THE HOSPITALITY WORKFORCE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC:

FOCUS ON SOCIOECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

Members:
Cabellon, Ivan
Festejo, Reyven Jhan
Maningo, Jissame

Adviser:
Mr. Rualdo Al Radomes
p
INTRODUCTION
• Hospitality and Tourism is becoming one of the fastest-growing industries
worldwide (Germina et al., 2018). Martinez (2016) stated that hotels and
restaurants have a wide variety of services to offer, such as accommodations,
dining services, food and beverage, and general facilities. It also creates
employment that covers a wide range of jobs, including front office staff,
housekeeping staff, engineering and maintenance staff, dining staff, human
resource staff, sales and marketing representative staff (Germina et al.,
2018). Aynalem et al. stated that the hospitality industry supported nearly 266
million jobs (8.9 of total employment) in 2013. The industry's job growth has
been a positive contribution to the economy (Dogru, 2020).

• In the previous years, there were always a problem that threatened Philippine
Hospitality and Tourism Industry (Ardemer, 2020). Unfortunately, an
outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has struck a blow industry
across the globe (Creamer, 2020). According to World Travel and Tourism
Council, that this Covid-19 Pandemic could lead to a cut 50 million job
worldwide on travel and tourism industry (Dogra, 2020).
• Burns (2020) stated that as a result, the leisure and hospitality sector shed 459,000 jobs - 65% of all the
positions lost in March. The jobless rate for men rose by 0.7 percentage point, while the rate for women
rose 0.9 percentage point, perhaps explained by their greater representation in the hardest-hit employment
sectors such as hospitality and health care (Burns, 2020). According to the Pew Research Center, the
highest risks of layoffs are in the accommodations, retail trade, transportation services and arts
entertainment and recreation services sector (Kochhar and Barroso, 2020).

• With the uncertainty of how to control this pandemic, restrictions of travel operation and the need for social
distancing affected the workforce of hospitality industry. Thus, this will highlight the obstacles faced by the
hospitality workers created by this pandemic as a result of the ongoing increase of the unemployment rate
in this sector and as well in terms of socio-economic consequences, and gain a deeper understanding of
their experiences, perception, challenges, and difficulties confronting this pandemic.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
• The World Travel & Tourism Council has recently warned the COVID-19
pandemic could lead to a cut 50 million jobs worldwide in the travel and
tourism industry (Dogra, 2020). The hospitality and tourism industry are seen
to be entering into a great crisis which is also establishing a stock market crash
in all the sectors. (Hoque et al., 2020).  Temporary work forces will be the first
to shrink, after which the impact will be felt by permanent employees as
hospitality companies may be hard-pressed to cut costs (Dogra, 2020).

• There were some restrictions placed on travel and stay-at-home orders issued
by the authorities led to sharp decline in hotel occupancies and revenues
(Bartik et al., 2020). In the United States, consultancies such as McKinsey and
Company have reported that jobs in the accommodation and food services
sector account for over 20% of all vulnerable positions, i.e. jobs that are
subject to furlough, layoffs, or being unable to work as a result of social
distancing (Gössling et at., 2020).
• According to Edberg et al. (2010), because workers are over represented in lower socioeconomic strata,
they are typically in the low range of skill and income distribution and forced to accept undesirable and
low status job (Schenzer, 2010). Baum et al. (2020) affirms that due to their low earnings many
hospitality workers were surviving on a ‘pay cheque to pay cheque’ cash-flow basis. In policy responses
to the Covid-19 crisis in various jurisdictions, generous packages were offered to both businesses and
individuals (Sonmez et al., 2020). Australia’s JobKeeper initiative for instance, promised to guarantee lost
jobs, but employees had to have been with their current employer for 12 continuous months to qualify
(“Economic Response To The Coronavirus”, 2020). It is clear that in the Covid-19 crisis, even ‘employers
of choice’ who pay ‘the living wage’ to their employees, are left with few resources to harness (Sonmez et
al., 2020).

• While the hospitality industry is slowly recovering, the Covid-19 crisis continues to exert profound
impacts on how hospitality businesses operate (Gursoy et al., 2020). Hospitality are expected to make
substantial changes to their operations in the Covid-19 business environment in order to assure
employees’ health and safety (Gossling et al., 2020). Preliminary findings that visible sanitizing effort,
staff wearing masks and gloves, implementing social distancing, limiting the number of customers and
employee training of health and safety protocols are the most important safety precautions from the
hospitality industry (Gursoy et al., 2020).
• In the Philippines, Cebu City was known to be one of the places which had the most significant
contributions to tourism and employment rate. After several months of restrictions, despite plans to
further ease restrictions to allow businesses to open, about 75% of hospitality industry workers in Cebu
are still facing the grim prospect of permanently losing jobs in the coming months (Abatayo, 2020).
Meanwhile, on the recovery of the economy, establishments in this sector made some changes to address
the “new normal”. Fast-food restaurants such as Jolibee required employees to wear face masks, face
shield, and hand gloves when in the vicinity of the stores, and thoroughly sanitize all utensils every day
(Manilastandard, 2020).

