CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN THAI HOTEL BUSINESS

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to 1) to study the crisis management of Thai hotel business 2) to study the problems and obstacles to the crisis management of Thai hotel business. It was a qualitative research study. Data information was collected from key informants obtained from purposive random sampling from knowledgeable persons consisted of the expertise and experience involvement in hotel business, including hotel owners / the hotel staffs of large, medium, small, executive officer of Tourism Authority of Thailand, president of  Thai Hotels Association, executives from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, totaling 18 key informants. The results showed that the crisis management in Thai hotel business in human resource management by adjusting work plans to prevent disease outbreaks in the organization and reduce costs. Communication in crisis must be aligned, to build understanding and confidence among all parties involved. Post-crisis communication was a marketing communication to create a new image for the organization. Measures and tools for crisis management such as : 1) Reducing costs by applying technology and innovation in service and operation 2) Providing services to international standards 3) Using various marketing strategies up reduction of impacts when a crisis arised by implementing a crisis management plan immediately. Response to the crisis by (1) the government should have measures and guidelines to help. (2) the hotel sector had to implement a management plan by improving the structure and work processes. Recovery after the crisis in the hotel had to adjust its business to be in line with the new normal way.  The problems and obstacles were (1) to decrease in accommodation of tourists (2) the domestic tourists did not increase hotel income (3) lock-down measures caused to the operations (4) the public measures to help business were not effective (5) the reduce of people's purchasing power (6) the hotel businesses were increasing costs to be safety (7) the large organizations were harder and slower than smaller ones (8) hotel businesses had no planning to prepare the crisis in advance.