Case Study 2.0

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
ILOILO STATE COLLEGE OF FISHERIES

College of Graduate Studies
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Website: www.iscof.edu.phiscofpresident2016@gmail.com
A CASE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON HOTEL
INDUSTRY OF THAILAND AND PHILIPPINES
JHERVIE CATIGAN,MHM
Abstract
The coronavirus outbreak has hit many countries
globally, especially in Asia, where tourism is a primary
economic driver for the GDP. While nobody can predict when
things turn back to normal, countries and destinations, have
been starting to adapt to a new reality in travel. Specific
executions, including new safety and hygiene policies,
restrictions, and guidelines, have established to mitigate
the impact of the pandemic as well as to be able to prepare
when travel can be resumed again. Regarding the global
situation, one of the countries which are getting the most
impact, especially in the tourism sector from coronavirus is
Thailand and Philippines. The study revealed that after the
policies and regulations related to travel and tourism began
to take place in the country, particularly from the
government and institutional level.

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It had a significant impact directly to the hotel
industry in Thailand and Philippines based on the data,
findings, implications, and results of the study.
Introduction
Without a doubt, hotel industry is among the sectors
that have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The closing of borders, airports, and hotels as well as
restrictions on mass gatherings, land travel and related
services across the world put around 100 to 120 million jobs
at risk, as estimated by the World Tourism Organization.
In the first quarter of 2020, the period when the
travel restrictions and lockdowns in most countries started,
international tourist arrivals declined by 22% resulting in
an estimated loss of US$80bn in global tourism receipts. In
such period, 97 destinations have totally or partially
closed their borders for tourists, 65 destinations have
suspended international flights totally or partially, and 39
destinations were implementing the closing of borders (i.e.,
banning the arrivals from specific countries).
Asia is one of the very first regions in the world
where the virus has hit particularly severely countries such

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as the Philippines and Thailand, where the number of cases
was rising sharply in the short term. Moreover, the damage
from the virus has caused the world situation to rapidly
deteriorate as it was very quick to spread in other
continents: at the end of February in Italy and Europe and
at the end of March in the US which therefore made it a
global pandemic, as announced by the WHO on 11 March (Park
et al., 2020, p. 1).
In the study by African Academy of Hotel Industry in
several countries in Asia (Asia Standard, 2022), it was
revealed that less than 10% of the hotel industries were
affected by the hit of this pandemic. Therefore,
investigating problems those that are associated to tourism
is apparently needed. The researcher believed that
comprehending to the much arise problem will add information
on how to combat this pandemic over the years.
Objectives
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This study aimed to determine the impact of COVID-19 on
hotel industry of Philippines and Thailand.
1. To determine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hotel
industry of Philippines and Thailand.
2. To compare the guest arrivals of Philippines and Thailand
during pandemic.
3. To compare the accommodation of Philippines and Thailand
during pandemic.
Hypothesis
HO: The impact of COVID-19 pandemic is relative to the
guest arrival and accommodations of the Philippines and
Thailand.
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of the study is presented in
Figure 1.
The framework presents the interplay of the variables
of the study.
THAILAND PHILIPPINES
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GUEST ARRIVAL ACCOMODATION

