SME sustainable development challenges post COVID-19, the tourism sector, Amal Mohammed
Amal Hosny Abdelsalam Mohammed
Department of Innovation and Management in Tourism
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Salzburg
Austria
Email: amal.mohammed@student.uibk.ac.at
DOI: 10.47556/J.WJEMSD.18.3.2022.7
Purpose: This paper reviews the changes in the relationships between SME in tourism industry and sustainability dimensions: social, economic and environmental, following the COVID-19 crisis. This paper offers some reflections on changes in the relationships between SME sustainable development in tourism industry and sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes how COVID-19 impacted several sectors in tourism (hotels, tour operators, restaurants) and reviews how COVID-19 crisis is likely to negatively impact sustainable development efforts for SME in this sector.
Findings: This exploratory review of SME sustainability challenges reveals that it might be harder to maintain or adopt any sustainable practices, social, economic or environmental dimension under the financial stress and sharp decline of revenues resulted from COVID-19 crisis.
Original/value of the paper: The paper is the first attempt to investigate in how COVID-19 crisis might impact SME sustainable development in various tourism sectors.
Research limitations/implications: This review paper presents a theoretical outlines of the crisis and opens up promising research opportunities for enhancing our understanding of the changing relationships between sustainability and SME in tourism industry.
Practical implications: The paper fills the current gap in literature in sustainable tourism challenges arising from COVID-19 crisis and demonstrate in this paper the importance of governments and policy makers support to SME survival and SDG. We hope that this paper will become inspirational for academic researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy-makers who are involved in sustainable development discourse.
Keywords: SME; COVID-19; Sustainable Tourism; Corporate Responsibility; Sustainability Challenges; Sustainable Development.
Citation: Mohammed, A.H.A. (2022): SMEs' Sustainable Development Challenges Post-COVID-19: The Tourism Sector.
World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 407–424.
