Sustainability during the COVID pandemic: analysis of hotel association communication

Abstract

Hotels have implemented substantial sustainability initiatives. However, these efforts might be compromised during a crisis. How did sustainability in hotels fare during the COVID pandemic? To investigate, we reviewed national and regional hotel associations’ publicly available stakeholder communications during the COVID crisis. We collected data over four time periods to identify foci and changes. From website content analysis, viewed through a critical sustainability lens, six communication themes emerged. These were (1) operational procedures and technology; (2) staffing; (3) financial support; (4) health and hygiene; (5) marketing; and (6) community network building. Our findings revealed that hotel associations’ public communications were dominated by economic aspects, indicating a demotion of sociocultural and environmental elements of triple bottom line (TBL) considerations. That is, sustainability became largely silenced during the crisis, thus raising questions as to the centrality and meaningfulness of the previous sustainability efforts. The research contributes an in-depth insight that the hotel sector prioritizes economic elements during a crisis, which is problematic if a crisis is long-term and for any recovery efforts. We recommend centralizing sustainability in communications to sensitize and signal attention to strategic core needs.