Figure 1.Schematic Diagram of the Study
Methodology
This study employed descriptive-comparative research
design to compare the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hotel
industry of Philippines and Thailand. A descriptive
comparative design is appropriate for existing intact units
for comparison and does not involve manipulating an
independent variable (Cantrell, 2011). It is mostly used
when the purpose of the investigation is to describe the
characteristics of the individual or events and compare the
variables describing the research sample as they naturally
exist (Siedlecki, 2020).
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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This study deals with the literature and studies
relevant to the present research.
Efforts to stimulate tourism on Guest Arrival and
Accommodation of Philippines and Thailand
Thailand has deployed various efforts to compensate for
the loss of inbound tourism. Given that for most of the
first quarter of 2020, Thailand saw less than 1,000 daily
COVID-19 cases nationwide, with cases not rising above 4,000
until November 2020, domestic tourism was still a viable
option for travelers. The Thai government’s attempt to boost
domestic travel took the form of providing subsidies for
hotel stays and flights for travelers. The government also
rolled out measures to stimulate international travel to
Thailand’s beach destinations and attract high-end travelers
from international markets.
In August 2020, the Thai government launched the Rao
Tiew Duay Gun (We Travel Together) program, where it set
aside a budget of $640 million to help boost domestic
tourism.7
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The government subsidized a total of six million nights
of hotel accommodation at 40 percent of normal room rates.
The subsidy was capped at 3,000 baht ($100) per night for up
to five nights. Subsidies for other services, including
food, were capped at 600 baht ($20) per room per night. This
subsidy was initially limited to facilities outside
tourists’ home provinces, but that restriction was lifted in
the second phase of the rollout in December 2020. In
addition, domestic tourists traveling by air would qualify
for a government refund of 40 percent of the ticket price.
This was capped at 1,000 baht ($32) per seat, with a quota
of 2 million seats.
The program reached its total quota of six million
hotel-room nights in February 2021, seven months after its
launch.8 During that time, at least $1 billion had been
added to the Thai economy.9
Many operators grasped this opportunity, shifted their
focus to the domestic market, and attracted local travelers
by promoting flights and hotels in collaboration with the We
Travel Together campaign. Destinations that once served

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mainly international visitors welcomed more local travelers,
which has helped their economies wade through this difficult
period. Many luxury hotels offered deep discounts and
attractive promotions to capture the medium- to high-spend
domestic-tourist segment.
These efforts to stimulate domestic travel were
temporarily paused as COVID-19 cases reached a new high in
July 2021. Domestic air travel in and out of red zones,
including Bangkok, was banned during July to September 2021
in response to the nation’s effort to control the spread of
the Delta variant.10 Phase three of the We Travel Together
campaign was paused during the same period, but resumed in
October 2021.
Despite promotional efforts for domestic travel,
Thailand’s total revenue from domestic travel still saw a
significant dip. The country’s revenue from domestic travel
dropped from $34.5 billion to $15.4 billion in 2020. An
increase in domestic spending alone would not compensate for
the impact of the pandemic on the Thai economy. The country
has largely been dependent on international markets, which

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represented about $62 billion or 60 percent of total tourism
spend in 2019.11
In response, Thailand launched the “Phuket Sandbox” in
July 2021, an effort to recapture demand from international
travelers. The initiative offered fully vaccinated travelers
(between 14 days and one year before their travel date)
exemption from quarantine, provided they remain in Phuket
for at least 14 days before traveling to other parts of
Thailand.12 Additionally, travelers’ stay in Phuket was
restricted to accommodation establishments that have been
certified by the Safety & Health Administration of the Thai
government. Visitors staying in Phuket for less than 14 days
were permitted to leave Phuket only if their destination was
outside of Thailand. The model hoped to draw visitors during
the year-end season in Asia, Europe, and America—all key
origin markets for Thailand. Several other reopening plans
followed, including the “Samui Plus” and “Andaman Sandbox”
plans.13 Together, the schemes created a network of reopened
destinations, which hoped to position Thailand as an
attractive destination for international and domestic

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travelers alike. The economic uplift from the Phuket Sandbox
were moderate. In the period from July 1 to August 31,
Phuket welcomed about 26,400 visitors, who were estimated to
have spent at least $48.8 million while staying on the
resort island (Exhibit 4).14
A nationwide rise in COVID-19 infection rates in the
same period meant that the government had to reconsider
social distancing and other measures to minimize risk to
visitors.
In any case, Thailand has gathered its learnings from
the “sandbox” approach and proceeded to reopen the country
to receive international travelers. As of November 1, 2021,
the Thai government commenced a phased reopening of the
country, allowing fully vaccinated tourists from 63 low-risk
countries to visit with one day of quarantine, provided they
pass a COVID-19 test upon arrival. The government has also
replaced the slow-paced Certificate of Entry (COE) system
with the Thailand Pass System, in an effort to make the
documentation process of travelers entering Thailand more
efficient than the COE application.15

