Leadership challenges for Indian hospitality industry during COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe COVID-19 crisis has affected almost all the global sectors. The hotel industry, however, was hit hardest challenging the leadership. This study, therefore, attempts to explore the challenges hospitality leadership in India face to navigate the crisis. The study additionally addresses how leaders manage the expectations of key stakeholders; communicate hard decisions with employees, pursue strategies for revival and explores the role of technology to survive the crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a qualitative approach involving structured interviews with 16 senior hospitality leaders consisting of CEO, vice president, general managers, directors, entrepreneur and general managers from various organisations like hotels, restaurant chains, food services and facilities management services. Data were content analysed involving coding techniques.FindingsThe leadership challenges included making customers and employees feel safe, optimising operations, agility and resilience of leaders, maintaining a balance between stakeholders, managing employee stress and ensuring cash reserves. The study found that leaders manage the expectation of various stakeholders by maintaining balance, demonstrating empathy and agility. The hard decisions are communicated with the employees through involvement, empathy and alleviating stress.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes by identifying twelve themes from the participants' responses under five major themes-labelled as leadership challenges, managing stakeholders, communicating with the employees, the role of technology and best practices of surviving the crisis. Future research can be conducted on such sub-themes in different countries.Practical implicationsAs the tourism industry in India is recovering after the second wave, the governments along with all stakeholders, must launch special events for promoting the tourism sector. Safety measures like making vaccination certificates for all tourists and employees of the tourism sector should be made mandatory. Further, special certification following the COVID-19 protocol needs to be introduced for hotels and catering establishments. A fund generated from the sector's direct tax contribution needs to be established to support the employees.Social implicationsThe study has several social implications. The study results can unite all industry stakeholders to shape the post-pandemic era through collaboration. Empathetic leadership can take the industry out of chaos by balancing the interests of the various stakeholders of society. The pandemic has proven that we all are vulnerable to risks and challenges; leaders have a vital role in taking proactive steps to ensure that such uncertainties do not cause unprecedented damage.Originality/valueThis study expanded the research on the hospitality leadership challenges in managing crises in the backdrop of the crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The conceptual model, variables, themes and sub-themes utilised are original contributions to the hospitality literature.

Health, Safety, and Security as a Part of Events Management

The purpose of this chapter is to provide knowledge and propose a methodology for identifying the potential hazards and dealing with health, safety, and security risks in special events. The object of study is special events and the issues caused by their characteristics to concentrate visitors in a certain place for a limited period of time under a planned program. The highlighted issue concerning health, safety, and security in special events is crowd and its management. The author's main thesis is based on the need for a systematic management approach, in which measures are taken for the safety, health, and security of the employees, volunteers, and visitors while planning and conducting an event. This chapter focuses on risk management, which includes identifying potential hazards, risk analysis and risk assessment, measures to prevent or control the risk, as well as developing an action plan. The chapter attempts to provide a comprehensive health, safety, and security risk management framework aimed at special event management and to offer a set of planning and control tools.

Change and Continuity in Event Tourism Development in Nigeria: Examples from Ekpe Cultural Festival in Abia State

Events are not only one of the most important parts of tourism, but also an inseparable part of human society. In recent times, events have gained global significance through the tourism industry. As festivals are essentially special events, their special appeal stems in part from their limited duration or concentration of activities over a set period and innate uniqueness of each event or there may be a particular theme. This article critically examines the change and continuity processes of a community festival—Ekpe Cultural Festival in Umunkpeyi and Isingwu in Abia State, Nigeria—for a deeper understanding of the effects in the development of event tourism and its sustainability. Data were collected through ethnographic fieldwork conducted with key informants directly involved in the festival, including the community leaders, chiefs, and staff of the Department of Tourism (DoT), the Abia State Tourism Board (ASTB), and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC). Data were analyzed using content analysis to identify themes that reflect informants’ perception of the changes and continuity that affect the festival in the study area. Findings revealed notable changes in the practices associated with the festival such as indifference to attire for the festival, drastic reduction in masking, attitude to funding during the festival, while male dominance continues to be paramount. This article concludes that event tourism development requires government support, collaboration, and sensitization to harness and retain some practices of the festival amid obvious changes.

Information and image support of the activities of the Agrarian University

The article examines the activities of public relations specialists of Michurinsk State Agrarian University in its information and image support. The paper analyzes communication technologies aimed at promoting the higher educational institution of an agrarian profile, agricultural education and agrarian science in general. It is argued that the formation of a positive image of Michurinsk State Agrarian University is facilitated by the organization of effective interaction with the media, positioning of the activities of the university, its scientists, students; regular media monitoring; formation and strengthening of corporate culture; development of corporate identity, mission, slogan, logo; organizing and holding special events; preparation and participation in exhibitions and fairs; maintaining a corporate website; production of a corporate publication, advertising activities. Specific examples of the use of communication technologies in an educational institution are given. The conclusion is made that with the creation of a department for public relations and management of public relations, press and office work, the communicative activity of the agrarian university began to be carried out professionally and in a coordinated manner. The existing communication system ensures the formation of an effective positive information field of the university. The communicative policy of the educational institution is focused on the long-term prospect of building a serious positive dialogue with target audiences, on the prospect of trust.

