Restoring Hospitality Businesses: Organizational Resilience Practices for Effective Crisis Recovery in Sub-Saharan Africa

Wilson Mabhanda () and Peter Chihwai
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Wilson Mabhanda: Midlands State University, Department of Management Sciences
Peter Chihwai: Vaal University of Technology, Department of Tourism and Intergrated Communication

Chapter Chapter 9 in Resilience in the Hospitality and Travel Industry in Africa, 2026, pp 141-158 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract To succeed in the hospitality industry, businesses have to effectively adapt to internal and external challenges in an increasingly unpredictable and dynamic environment. Specifically, disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic have adversely affected hospitality businesses amongst others the restaurants, accommodation, and conference facilities due to the pandemic disruptions. This study explores the strategies and practices hospitality businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa can adopt to build organisational resilience and effectively recover from a crisis such as COVID-19. An examination of critical systematic literature reviews (SLRs) was used in this work. First, the SLR was carried out by employing a well-defined search methodology to find pertinent studies. 22 studies were the outcome of this approach. To find thematic areas, a content analysis was then conducted. Subsequently, a content analysis was performed to identify thematic areas. The study identifies resilient strategies aligned with the restaurants and hotels as providing accommodations, food services, and related hospitality offerings in times of crisis. The findings of this study reveal that successful recovery is linked to proactive planning, adaptability, stakeholder engagement, and innovative marketing strategies. To accomplish an effective recovery, actionable methods such as timeliness, creativity, technology advancement, skilled leadership, and modifying strategies were also employed. Further reactions to the crises included lowering hotel and restaurant prices to draw in customers, enforcing stringent sanitary regulations, and laying off employees, which created problems with job security. Nevertheless, steep drops in revenue made the lack of funding and infrastructure much worse. The study contributes to the existing literature on organisational resilience and crisis management, providing actionable insights for hospitality businesses, policymakers, and industry stakeholders seeking to enhance the sector’s resilience and sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Hospitality industry; Organisational resilience; Practices; COVID-19; Recovery crisis measures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-95-3210-0_9

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-95-3210-0_9

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