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The program also expanded the number of provinces open
to international visitors, including major tourism
destinations such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Subject to
readiness, additional major provinces are expected to reopen
from December 2021 onwards. To ensure visitor safety, some
COVID-19 measures remain in place, although most businesses
have been allowed to reopen and nighttime curfews have been
lifted in almost every province. The reopening has welcomed
tourists globally, with top visitors coming from Thailand’s
key source markets—the United States, Germany, and the
United Kingdom.
It has been over a year since the COVID-19 virus
infected the world. The pandemic shook every nation,
bringing mass trauma far worse than the Second World War, as
the World Health Organization stated (IANS, 2021).
Like other countries, the Philippines suffered
tremendously from the restrictions the pandemic caused.
Within the sectors suffering from these restrictions in the
tourism industry. The tourism industry contributes nearly
13% towards the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2019

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(Philippine News Agency, 2020). With a sector this big, how
much was it affected by the pandemic?
According to the Department of Tourism (2021), visitor
spending from visitor receipts in 2020 was only PHP 82.84
billion. Visitor receipts, also known as Tourism receipts,
are expenditures from international inbound visitors
(Knoema, n.d.). These expenditures include fees for national
carriers in charge of transport, prepaid goods/services to
be received in the visiting country, and on occasion, any
receipts from same-day visitors. Visitor receipts plummeted
by 82.94%, as 2019 tallied PHP 482.15 billion. Visitor
receipts in January 2020 clocked in at PHP 45.35 billion, a
5.22% increase from January 2019.
What seemed like a good start was immediately put to a
stop in less than a month when February 2020 only reached
PHP 25.95 billion, a 42.80% decline compared to February
2019. March 2020 saw its decrease in visitor receipts nearly
double, only amassing PHP 7.31 billion at an 82.65% drop.
The remaining visitor receipts of 2020 consistently fell by

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almost 100% compared to the previous year – failing to reach
the billion mark for the rest of 2020.
Research shows the contrast in the Philippines’ monthly
visitor receipts during 2019 and 2020. The Philippines’
visitor receipts reached their peak in January 2020 and were
the only month to outperform its 2019 predecessor. The
monthly visitor receipts fell terribly during the early
stages of quarantine, notably April 2020. It took until
September 2020 for the monthly visitor receipts to rise
constantly.
DOT (2021) also reported only 1,482,535 inbound
visitors arrived in the Philippines. Visitors dropped at
82%, compared to the growing 8,260,913 inbound visitors in
2019. Like the country’s visitor receipts in January 2020,
inbound visitors increased compared to January 2019 as it
reached 796,164 visitors, a 10.06% increase. The decline
also started in February 2020, where inbound visitors only
recorded 462,681, a decrease of 39.67% compared to February
2019.
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The Philippine government then imposed a travel ban
halfway through March 2020 for inbound foreign visitors.
Overseas Filipinos, foreign spouses or children, permanent
resident visa owners, and diplomat visa owners were the only
ones permitted to enter the country until August. Foreigners
with long-term visas and former Filipinos were then allowed
to enter the country, which yielded an influx of inbound
visitors by the end of the year.
. The monthly inbound visitor arrivals are directly
related to the monthly visitor receipts from January 2020
having the highest number of visitors in both years. Inbound
visitor arrivals dropped as 2020 went on due to heavy
lockdown, with April reaching not more than a thousand
inbound visitor arrivals. It took until September 2020 for
inbound visitor arrivals to rise constantly until the end of
the year.
The people in the tourism industry greatly suffered
from the restrictions brought by the pandemic. In a survey
conducted by PWC Philippines (2020) towards tourism-related
businesses, most of their 247 respondents were forced to

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temporarily stop offering their products/services due to
lockdown restrictions and a lack of demand for their
products/services. Nearly 44% of these tourism-related
businesses had to reduce their operations and lay off their
employees to adapt during the pandemic.
The tourism industry is indeed essential for the
country’s economy. Besides the fact the industry contributed
13% to the Philippines’ GDP in 2019, the industry also
houses nearly 10.24 million employees as of 2019 (Statista
Research Department, 2021). It would inevitably be affected
negatively by the pandemic, given it is an industry that
contains roughly 9% of the country’s population. The
restrictions that come along with the pandemic prevents
tourists from visiting the country. The industry suffers, as
mentioned since it heavily relies on tourist traffic.
Numerous steps have been taken to promote relief
towards the industry. Accommodations like hotels currently
serve as isolation facilities for people undergoing
mandatory quarantines. DOT commended hotels for this action,
as hotels earn during the pandemic while providing isolation

