The Hospitality Industry in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Current Topics and Research Methods

Abstract

This study reports on a systematic review of the published literature used to reveal the current research investigating the hospitality industry in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The presented review identified relevant papers using Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Science Direct databases. Of the 175 articles found, 50 papers met the predefined inclusion criteria. The included papers were classified concerning the following dimensions: the source of publication, hospitality industry domain, and methodology. The reviewed articles focused on different aspects of the hospitality industry, including hospitality workers’ issues, loss of jobs, revenue impact, the COVID-19 spreading patterns in the industry, market demand, prospects for recovery of the hospitality industry, safety and health, travel behavior, and preference of customers. The results revealed a variety of research approaches that have been used to investigate the hospitality industry at the time of the pandemic. The reported approaches include simulation and scenario modeling for discovering the COVID-19 spreading patterns, field surveys, secondary data analysis, discussing the resumption of activities during and after the pandemic, comparing the COVID-19 pandemic with previous public health crises, and measuring the impact of the pandemic in terms of economics.