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The COVID-19 crisis has affected almost all the global sectors. The hotel industry, however, was hit hardest challenging the leadership. This study, therefore, attempts to explore the challenges hospitality leadership in India face to navigate the crisis. The study additionally addresses how leaders manage the expectations of key stakeholders; communicate hard decisions with employees, pursue strategies for revival and explores the role of technology to survive the crisis.

The study adopts a qualitative approach involving structured interviews with 16 senior hospitality leaders consisting of CEO, vice president, general managers, directors, entrepreneur and general managers from various organisations like hotels, restaurant chains, food services and facilities management services. Data were content analysed involving coding techniques.

The leadership challenges included making customers and employees feel safe, optimising operations, agility and resilience of leaders, maintaining a balance between stakeholders, managing employee stress and ensuring cash reserves. The study found that leaders manage the expectation of various stakeholders by maintaining balance, demonstrating empathy and agility. The hard decisions are communicated with the employees through involvement, empathy and alleviating stress.

The study contributes by identifying twelve themes from the participants' responses under five major themes-labelled as leadership challenges, managing stakeholders, communicating with the employees, the role of technology and best practices of surviving the crisis. Future research can be conducted on such sub-themes in different countries.

As the tourism industry in India is recovering after the second wave, the governments along with all stakeholders, must launch special events for promoting the tourism sector. Safety measures like making vaccination certificates for all tourists and employees of the tourism sector should be made mandatory. Further, special certification following the COVID-19 protocol needs to be introduced for hotels and catering establishments. A fund generated from the sector's direct tax contribution needs to be established to support the employees.

The study has several social implications. The study results can unite all industry stakeholders to shape the post-pandemic era through collaboration. Empathetic leadership can take the industry out of chaos by balancing the interests of the various stakeholders of society. The pandemic has proven that we all are vulnerable to risks and challenges; leaders have a vital role in taking proactive steps to ensure that such uncertainties do not cause unprecedented damage.

This study expanded the research on the hospitality leadership challenges in managing crises in the backdrop of the crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The conceptual model, variables, themes and sub-themes utilised are original contributions to the hospitality literature.

The incidents of hotel theft constitute a significant cause of concern for the hotel industry. Such incidents result in substantial financial implications, inventory management issues and complications in finding exact replacements. This study, therefore, investigates customer stealing practices in Indian hotel industry.

A structured email interview was conducted with twenty-five senior hotel managers. The data were analyzed by adopting a coding technique using inductive content analysis.

The results were discussed under seven headings-extent of such stealing incidents, financial consequences of such practices, strategies to prevent such instances and, finally, how to deal with customers when caught stealing.

This study highlighted themes related to the profile of customers involved in stealing practices, motives, consequences and strategies required to manage such customers. Future studies can focus on restaurants, airlines, airports and tourist attractions to identify strategies and best practices for preventing such practices.

The study's findings have tremendous potential for the hospitality industry. Dealing with customers’ stealing practices is a very sensitive issue. Furthermore, hotels bear lots of expenses if the policy for tackling the problem still needs to be implemented. Furthermore, if not handled professionally, a lack of effective guidelines can cause embarrassment for managers.

The study has the potential to raise awareness among the members of society to be more responsible toward hotel property.

This study extends to the limited literature on hotel guests' theft. The comprehensive analysis of the themes generated from an interview with the senior managers of the hotel industry provides a unique insight into the nature of the problem. The solutions offered in this study are an original contribution to the literature.

The study aims, based on the symbiotic relationship between tourism agencies and various stakeholders, to investigate what “policy-level” partners would advise their “practice-level” counterparts on, first, how the World Heritage Site (WHS) status of monuments can be made attractive for travellers, and second, what steps can be taken by stakeholders to enhance the WHS tourist experience.

A qualitative approach involving e-mail interviews was adopted. Content analyses of open-ended exploratory questions put to “policy-level” respondents yielded 10 major themes that can enhance the brand appeal of the WHS.

The findings offer in-depth solutions for better trip experiences of Heritage Tourists. Insights from the responses under ten thematic areas have direct relevance for application by tourism and hospitality facilitators.

Although this study was conducted in India, its findings hold implications for practice throughout the world. They could similarly be incorporated as elements of policy directed at incentivising communication of the value of preserving heritage for future generations.

While previous research focused on stakeholders for planning and policy making, this study explores the stakeholder's perspective for a more comprehensive understanding of how using the WHS brand can generate more holistic tourism development.

The purpose of this study is to determine how consumers perceive restaurant service in Bangladesh. The goal of this study is to determine the impact of perceived service quality and price fairness on consumer satisfaction and loyalty toward restaurant services.

The data for this study were collected from 326 respondents who have used restaurant services in Bangladesh. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the research data with SmartPLS 3.3.3.

The current study’s findings indicate that perceived service quality and price fairness both have a direct and significant effect on consumer satisfaction. Additionally, the research findings reveal a considerable association between perceived pricing fairness and consumer pleasure and consumer loyalty. Additionally, findings indicate that perceived service quality and price fairness both have a significant indirect effect on customer loyalty via the mediating effect of consumer satisfaction.

The current study demonstrates that perceived price fairness has a substantial effect on restaurant consumers’ satisfaction and loyalty; thus, this evidence can assist restaurant owners and managers in developing and implementing their pricing strategy to retain customers. Additionally, the findings have significant implications for restaurant operators, practitioners and policymakers.

Only a few research have been conducted to determine the effect of service quality and pricing fairness on consumer satisfaction and loyalty when it comes to restaurant services. This research conclusion provides guidance to service providers on how to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty through an emphasis on price fairness and service quality.

Hotel classification systems are used to convey information about facilities and services. Yet, they have been prone to criticism for overemphasizing facilities at the expense of other matters of importance to service quality. In contrast, online travel agents (OTAs) use innovative methods to evaluate satisfaction with hotels. Conventional systems will lose relevance if they do not step up to consider service aspects associated with customer satisfaction. This chapter probes five hotel classification systems along with one OTA and leverages the literature to propose an improved framework classification. This is based on nine critical areas that include service quality, infrastructure, facilities and services, human resources, sustainability, safety and security, accessibility, quality systems, and online hotel ratings.

The Industry 4.0 revolution (I4.0) brings significant transformations in the travel and tourism industry. Advanced technologies like virtual reality, automation and robotics have paved the way for ‘seamless travel’. The educators are also under pressure to upgrade the curriculum to impart such skills among students, but suitable teaching methods shall also be required. Such practices include event-based education, interdisciplinary collaboration, teamwork, presentation skills and many other adaptative techniques. Hackathons, an essential part of ‘event-based education’, can support the I4.0 paradigm for Industry and academia. This study analyses six hackathons organised by Industry and academic institutions to explore how they contributed to solving the Industry's problems and imparting I4.0 skills among students.

In the strategic management literature mission statements are said to be an inseparable part of corporate strategy. It has been argued that they have an impact on the performance of the organization, yet the evidence is unclear. This study is an investigation into the relationship between the financial success of hospitality enterprises and their mission statements. Mission statements of 30 top hospitality enterprises were evaluated. This sample is of significance as it represents some of the largest corporations, and about 200 of the largest brands in the hospitality industry. The mission statements were scored and these scores were tested for correlation with three financial performance indicators. The results indicated that while there was a statistically significant correlation between the mission statements and the annual turnover, there was no significant correlation with the net profit margin or the return on equity. The article concludes by considering how firms may improve their performance by better managing their mission statements.