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rooms (ABS-CBN News, 2021). DOT has also demanded the
vaccine czar prioritize tourism workers in the A4 priority
list (Arnaldo, 2021). Hotel and airport staff are the only
ones included in the priority list, as of the moment.
The tourism industry would most certainly benefit the
most from the vaccination of tourism workers. Their
vaccination allows protection for the workers while they
work. However, the industry’s condition would still depend
mainly on tourists willing to visit the country. With the
number of cases growing steadily every day, it would be
challenging to convince tourists to travel to the
Philippines. The country’s overall safety needs
prioritization first before the country convinces foreign
tourists to travel in the country.
The country’s tourism industry has a long road ahead to
recovery from the setback the pandemic brought. Accounting
for its PHP 317 billion loss for 2020 (Tabios, 2020) and a
stricter lockdown due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, it might
take some time for the industry to regain its footing and
return to the old normal.

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Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality industry: review
of the current situations and a research agenda
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world’s economy was
shut down almost overnight (UNWTO, 2020). The pandemic has
confronted the hospitality industry with an unprecedented
challenge. Strategies to flatten the COVID-19 curve such as
community lockdowns, social distancing, stay-at-home orders,
travel and mobility restrictions have resulted in temporary
closure of many hospitality businesses and significantly
decreased the demand for businesses that were allowed to
continue to operate (Bartik et al., 2020). Almost all
restaurants were asked to limit their operations to only
take-outs. Restrictions placed on travel and stay-at-home
orders issued by the authorities led to sharp decline in
hotel occupancies and revenues. However, the reopening
process has slowly begun and authorities have started to
ease restrictions, for example, allow dine-in restaurants to
reopen at a reduced capacity with strict social distancing
guidelines, and gradually reduce restrictions on domestic
and international travel.

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While the hospitality industry is slowly recovering, the
COVID-19 crisis continues to exert profound impacts on how
hospitality businesses operate. Hospitality businesses are
expected to make substantial changes to their operations in
the COVID-19 business environment in order to ensure
employees’ and customers’ health and safety, and enhance
customers’ willingness to patronize their business (Gössling
et al., 2020). This pandemic is also likely to have a
significant impact on the research agenda of hospitality
marketing and management scholars. With unprecedented
challenges faced by the hospitality industry in the COVID-10
era, hospitality scholars are expected to shift their
research focus to develop solutions for the industry.
Hospitality scholar will need to provide answers to a number
of critical questions such as: what are the customers’
sentiments about patronizing a restaurant or a hotel in the
time of coronavirus? Are they ready to return? If not, what
will make them return?
Preliminary findings of a longitudinal study conducted by
the editorial team of the Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management suggest that reopening the sit-down restaurants

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and easing travel restrictions will not bring customers back
immediately (Gursoy et al., 2020). A large portion of
individuals (over 50%) are not willing to dine in at a
restaurant immediately. The same is true for staying at
hotels. Most customers (over 50%) are not willing to travel
to a destination and stay at a hotel any time soon. Only
around a quarter of the customers have already dined in a
restaurant and only around one-third are willing to travel
to a destination and stay at a hotel in the next few months
(Gursoy et al., 2020). These findings suggest that customers
in general still do not feel comfortable to dine in at a sit
down restaurant, travel to a destination and stay at a
hotel. Since the breakeven point in the hospitality industry
is relatively high due to high operating costs, the survival
of many hospitality businesses heavily depends on increasing
the demand for their services and products. Thus, figuring
out what will make customers return is essential and this
requires intensive research efforts. The industry and the
academia are in urgent need of behavioral and operational
hospitality marketing and management research to guide the
hospitality operations in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

