Fighting to lose less when closure is not an option: three-R strategies of fine-dining restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many businesses, forcing them to either close down or suspend operation for an extended time period. Since hospitality and tourism (H&T) companies are interrelated, closure of business may cause ripple effects and negatively affect individuals, organizations, and communities. Maintaining operation is especially important for some H&T units, when they are integral parts of larger H&T operations, such as the restaurants in the integrated resorts in Macao. Fighting to lose less, therefore, becomes one of their new business objectives in this prolonged battle. This paper explores how fine-dining restaurants in the integrated resorts in Macao adjust their business and operations in a highly uncertain and unpredictable environment. The findings present a Three-R Strategy Model (Reducing, Revising, and Reviving), which differs from strategies deployed in other crisis scenarios. The paper extends the existing knowledge of crisis management, and provides H&T practitioners a practical model for dealing with prolonged crises.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• crisis management
• strategic management
• fine-dining restaurants
• COVID-19
• Macao

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yi-Fan Chen

Yi-Fan Chen is a learning and development professional with over 12 years of experiences in education and the hospitality industry. Before joining academia, she worked in the corporate office of a mega-sized integrated resort, and performed full spectrum of learning and development functions. Dr. Chen is now Assistant Professor at the Macao Institute of Tourism Studies, and the Deputy Coordinator of Hotel Management Programme.

Lianping Ren

Lianping Ren is Professor and the academic coordinator for postgraduate programmes in Macao Institute for Tourism Studies. She holds a doctorate in Hotel and Tourism Management, which she earned at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include tourist behaviour, hotel studies, strategic management, and hospitality education.

Ka Kui Yan

Ka Kui Yan has over 25 years of experiences in the hotel industry and education. He possesses solid and diverse experiences of working at different upscale hotels and premium restaurants in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Macau. Besides being a teaching faculty at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he serves as external advisor/examiner to oversee hospitality and F&B management programmes for different tertiary education institutes in Hong Kong.

Rob Law

Rob Law is University of Macau Development Foundation (UMDF) Chair Professor of Smart Tourism. He is also Honorary Professor of several other reputable universities. Professor Law holds a PhD in computer science from the University Regina, in Saskatchewan, Canada. He has received many research-related awards and honours, as well as several million USD external and internal research grants.