• Hospitality workers have been placed in the extremely difficult life situation as a result to the sudden
income disruption, being laid off or furloughed, possibility facing long-term unemployment, having
delayed or insufficient unemployment benefits while being unable to pay basic needs (Sonmez et al.,
2020). Sonmez et al. also stated that some economists believe that this massive unemployment spike will
be temporary and many jobs will come back, but also add that not all lost jobs will return and will depend
on the course of the virus as well as the course of global economy recovery.
METHODS AND DESIGN
To evaluate the outcome of the study, the researchers will utilize the Phenomenological approach to capture
the lived experiences of the participants and the essence of the phenomenon under investigation (Husserl,
1970). The participants in the study were selected with qualifications specifically working in
hotel, ocean liner, fast-food restaurant, and transportation who are affected during the COVID-19
pandemic. The researchers are going to interview the aforesaid participants, who were forced to stop on their
work due to lockdown and workers who were able to continue their work after ease of restriction. There
would be five chosen participants who would go through an interview method that will utilize their lived
experiences, learning, and insights on a particular issue in the view of qualifications that have been provided.
Interpretation of the data will depend on the theoretical standpoint taken by the researchers (Thurston, W.E. et
al., 2014).
SAMPLE QUESTIONS:
• How do hospitality workers describe the experiences of living being unemployed in times of COVID-19
Pandemic crisis?

• What are the actions made by the management in terms of terminating hospitality employees?

• How do hospitality workers supported the basic needs in times of having low income?

• What are the changes in the hospitality industry regarding in the workplace of employees after ease of
restriction?
References:
• Abatayo, R. D., (2020). “HRRAC Prexy: Without A Vaccine, It Is Difficult to Foresee Recovery Of Travel Leisure
Industry”. Hospitality Industry Businesses Mull Shutdown, Retrenchment.  Retrieved on October 17, 2020 from 
https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/316544/hospitality-industry-businesses-mull-shutdowns-retrenchments
• Ardemer, D. L. C., (2020). “Covid-19 Cataclysm: Impact on The Philippine Hospitality
And Tourism Industry”. Retrievedfrom
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341764165_COVID 19_Cataclysm_Impact_on_the_Philippine_Hospitality_an
d_Tourism_Industry
• Aynalem, S., Birhanu, K., Tesefay, S., (2016). Employment Opportunities and Challenges In Tourism And Hospitality
Sectors. Retrieved from 
https://www.longdom.org/open-access/employment-opportunities-and-challenges-in-tourism-and-hospitalitysectors-2167
-0269-1000256.pdf
• Bartik, A. W., Bertrand, M., Cullen, Z. B., Glaeser, E. L., Luca, M., & Stanton, C. T. (2020). How are small businesses
adjusting to COVID-19? Early evidence from a survey (No. w26989). National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved
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• Burns D. (2020). “How the coronavirus job cuts played out by sector and demographics”. Reuters, April 4, 4 2020.
Retrieved from 
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demographics-idUSKBN21M0EL
• Creamer, D., (2020). “Covid-19 Hospitality Impact”. Retrieved from 
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US46187920
• Dogra, S., (2020). “COVID-19: Impact on the hospitality workforce-Business impact on travel and tourism; Impact
on jobs in hospitality” Retrieved October 12, 2020, from 
• Dogru, T., Mcginley, S., Kim, W. G., (2020). The Effect Of Hotel Investments On Employment In The Tourism, Leisure,
And Hospitality Industries. Retrieved from 
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340491673_The_effect_of_hotel_investments_on_employment_in_the_tourism
_leisure_and_hospitality_industries
• Economic Response To The Coronavirus (2020). Job Keeper Payment: Supporting Businesses To Retain Jobs. Retrieved
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• Edberg, M., Cleary S., and Vyas, A., (2010). “A Trajectory Model For Understanding And Assessing Health Disparities
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• Germina, A. M., Lantin, M.J., and Parado, W., (2018). Skills In The Hotel And Restaurant Workplace: Millennial’s Self-
Assessment. Retrieved from 
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df
• Gossling, S., Scott, D., and Hall, M. C., (2020). “Pandemics, Tourism And Global Change: A Rapid Assessment Of
COVID-19”. Journal Of Sustainable Tourism. Retrieved on October 17, 2020 from 
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• Gursoy, D., and Chi, C. (2020). “Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality industry: review of the current situations
and a research agenda.”, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29:5, 527-529. Retrieved October 16, 2020
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• Manilastandard.net (2020). Jollibee Resumes Dine-In, Intensifies Safety Protocols In 1,000 Outlets Nationwide.
Retrieved on October 29, 2020 from 
https://manilastandard.net/spotlight/329125/jollibee-resumes-dine-in-intensifies-safety-protocols-in-1-000-outlets-nation
wide.html
• Sonmez, S., Apostolopoulos, Y., Lemke, M. K., and Hseih, Y., (2020). “Understanding The Effects Of Covid-19 On The
Health And Safety Of Immigrant Hospitality Workers In The United States”. Retrieved On October 17, 2020 from 
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