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The research findings also indicate that around a
quarter of the customers will only feel comfortable to
patronize a sit-down restaurant when their communities’
ability to test, trace, and isolate COVID-19 cases is
significantly improved. Around 18% of the customers will
only feel comfortable to travel to a destination and stay at
a hotel when that destination has very few COVID-19 cases
and has the ability to test, trace, and isolate COVID-19
cases. Furthermore, there is a group of customers who will
only feel comfortable to patronize a sit-down restaurant
(around 14%) and travel to a destination and stay at a hotel
(around 17%) when the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available
(Gursoy et al., 2020). These findings clearly suggest that
we need further research on factors that can drive customers
back to the hospitality businesses.
While preliminary findings indicate that visible
sanitizing efforts (such as hand sanitizers at the entry,
staff wearing masks and gloves), implementing social
distancing, limiting the number of customers served, more
rigorous and frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces in
common areas, and employee training of health and safety

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protocols are the most important safety precautions
customers expect from a restaurant and a hotel (Gursoy et
al., 2020), more behavioral and causal research is needed to
determine the (differential) effects of these operational
strategies on customers’ attitudes and behaviors.
Preliminary findings also suggest that around one-third
of restaurant customers and around 40% of the hotel
customers are willing to pay more for increased safety
precautions. While customers expect hospitality businesses
to implement more rigorous safety/cleaning procedures, a
portion of them are willing to pay for those added safety
measures (Gursoy et al., 2020). Further research is needed
to determine the importance of each of these safety
precautions, how such measures will influence customers’
attitudes and behaviors and whether customers are indeed
willing to pay for them and by how much more.
Preliminary findings also indicate that a large
proportion of restaurant customers (64.71%) and the majority
of hotel customers (70.42%) believe that the use of various
technologies in service delivery will be necessary in the
COVID-19 environment in order to minimize human-to-human

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contact (examples: service robots, contactless payment such
as Apply pay or contactless bank cards, digital menus that
can be viewed on personal mobile devices via QR codes,
contactless digital payments, keyless entry, touchless
elevators, etc.) (Gursoy et al., 2020).
These findings strongly suggest that technology
integration and adoption into hospitality operations will
likely be integral in the near future. While hospitality
researchers have been studying the use of various
technologies in hospitality service delivery over the years,
most of those studies have focused on unintelligent
technology adoption. Recent developments in artificial
intelligence (AI) and social service robot technologies have
enabled the use of AI technologies in service delivery and
the Covid-19 pandemic may precipitate the popularity of such
technology for public safety reasons. Therefore, it is
crucial for hospitality researchers to investigate how AI
device use in service delivery will impact operations,
employees, and customers. Furthermore, it is critical to
identify the factors, both physical and psychological, that

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can influence customers’ and employees’ acceptance of AI
device use in service delivery.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt the hospitality
industry and the academia with uncharted challenges, it also
presents great research opportunities for hospitality
scholars. The magnitude of this crisis and its devastating
effects on operations, employees, and customers are
unrivaled compared to previous crises. Therefore, while
using previous conceptual and theoretical frameworks may
benefit future research, it is critical to generate new
knowledge that can provide insight to the industry about how
to transform their operations according to newly emerging
customers’ needs and wants due to COVID-19 pandemic. The
editorial team of the Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management welcomes studies that promote new ideas, models,
approaches, and paradigms that contribute to the development
of knowledge and theory of hospitality marketing and
management in the COVID-19 business environment. It is
important that the study makes significant theoretical
and/or practical contribution to the hospitality theory and
practice. COVID-19 related studies submitted to the Journal

