Organizational resilience in hospitality family businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative approach

Purpose This study targeted hospitality family business owners as essential pillars of the tourism industry. How they perceive aspects of the crisis and what they derive organizational resilience from, including the role of their human resources, are explored. Internal and external factors of resilience are analyzed alongside different levels of resilience action. Design/methodology/approach The World Health Organization announced coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. In Tirol, the hospitality industry has particularly been affected as tourism businesses find themselves in the challenging times of returning to normal business, corresponding to the fourth phase in Faulkner's (2001) Tourism Disaster Management Framework. The authors used a qualitative exploratory approach, using semi-structured interviews. Findings In taking on a holistic explorative approach, the authors determined several methods used by entrepreneurs in dealing with a pandemic crisis to increase business resilience at a specific stage. Internal and external resilience factors have been detected among three levels of resilience action (personal, regional and governmental). The most surprising result of the semi-structured in-depth interviews was the entrepreneurs' rather positive outlook. Originality/value Generally, this study creates an in-depth understanding of the tourism businesses in their dealing with a global crisis, using family business owners as an exemplary stakeholder group. The authors bridge a gap in the literature by applying a holistic explorative approach in the early stage of a never seen worldwide crisis and by addressing organizational resilience. Three levels of resilience action give new insight into how the beginning of a pandemic crisis is handled and perceived by hospitality family business entrepreneurs.