Performance of the hotel industry in post-COVID-19 Tanzania: A case of Arusha City Council
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global hotel industry, and hotels in Arusha City, Tanzania, have shown only partial recovery well after the pandemic formally subsided. Anchored in the Theory of Consumer Behaviour and the Agile Supply Chain Theory, this study assessed the performance of the hotel industry in Arusha City in the post-COVID-19 period, examining performance before, during, and after the pandemic, and identifying the challenges hindering full recovery. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was adopted, combining questionnaires administered to 181 hotel employees (145 fully completed and retained for the descriptive analyses), semi-structured interviews with seven hotel managers, and two focus group discussions across seven hotels. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and through a chi-square test of association using IBM SPSS Statistics, while qualitative data were analysed using a reflexive thematic approach. The findings show that before the pandemic hotels recorded high revenue, strong guest turnout, and stable employment; during the pandemic guest numbers, revenue, and employment collapsed and several hotels closed temporarily; and in the post-pandemic period, despite health protocols, business innovation, and staff training, the industry still records slow recovery linked to financial constraints, the slow return of customers, and shortages of skilled staff. A chi-square test showed a statistically significant association, not a causal relationship, between pandemic-related effects and current hotel performance (χ²(1, N = 181) = 6.495, p = .011, φ = .19, a small-to-moderate effect). Hotel owners are encouraged to invest cautiously in digital technologies, while government and other stakeholders provide financial support, favourable policies, and skills training to strengthen sector resilience; because the present data are perceptual and retrospective, these recommendations should be verified through more direct, longitudinal evidence.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Adam, A. M. (2020). Sample size determination in survey research. Journal of Scientific Research and Reports, 26(5), 90–97. https://doi.org/10.9734/jsrr/2020/v26i530263
Ahmed, S. K. (2024). The pillars of trustworthiness in qualitative research. Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health, 2, Article 100051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glmedi.2024.100051
Aigbedo, H. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry: A supply chain resilience perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 98, Article 103012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.103012
Arusha City Council. (2016). Five-year strategic plan, 2016/17–2020/2021. https://arushacc.go.tz
Asheber, Y., & Shkoda, M. S. (2020). The influence of COVID-19 on the development of hotel and restaurant business in Ukraine. In Proceedings of the IV All-Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Conference “Actual Problems of Innovative Development of Cluster Entrepreneurship in Ukraine” (pp. 96–100). Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design
Assenga, E. A., & Msuya, J. M. (2024). Coping with challenges and the aftermath of COVID-19 among street food catering operators in Dodoma City: Lessons and policy implications. Tanzania Journal of Health Research, 25(1), 596–606. https://doi.org/10.4314/thrb.v25i1.8
Baum, T., & Hai, N. T. T. (2020). Hospitality, tourism, human rights and the impact of COVID-19. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(7), 2397–2407. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-03-2020-0242
Biju, K. S., & Kumar, V. S. (2022). A review on the customer perception, expectations and satisfaction post-COVID in the hotel industry. International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(1), 5–12.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806
Bryman, A. (2021). Social research methods (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Filimonau, V., Derqui, B., & Matute, J. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic and organisational commitment of senior hotel managers. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 91, Article 102659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102659
Gursoy, D., & Chi, C. G. (2020). Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality industry: Review of the current situation and a research agenda. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(5), 527–529. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2020.1788231
Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Kemang, K. O., Sechele-Mosimanegape, P., & Mkwizu, K. H. (2023). Tourists’ perception of Gaborone as a tourist destination. Journal of Tourism, Culinary, and Entrepreneurship (JTCE), 3(2). https://doi.org/10.37715/jtce.v3i2.4035
Khalil, M. L., Abd Aziz, N., Long, F., & Zhang, H. (2023). What factors affect firm performance in the hotel industry post-COVID-19 pandemic? Examining the impacts of big data analytics capability, organizational agility and innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 9(2), Article 100081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joitmc.2023.100081
Khan, A., & Alotaibi, E. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry and responding to future pandemics through technological innovation. Procedia Computer Science, 204, 844–853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2022.08.102
Kidere, F., & Mkwizu, K. H. (2023). Sustainability entrepreneurship education in developing countries: A case of selected universities in the East African Communities. Journal of Tourism, Culinary, and Entrepreneurship (JTCE), 3(2). https://doi.org/10.37715/jtce.v3i2.3602
Kumar, R. (2018). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Lai, I. K. W., & Wong, J. W. C. (2020). Comparing crisis management practices in the hotel industry between the initial and pandemic stages of COVID-19. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(10), 3135–3156. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-04-2020-0325
Mkwizu, K. H. (2024). Post-pandemic advertising and tourism studies in Africa. Journal of Tourism, Culinary, and Entrepreneurship (JTCE), 4(2), 283–291. https://doi.org/10.37715/jtce.v4i2.4894
Mmasi, A., & Mwaifyusi, H. A. (2021). Determinants of brand performance: Empirical evidence from Tanzania Breweries Limited. Business Education Journal, 10(3), 1–16.
Muoki, D. (2021). Impact assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality industry in the East African Community and post-recovery strategy for the sector (AERC Working Paper No. COVID-19_018). African Economic Research Consortium.
Ncube, F. N., Chikuta, O., Basera, V., Baipai, R., Mazhande, P., & Tapfuma, M. (2021). Economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hotel business in Zimbabwe. Journal of Tourism, Culinary, and Entrepreneurship (JTCE), 1(2), 105–121. https://doi.org/10.37715/jtce.v1i2.2184
Oktavio, A., Kaihatu, T. S., Kumari, D., Nugroho, A., & Adityaji, R. (2023). I slept well and I will be back: An empirical study on hotel guests in Indonesia. The Seybold Report, 18(3), 1371–1383. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FVSXR
Priliani, N. L. D., Kartini, L. P., Adyatma, P., Pitanatri, P. D. S., & Pitanatri, M. U. (2025). Workforce woman empowerment: Transforming challenges into opportunities in Karma Royal Bali as a timeshare hotel. Journal of Tourism, Culinary, and Entrepreneurship (JTCE), 5(1), 72–82. https://doi.org/10.37715/jtce.v5i1.5167
Saunders, M. N. K., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2023). Research methods for business students (9th ed.). Pearson.
Sucheran, R. (2022). The COVID-19 pandemic and guesthouses in South Africa: Economic impacts and recovery measures. Development Southern Africa, 39(1), 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2021.2003758
Temelkov, Z. (2022). Financial performance of selected hotel groups and resorts during the COVID pandemic: 2019/2020 comparison. Hotel and Tourism Management, 10(1), 41–51. https://doi.org/10.5937/menhottur2201041T
Wang, G., Maghsoodi Tilaki, M. J., & Rahim, A. A. (2025). Exploring spatial dynamics: Analyzing hotels’ recovery performance amid the COVID-19 crisis. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 18(2), Article 67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-025-09669-z
World Tourism Organization. (2020). Impact assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak on international tourism. UNWTO. https://www.unwto.org/impact-assessment-of-the-covid-19-outbreak-on-international-tourism
Yu, J., Lee, K., & Hyun, S. S. (2021). Understanding the influence of the perceived risk of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the post-traumatic stress disorder and revisit intention of hotel guests. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 46, 327–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.01.010
Zhang, J., Xie, C., Morrison, A. M., & Lin, Z. (2024). Hotel employee resilience during a crisis: Conceptual and scale development. Current Issues in Tourism, 27(8), 1281–1298. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2023.2203854