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of Hospitality Marketing & Management must offer something
new and original, make an important contribution to the
field, develop/propose a better/more efficient way of
solving a problem, have good science and a sound
methodology, offer sound conceptual and theoretical
framework, and provide sound theoretical and practical
implications the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an
unprecedented level of disruption to the global hotel
industry. A combination of local lockdowns and travel
restrictions has resulted in many hotels having to close
temporarily or operate at a fraction of their available
capacity. As the crisis continues to evolve, it is still
unclear what shape the industry will emerge in.
The hotel industry is used to dealing with disruption,
but never on this scale. While previously only localised
events like hurricanes could result in long-term closures,
2020 has seen a widespread drop-off in customers looking to
stay in hotels. What makes this crisis so unique is how
indiscriminate it is – every hotel business and every corner
of the globe has been affected in some way. At the end of
July occupancy rates are 60% in China, 48% in the US and 32%
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in Italy. And with concerns in Europe about new spikes and
second waves, it is clear the crisis is far from over. So,
what are the specific challenges the hotel industry is
dealing with?
Liquidity
The immediate impact has been a steep drop in revenue
as business travelers and tourists live in lockdown or
utilize video conferencing to meet clients. Adding to the
problem is all of the uncertainty regarding the current
situation. Hotel operators cannot currently say with
confidence when travel restrictions will be lifted, and
whether consumers will remain cautious for a period after.
Also, social distancing may require hotels to offer fewer
rooms for the foreseeable future. Recent research shows that
with 10-foot-diameter spacing between tables, restaurants
may only be able to generate 19% of the revenue they were
pre-COVID.
Employment
Many operators have been able to reduce their labour costs
by reducing hours or using government support options. This
could create issues, however, as hotels begin to get more

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business. Is it likely that staff are going to be able to
work reduced hours for a prolonged period of time? With
fewer staff, there may also be more room for errors,
oversights and below-standard service as remaining workers
are stretched thin.
Debt and restructuring
Large numbers of hotel operators are looking to restructure
their debts, which could create opportunities for private
equity owners with large cash reserves. Being able to
restructure requires being able to show that a hotel remains
a viable business and is likely to continue running once
travel and lockdown restrictions are lifted. There is also a
range of government measures across the world aimed at
providing assistance to struggling sectors, but it is
unclear how long these will be available.
Preparing for life in the new normal
The pandemic may lead to a speeding up of the
introduction of digital and remote services like mobile
check-ins, and contribute to a shift in customer experience
across the industry. What is clear though, is that it will

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be some time before the hotel industry returns to the way it
was able to operate a year ago.
The hotel industry faces some stark choices in the
coming months, as we all begin to navigate our way towards
recovery. We can help you protect and restore value in your
business, so that you are best placed to operate in the new
normal.
Challenges and prospects for the Philippine hotel industry
under the pandemic
The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have
posed unprecedented challenges to the hotel industry in the
Philippines. Restrictions in inbound and domestic travel
have weakened demand, which has resulted in a sharp drop in
occupancy rates and revenue, and the displacement of tourism
and hospitality workers. Around the globe, many tourism
destinations are likewise struggling and there are no clear
indications yet as to when the industry will go back to pre-
pandemic levels.
The latest report from the Department of Tourism (DOT)
shows that for the period January to July 2021, only 71,021
foreign visitors entered the country, representing a drop of

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94.97 percent compared to the 1,410,653 in the same period
last year. The decline is a result of restrictions in
inbound international travel and the low daily quota set on
incoming air passengers from abroad.
Meanwhile, the latest figures on domestic tourism coming
from the DOT and the Philippine Statistics Authority show
that for the whole year of 2020, there were only 24,250,000
domestic trips taken, representing a decrease of 77.90
percent compared to the 109,752403 in 2019. Clearly, hotels
have also suffered because of the slowdown in domestic
travel. The current Alert Level 4 status in Metro Manila
also means hotels are not able to take domestic leisure
guests. Revenue streams of hotels have therefore been
severely affected.
The Updated Tourism Response and Recovery Plan of the
DOT points to domestic travel as the key to tourism’s
recovery in the foreseeable future while there are still
restrictions in the entry of international leisure
travelers. The Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA)
agrees with this track and is solidly behind the efforts of
the department for the safe and gradual restart of tourism

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through greater inter-zonal mobility, particularly for fully
vaccinated travelers.
Despite the current challenges, PHOA member-hotels
continue to operate and service the needs of various groups,
particularly overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), to heed the
call of government to help mitigate the negative impact of
the pandemic. Since early last year, PHOA and the Overseas
Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) have been working hand
in hand to ensure the safe and comfortable stay of OFWs,
returning overseas Filipinos and other clients. PHOA is
firmly committed to helping the government achieve herd
immunity by inoculating its hotel workers. It is estimated
that about 90 to 95 percent of workers in PHOA hotels are
already vaccinated. Guests can therefore be assured of a
safe, worry-free and comfortable stay.
Even while the hotel sector copes with the pandemic,
the PHOA continues to partner with other organizations in
offering a wide range of training programs. Since the start
of this year, PHOA has partnered with the Employers
Confederation of the Philippines and International Labor
Organization in conducting Soft Skills Training Program, 40-

