Hotel employees' knowledge of monkeypox's source, symptoms, transmission, prevention, and treatment in Egypt.

BACKGROUND: The re-emerging human monkeypox virus (MPXV) poses a global threat. The rising number of confirmed MPXV cases worldwide is a significant reason for concern. This study aims to investigate (1) hotel employees' knowledge in Egypt of MPXV source, signs/symptoms, transmission, prevention, and treatment, (2) the primary sources of their information about MPXV, (3) whether or not they received information about MPXV from their hotels, and (4) the differences of employees' knowledge in terms of gender, age, marital status, level of education, type of contract, professional category, hotel department, type of hotel, seniority in the hotel, and the number of hotel rooms. METHODS: Using a quantitative approach, we collected data from 453 employees in Egyptian hotels via a web-based questionnaire. The survey included questions regarding the MPXV source, signs/symptoms, transmission, prevention, and treatment, as well as its primary information sources. The questionnaire also included questions regarding participants' demographics and hotel characteristics. RESULTS: The findings indicated that more than half of hotel employees have inadequate knowledge of MPXV. Additionally, the majority of employees selected social media as their primary source of MPXV-related information. Surprisingly, most participants reported that their hotels neglected to provide them with the MPXV's information. Age, marital status, education, professional category, and tenure in the hotel all have a significant impact on their MPXV knowledge level. CONCLUSION: The current paper presents significant implications for both theory and practice. This study provides government agencies and hotels with guidelines for preventing the outbreak of MPXV. According to our knowledge, this is the first study conducted with hotel employees in the MPXV Egyptian context.

Identifying core "responsible leadership” practices for SME restaurants

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the core responsible leadership (RL) practices that are most relevant to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) restaurants. Furthermore, the authors adapt scales to measure these practices and conduct a pilot study to evaluate their impact on business performance in such establishments.Design/methodology/approachExploratory sequential mixed methods are used to fulfill the research aims. In the first phase, a set of definitions and practices associated with RL are derived from a systematic literature review. Second, a projective method of data collection is applied, involving a panel of 16 experts. Third, a fuzzy cognitive map is developed, which captures the responses of 40 owners or general managers of SME restaurants.FindingsTwenty-five practices are identified from the systematic literature review. The results show the five leadership practices that match the order of importance assigned by the experts: societal orientation, ethics, stakeholder involvement, power-sharing and environmental orientation. The relevance of those five practices is validated to explain SME restaurants' financial performance and innovation performance.Practical implicationsInnovation is the key to advancing business sustainability and resilience, and the results identify the specific RL practices that enable improvements to be made in innovation performance among SME restaurants.Originality/valueThis paper identifies the RL practices that are particularly relevant to the tourism field (specifically, the restaurant industry), offers measurement scales for those practices and provides empirical evidence of the relationship between these RL practices and business performance in SME restaurants.

Is eco-label hotel engagement the pathway to sustainability practices via entrepreneurial resilience and orientation in Oman? Findings from PLS-SEM and fsQCA

Purpose>This study aims to examine the role of eco-label hotel engagement as a pathway to sustainable practices via scouting entrepreneurial resilience and orientation at highly ranked hotels in Oman. The authors developed and tested a novel model built on resilience theory, the theory of entrepreneurial orientation and the theory of reasoned action (TRA).Design/methodology/approach>Data from 167 human resources directors, hotel managers and other employees were analyzed by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).Findings>Results indicate a strong positive relationship between entrepreneurial resilience and entrepreneurial orientation. Entrepreneurial orientation significantly increased all eco-label strategies, but not all strategies enhanced sustainable tourism practices. High adoption of sustainability practices depended on core strategies related to awareness, benefits, reputation and necessity, but the cost was also an issue. Managers adopted sustainability practices if they were not perceived as costly, or when perceived as costly if they believed they would help them reduce operating costs.Practical implications>Policymakers should assist hotel managers when the sector is hit by political events, natural disasters or health crises such as the current pandemic can bounce back and develop their resilience. Likewise, training and workshops can be organized to improve managers' entrepreneurial mindset, which was found to be a precursor to favorable attitudes toward sustainability.Originality/value>This study tests a novel model built on three theories: resilience theory, the theory of entrepreneurial orientation and the TRA by using PLS-SEM and fsQCA.

A systematic and critical review of Internet of Things in contemporary hospitality: a roadmap and avenues for future research

Purpose>Internet of Things (IoT) is a key enabler of big data and it is critical toward a new age of firm's architecture and proper decision-making for the industry. IoT adoption by the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industries is still rare and with contrasting evidence. The purpose of this study is to highlight the concept of IoT, its benefits, its challenges and its applications in the hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approach>This study presents an in-depth and critical review of the 78 articles published on IoT in hospitality, spanning more than seven years (from 2015 to March 2022). The eligible 78 articles were collected from the "Web of Science database” and H&T Social Sciences Citation Index-listed journals.Findings>This systematic review exhibits that IoT in hospitality has advanced in the past seven years. IoT has brought many advantages and challenges in hospitality. However, hospitality IoT research is scarce, necessitating a profound and more thorough investigation of many significant matters.Practical implications>This systematic review provides significant implications and recommendations for hospitality sectors, IoT developers and manufacturers, governments and policymakers. This review ends with an in-depth research agenda with several research questions and a framework to achieve theoretical and empirical advances in future IoT research.Originality/value>To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current research is one of the first to systematically and critically review IoT with its concept, benefits, challenges and applications in a hospitality context. This major review provides a comprehensive idea of the focus of the past studies and what must be concentrated in future research.

