Marketing Strategies Used by Hospitality Businesses in Times of Crisis of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study

Abstract

A crisis is a state of tension that occurs at an unexpected time and significantly affects business continuity. The tourism sector is susceptible to being impacted by its multi-purpose structure—natural disasters, terrorist incidents, epidemics, political tensions, economic fluctuations, etc. By creating a problem, it can cause the accommodation business to lose tourists at any time. Developing new products, shifting to alternative tourism markets, and reducing costs may be options for businesses. However, because every crisis is different, managers must determine the most appropriate strategy for the problem. Effective crisis management is made possible by strategic control. With the application of smart strategic management, crises can be turned into opportunities. With the Covid-19 outbreak, many hotel businesses have had to reconsider their marketing strategies. In this research, a case study was conducted at the four-star Prime Park Hotel in Bandung. This study aims to determine how hotels are affected by the Pandemic and determine what kind of marketing strategies they employ in dealing with this crisis. It has been observed that Hotel Prime Park, whose customer base consists of foreign tourists arriving from the Far East on package tours before the Pandemic, was negatively affected by domestic and international travel restrictions that started with the Pandemic. Hotel management has mostly followed a market share strategy and cost reduction, and customer acquisition.