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hr Basic Occupational Safety and Health seminars by
Occupational Safety and Health Center and Guidelines on
Ventilation for Workplaces and Public Transport to Prevent
and Control the Spread of Covid-19 by the Department of
Labor and Employment.
The seminars are part of PHOA’s re-skilling and up-
skilling initiatives to improve overall productivity in the
workplace, promote career growth and ensure a healthy and
safe work environment. Moving forward, the PHOA wishes to
see a relaxation of the guidelines on domestic inter-zonal
travel and eventually inbound travel. In particular, the
association would like to see the following:
• For fully vaccinated travelers to move between NCR and
GCQ/MGCQ areas without the need for an RT-PCR negative test
result.
• For fully vaccinated persons to be allowed to check in at
staycation hotels in NCR under Alert Level 4.
• For the daily quota of arriving international passengers
in the country’s gateways to be increased.
PHOA will support government efforts for the safe and steady
recovery of international and domestic travel, which some

5036 Philippines
Contact No.: (+63) 917-624-6100/ (033) 323-2058
quarters expect to normalize in two to three years. This
will depend on a number of factors, including the rollout of
the government’s vaccination program, the normalization of
domestic and international flights, easing of restrictions
in inbound and domestic travel and the cooperation and
compliance of the general public to the minimum health and
safety standards.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter presents the findings and discussions of
the case study.

5036 Philippines
Contact No.: (+63) 917-624-6100/ (033) 323-2058
Figure 1: Philippines’ Monthly Visitors Receipts for 2019 and 2020 (in Billion PHP). Taken from
http://www.tourism.gov.ph/industry_performance/2020/VisitorReceiptsReport2020.pdf
Figure 1 shows the contrast in the Philippines’ monthly
visitor receipts during 2019 and 2020. The Philippines’
visitor receipts reached their peak in January 2020 and were
the only month to outperform its 2019 predecessor. The
monthly visitor receipts fell terribly during the early
stages of quarantine, notably April 2020.
It took until September 2020 for the monthly visitor
receipts to rise constantly.

5036 Philippines
Contact No.: (+63) 917-624-6100/ (033) 323-2058
Figure 2 shows that there is a decline in visitors
which had an outsize impact on tourism spending, as
international travelers spent significantly more than their
local counterparts (Exhibit 2). For instance, in 2019,
international travelers made up 33 percent of overall
travelers in Thailand yet accounted for almost 60 percent of
all tourism spending—international tourists spent $1,543 per
traveler on average, compared to $152 by domestic
travelers.5 This drop in expenditure undoubtedly caused a
ripple effect on Thailand’s food and beverage retail
industries, which include 1.2 million small and medium-size
enterprises (SMEs).6
Findings
The findings of the present investigation are the
following:
1. The impact of COVID-19 on the guest arrival of Thailand
lowered the numbered of visitors going in the country.
2. The impact of COVID-19 to the Philippines in terms of
accommodation is relative to Thailand.

5036 Philippines
Contact No.: (+63) 917-624-6100/ (033) 323-2058
3. Restriction brought about the pandemic is one of the
factors in the significant decreased of guests in the hotel
industry.
4. There is a significant impact brought about the COVID-
19 pandemic especially in hotel industry of Thailand and
Philippines.
Conclusions
Based on the findings gathered and observations made
by the researcher, the following conclusions were drawn:
1. The impact of COVID-19 on the guest arrival of
Philippines lowered the numbered of visitors going in the
country.
2. The impact of COVID-19 on the guest arrival of
Thailand lowered the numbered of visitors going in the
country.
3. The impact of COVID-19 to the Philippines in terms
of accommodation is relative to Thailand.
4. Restriction brought about the pandemic is one of
the factors in the significant decreased of guests in the
hotel industry.
5036 Philippines
Contact No.: (+63) 917-624-6100/ (033) 323-2058
5. There is a significant impact brought about the
COVID-19 pandemic especially in hotel industry of Thailand
and Philippines.
Recommendations
The researchers formulated the following
recommendations as drawn from the findings and conclusions
made from the study:
1. The Department of Tourism could either plan a
recovery program on the guidelines set by the IATF during
the onset of the pandemic.
2. Guests could have a vaccination card during the
travel.
3. Future researchers may also look on the intensive
outbreak on the economic impact of the hotel industry both
in Thailand and Philippines.
REFERENCES
Department of Tourism. (2021). VisitorArrivalsReport2020

