The Impact of COVID-19 Disruptions on Hotel Supply Chain Resilience and Robustness: The Role of Risk Alleviation Practices

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted hotel supply chains and emphasized the need for more resilient and robust approaches to deal with such emerging situations. This study aims to provide an in-depth insight into the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on the resilience and robustness of hotel supply chains in Egypt. Further, the study assesses the role of risk alleviation practices adopted by hotels in Egypt in resisting disruptions and restoring their operations. A web-based survey was directed to 112 five- and four-star hotels operating in Egypt. The study model contained six latent variables, which are: COVID-19 disruption impacts; risk alleviation practices (i.e., proactive, reactive, and recovery); resilience; and robustness. The study applied the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) regression approach to test the model. The results indicated that hotel supply chains in Egypt were severely affected by the COVID-19 disruptions. Specifically, the results showed the direct impact of COVID-19 on the risk alleviation practices that hotels in Egypt have adopted to revive the performance of their supply chains to what they were before the epidemic. However, the results did not confirm any influence of the COVID-19 disruptions on the resilience of hotel supply chains. In addition, the results indicated that all risk alleviation practices directly influenced supply chain resilience. On the other hand, only proactive and recovery practices directly impacted the robustness of the supply chain. Overall, these findings can help hotels enhance their readiness to deal with such disruptions in the future.