Driving hospitality and tourism to foster sustainable innovation: A systematic review of COVID-19-related studies and practical implications in the digital era

Sustainable innovation is a solution for the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industries to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, build resilience, and ensure survival post-pandemic. The primary aim of our review is to systematically identify and critically review the literature on sustainable innovation in H&T amid COVID-19 (conducted in 2020 and 2021), in order to synthesize and classify prevalent types, antecedents, and outcomes of sustainable innovation. The authors present a comprehensive review of the 58 articles on sustainable innovation in H&T through the Web of Science (WoS) database, spanning over 2 years (2020–2021). This review demonstrates that since the beginning of COVID-19, H&T have strongly mobilized network technologies (especially social media and digital platforms) and data-processing technologies (especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)) in comparison with physical-digital interface technologies (especially Virtual Reality (VR)), while physical-digital process technologies remain very limited in these industries. Several relevant antecedents of the adoption of sustainable innovation, more specifically digital technologies, have been identified at multiple levels of analysis, including the organizational, managerial, and stakeholder levels. Our research also reveals several consequences of the adoption of sustainable innovation in H&T. These consequences were congregated according to the three main dimensions related to sustainability in economic, social, and environmental outcomes. This study provides important practical implications for the H&T sectors in the digital era and post-pandemic. The current research is the first study to systematically and critically review sustainable innovation in an H&T context.

Sustainable practices in hospitality pre and amid COVID-19 pandemic: Looking back for moving forward post-COVID-19

Sustainability issues are becoming increasingly important in the hospitality sector during crisis times such as COVID-19 and post-pandemic. In order to synthesize the literature on sustainable practices in hospitality, we developed a systematic literature to illustrate the dominant sustainable practices in hospitality. We present a comprehensive review of the 48 articles on sustainable practices in hospitality through the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases;spanning over 2?years (2020?2021) pre-and amid the COVID-19 pandemic and extending the scope in distinctive ways. Our review has demonstrated that sustainable practices in hospitality have made progress in the years 2020 and 2021. However, there are conceptual and empirical overlaps among sustainable practices in hospitality. Additionally, hospitality sustainable practices research is restricted in research contexts. There is a lack of research on antecedents, outcomes, and integrating theories in studies. By following the guidance presented in this review, we expect to advance and maintain sustainable practices research to provide substantive insights over the coming years post-COVID-19. The current research is one of the first studies to systematically review sustainable practices in hospitality pre-and amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The research ends with a comprehensive research agenda and a framework to apprise future theoretical and empirical advances in the area.

A content analysis for government’s and hotels’ response to COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt

Drawing on the Situational Crisis Communication theory (SCCT), this study recapitulates the initiatives, practices, and responses of the Egyptian government and chain-managed five-star hotels during the COVID-19 global health pandemic. Subjective and objective content analysis is employed in this study. Subjective content analysis is employed to examine newspapers, magazines, T.V channels, and official pages on Facebook to determine the initiatives and practices adopted by the Egyptian government. Objective content analysis is further used to determine the COVID-19 hospitality practices adopted by 22 chain-managed five-star hotels by examining their official websites. Thematic saturation was attained when observations and analyses exhibited no new themes. Findings indicated that the Egyptian government and chain-managed five-star hotels implemented a number of initiatives and practices focused on financial policies, health and hygiene, workforce and training, marketing, domestic tourism, booking flexibility, cancellation policies, community support, vacations, and contracts. This study contributes to crisis management research by being one of the first studies to explore governments and hotel operations practices and initiatives during the COVID-19 using Egypt as a case study. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications during and post the COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic: The mitigating role of government and hotel support of hotel employees in Egypt.

We investigated the effect of government support of hotels on hotels' employee support (namely, health support, staff retention, and staff training) and consequently on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment, through the moderating role of perceived overall organizational justice and ethical climate, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a quantitative approach and a framework that drew on the stakeholder and organizational support theories, we collected data from 669 employees in Egyptian hotels through a web-based survey. The results support the proposed framework and show a positive effect of government support through the strengthened perception of perceived overall organizational justice. Surprisingly, findings indicated that the association between job satisfaction and organizational commitment is significantly and negatively influenced by hotel ethical climate. Furthermore, job satisfaction partially mediates the association between hotels' support of employees and organizational commitment. The study holds important implications for both theory and practice.