[PDF].
Retrieved from
http://www.tourism.gov.ph/industry_performance/2020/Vis
itorArrivalsReport2020.pdf
5036 Philippines
Contact No.: (+63) 917-624-6100/ (033) 323-2058
Department of Tourism. (2021). VisitorReceiptsReport2020

[PDF].
Retrieved from
http://www.tourism.gov.ph/industry_performance/2020/Vis
itorReceiptsReport2020.pdf
IANS. (2021, March 06). COVID-19 caused more mass trauma

than World War 2: WHO. National Herald.
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/international/covid
-19-caused-more-mass-trauma-than-world-war-2-who
Knoema. (n.d.). International tourism receipts.

https://knoema.com/atlas/ranks/Tourism-
receipts#:~:text=What%20is%20tourism%20receipts
%3F,received%20in%20the%20destination%20country.
Philippine News Agency. (2020, June 22). Tourism industry

hikes share in GDP to 13%.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1106568 Clark, K. F., &
Graves , M. F. (2005).

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REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

ILOILO STATE COLLEGE OF FISHERIES

A CASE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON HOTEL

INDUSTRY OF THAILAND AND PHILIPPINES

The coronavirus outbreak has hit many countries

globally, especially in Asia, where tourism is a primary

things turn back to normal, countries and destinations, have

been starting to adapt to a new reality in travel. Specific

executions, including new safety and hygiene policies,

restrictions, and guidelines, have established to mitigate

the impact of the pandemic as well as to be able to prepare

when travel can be resumed again. Regarding the global

situation, one of the countries which are getting the most

impact, especially in the tourism sector from coronavirus is

Thailand and Philippines. The study revealed that after the

policies and regulations related to travel and tourism began

to take place in the country, particularly from the

government and institutional level.

It had a significant impact directly to the hotel

industry in Thailand and Philippines based on the data,

findings, implications, and results of the study.

Without a doubt, hotel industry is among the sectors

that have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The closing of borders, airports, and hotels as well as

restrictions on mass gatherings, land travel and related

at risk, as estimated by the World Tourism Organization.

In the first quarter of 2020, the period when the

travel restrictions and lockdowns in most countries started,

international tourist arrivals declined by 22% resulting in

an estimated loss of US$80bn in global tourism receipts. In

such period, 97 destinations have totally or partially

closed their borders for tourists, 65 destinations have

suspended international flights totally or partially, and 39

destinations were implementing the closing of borders (i.e.,

banning the arrivals from specific countries).

Asia is one of the very first regions in the world

where the virus has hit particularly severely countries such

as the Philippines and Thailand, where the number of cases

was rising sharply in the short term. Moreover, the damage

from the virus has caused the world situation to rapidly

deteriorate as it was very quick to spread in other

continents: at the end of February in Italy and Europe and

at the end of March in the US which therefore made it a

global pandemic, as announced by the WHO on 11 March (Park

et al., 2020, p. 1).

In the study by African Academy of Hotel Industry in

several countries in Asia (Asia Standard, 2022), it was

revealed that less than 10% of the hotel industries were

affected by the hit of this pandemic. Therefore,

investigating problems those that are associated to tourism

is apparently needed. The researcher believed that

comprehending to the much arise problem will add information

on how to combat this pandemic over the years.

This study aimed to determine the impact of COVID-19 on

hotel industry of Philippines and Thailand.

1. To determine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hotel

industry of Philippines and Thailand.