Dynamics of Event Processes in the Information Society: Social Functions of Fake and Hype

Introduction. The article examines the phenomenon of fake, the factors of its occurrence, development and destruction. Despite the fact that the concept of fake has become popular and has acquired a large number of definitions, the discussion around the definition of this concept continues to the present. Fake and hype, each separately, becomes the subject of research and there is already a detailed classification of them. Fake, like hype, is usually understood as negative, misleading and distracting phenomena. Meanwhile, they represent a phenomenon of stable interaction. A fake can trigger a hype wave and a subsequent series of events. At the same time, the tangible discomfort of this phenomenon is especially emphasized. The relevance of the study is due to the need to consider these phenomena as positive processes, to show their role and functions from a new, positive point of view. The purpose of the article is to describe the hidden social functions of the phenomenon of fake and hype, their mutual inclusion, their positive role in the processes of the formation of social reality.Methodology and sources. The source of the research was the discussion on fakes and presented in the collective monograph “Fakes: Communication, Meanings, Responsibility” edited by G.L. Tulchinsky. In the article, to create dynamic models of events, the theory of latent oscillations and stability of control systems were used, N.V. Kuznetsova and the classical theory of oscillatory and wave processes in the interpretation of N.V. Karlov, N.A. Kirichenko.Results and discussion. As a result of the study, an important connection between fake and hype was traced. A fake triggers a reaction in the form of a hype, which in turn gives competitive advantages to all participants in the process: persons, social and subcultural groups, institutions, states and their unions. In addition to the negative impact of a fake on a person and social reality, there are many cases when a fake is a necessary phenomenon in social and cultural processes. In the conditions of traditionally high competition in the processes of achieving each subsequent step of the social and career ladder, fake is one of the necessary elements for achieving competitive superiority. Hype, like fake, can act not only as an annoying and negative factor, but also as a necessary element in the balanced development of society and public communication space. Using a fake as a triggering event to generate a hype wave can be used to construct social reality. Modeling the dynamics of event processes allows you to create a communication environment with pre-built properties, use special events as an effective tool for managing socio-cultural processes.Conclusion. Fake and the hype generated by it are a necessary element of the evolutionary development of social reality and culture, therefore, consideration of the positive consequences of these phenomena is so necessary for a full description of the socio-cultural processes generated by them, a balanced study of the processes of the formation of social reality.

Geobranding as a technology for sustainable development of an agricultural region

The article is devoted to the theoretical issues of geo-branding as a technology for the development of an agro-industrial region, the origin and development of research on branding and marketing of territories is considered, the content of the concepts of “place branding” and “place marketing” and the relationship between them are analyzed. The work examines the main components of geo-branding: development, implementation of a strategy for the development and promotion of an agro-industrial region, attraction of investments and the most efficient use of the region’s resources. Geo-branding is viewed as a technology for implementing the strategic goals of sustainable development of an agro-industrial region, which includes an analysis of the specifics of the region in the past, present and future based on the socio-cultural resources and potential of the region. The article proposes a geo-branding model that includes archetypal and narrative components that are reflected in the public consciousness of representatives of different target audiences. Particular attention is paid to the study of the specifics of the use of special events and digital communications by geo-branding entities as tools for promoting the potential of agro-industrial regions in the domestic and foreign markets.

Sub-activity site selection and activity choice modelling in planned special events

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the impacts of the variables on site selection decision of the spectators just before the main activity in order to engage in eating, having fun and performing other types of activities. A multinomial logit modelling framework is hired to model activity patterns within PSE circumstances. Activities were classified into three groups that are “Eating”, “Entertainment”, and “Other”. Model estimation on PSE survey data set from selected stadiums in Istanbul shows that due to the congestion, as travel time and activity duration increase the spectators inclined to be around the stadium 184 minutes in average before the starting time of the main activity. The results obtained from this study can be used as a micro input for the macro studies such as transportation master plans and urban plans and can offer complementary research areas for PSE traffic management and urban planning.

PERAMALAN JUMLAH PENUMPANG PESAWAT DI BANDAR UDARA INTERNASIONAL JUANDA MENGGUNAKAN METODE EXPONENTIAL SMOOTHING EVENT-BASED

The increase in the number of airplane passengers occurs at certain times, such as Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr, and Christmas holidays. Of course, an excessive rise in the number of passengers can cause extreme flight traffic density so that which can cause flight delays, decreased airport service level performance, and other impacts. This study predicts the number of aircraft passengers at Juanda International Airport using the Exponential Smoothing Event-Based method. The Exponential Smoothing Event-Based method is a forecasting method that considers special events using the Exponential Smoothing method as the initial calculation. This study uses data on the number of passengers from January 2014 to December 2020. From the forecasting model, MAPE is 11.8905%, and MSE is 4202958561.0706, so that the resulting forecast can be categorized as good.