a similar area. First, the effects of crises vary according to circumstances and severity. There would be more urgency and a higher requirement for risk management and crisis preparedness if a major disaster or tragedy occurred, which would jeopardize fundamental organizational core values and assumptions (Albattat & Mat Som, 2019). Therefore, particularly for tourism destinations, the managers must identify and analyse a variety of potential risks, assess their potential consequences, and develop proper contingency plans to deal with them (Paraskevas & Quek, 2019).
From the context of tourism industry practices, communication plays a significant role in influencing the perceived benefits of tourism destinations and businesses, particularly after disasters or crises. Researchers such as Mair et al. (2016), Prideaux et al. (2007), and Walters and Mair (2012) emphasize the importance of advertising activities by destination marketing and organizations to restore confidence in visiting these destinations or using services under the tourism segment, post-disaster. One effective strategy highlighted in the literature is the use of emotional marketing messages that evoke positive feelings and connections with the destination. Reminding past actual visitors and potential visitors of the destination’s image, businesses and their personal connections to it could evoke a desire to revisit the location. Such emotional marketing messages often include references to the resilience, timelessness, and immutability of key features of the destination. Examples of this kind of advertising can be seen in the case of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the 2002 Bali bombings and Australian bushfires, messages emphasizing the spirituality and resilience of the destination were used to attract visitors despite the tragic events. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, marketing had employed a focus on immutability-centered retentive advertising, often called reminder advertising, to keep the desire to visit alive among potential travelers to explore and become patrons of businesses. Emotional marketing messages that highlight the destination’s resilience and enduring qualities can be particularly effective in restoring confidence and inspiring travel intentions among potential visitors.
Similarly, Becken and Hughey (2013) propose a multi-stakeholder approach to enhance the collaboration between tourism and government structures in managing risks associated with tourism. Ritchie and Jiang (2019) acknowledge that governments play a crucial role in providing financial, human, and technical resources to support tourism recovery processes. Particularly, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, governments are essential in mitigating the negative economic impacts by offering financial stimulus packages, tax waivers for tourism businesses, subsidies, and low-rate loans to tourism entities. Additionally, governments play a key role in catalyzing destination marketing and promotion through public diplomacy initiatives. These efforts are aimed at creating and managing international communication channels, restoring tourist confidence, and rebuilding the image of destinations that have been affected by crises (Carlsen & Hughes, 2008; Gu & Wall, 2006).
Second, by applying a paradoxical approach, practitioners may urge their firms to create more extensive mitigation strategies (Miron-Spektor et al., 2018). The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted not only in a health catastrophe but also in other societal difficulties such as severe unemployment and economic insecurity in numerous different areas. It has also hindered not just the growth of an economy but also existing reforms and the steady progress that the country has achieved toward reaching organizational goals. Thus, the results of this study would be able to offer some insight for future planning in mitigating the crisis, especially in the context of tourism in Asia, specifically Malaysia. Finally, the evidence of this study would be a possible starting point in providing evidence to motivate the initiative in crisis planning and preparedness among SMEs, which was posed by Ghaderi et al. (2021) and Wang and Wu (2018), that training and awareness of the value of crisis planning and preparedness, especially in the Asian context, are much needed. It is recommended that SMEs adopt and prepare better mitigation strategies, such as exploring new markets and incorporating technology into their future growth, producing different sanitary materials up to the end of the pandemic, and making their marketing flexible based on situations. Although SMEs may not be immune from crises, it is possible to minimize the effect through effective crisis planning, preparation, and mitigation strategies. This is in line with the view that crisis awareness, planning, and resilience, coupled with educational training, play a significant role in generating the kind of concern among businesses that may lead small businesses to plan for potential threats and remain resilient in turbulent environments (Gunasekaran et al., 2011; Mafimisebi et al., 2023).
Limitation of the Research
There are some limitations to the current study, and some of them provide potential for additional research. To begin with, the number of survey informants, organizations, and areas where they worked was restricted, and the perspectives of the varied voices may not be representative. The primary focus of the current study is in the area of tourism destinations, which are mainly situated in Peninsular Malaysia, with little consideration given to diverse areas of the country where the responses may have differed. A future study might focus on a more focused topic, such as hotels exclusively or a specific sector of tourism and locations, to delve into the strengths of the selected research area. This is especially important since various types of tourism destinations and countries may have varied cultural views of risk and disaster preparation. Second, addressing potentially sensitive questions concerning corporate beliefs and procedures may have led to a cautious approach to responding to study inquiries. Third, cross-country analysis of similar economic settings and quantitative data analysis will provide valuable insights into the present work.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors would like to extend their appreciation to the Xiamen University Malaysia, Malaysia to fund this paper under the Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (Grant no. XMUMRF/2020-C6/IART/0009) that makes this paper possible.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.