Strategic Management of the COVID-19 Crisis in Rural Tourism Settings: Lessons Learned From SMEs

Introduction

As stated by Mikusová (2013), research on crisis management has not devoted much attention to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This neglect is especially striking in the tourism industry because the vast majority of firms engaged in it are SMEs. This represents an evident research gap and, therefore, an opportunity.

The abovementioned author concludes that this kind of organisations “still put a relatively small emphasis on crisis planning. The only impulse for concern seems to be a real crisis occurrence. Organisations which have not gone through crises yet are dealing with prevention rarely” (p. 62). This unconcern should be corrected, at least to some extent, after the traumatic experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Negative events of a sudden or unforeseen nature, and particularly those which have little potential of being controlled (such as the case of this health disaster), are the ones most prone to causing a crisis which can be further aggravated by incorrect management (Vargas-Sánchez, 2018). It is worth noting that the strategy and actions to manage this effectively will rely on the nature of the disaster (Hall, 2010), In this case it is global, long-lasting and with no precedents that could be taken as a benchmark.

Authors such as Vargas-Sánchez (2020b) have expressed their conviction that the COVID-19 pandemic and its legacy, together with other factors, such as the ongoing exponential tech revolution and the pressures in favour of sustainability coming from governments’ plans for the mitigation of climate change and the application of circular economy principles, may transform tourism. In this regard, Jones and Comfort (2020) echo some voices that have seen the COVID-19 crisis as a test for climate change and a strong focus on sustainability, taking tourism into a new era. As stated by Zenker and Kock (2020, p. 3): “Sentences like ‘things will never be the way they used to be’ are often heard after disasters and crises, but mostly proved wrong as we go back to our normal routines. However, this time some aspects of our behaviour might be affected by true paradigm-shifts”.

In general, the tourism sector is being severely beaten by this disaster, although not all segments are being equally affected. In relative terms, losers and winners could be identified, with rural tourism as part of the latter group (Vargas-Sánchez, 2020a), with this market segment being widely dominated by SMEs. Thereby, the results of a recent study at the Spanish State level published in a specialised portal¹, titled ‘The impact of COVID-19 on rural tourism’, support that assertion. As a token, during the 2020 summer, almost half of rural accommodations experienced an increase in demand compared to pre-pandemic figures.

This is also the case of the area chosen for this study, the Spanish province of Huelva, with a renowned natural heritage and where rural tourism was already gaining traction before the pandemic. In this geographical area, which could serve as a starting point to expand this research to other rural destinations, the study has three aims:

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  to find out how the aftermath of this unprecedented crisis is being managed;

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  to know what lessons have been learnt from it and, finally, when heading towards the future,

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  to identify opportunities at a time of rethinking the rural tourism model/offer to secure its sustainability (economic, social and environmental) in the post-COVID-19 scenario.

In short, to stimulate the development of rural areas and alleviate the chronic problems of their depopulation, the progressive ageing of these communities, their lack of infrastructures, environmental degradation, etc., which affect society as a whole, tourism has been extensively encouraged to diversify their economic base and generate new opportunities for their residents. Accordingly, this diversification has been proposed as an anti-crisis development strategy for rural territories (Ilnitsky and Chikurova, 2015), and as an engine to increase their resilience (Ibanescu et al., 2020) and improve their territorial dynamics (Sánchez-Zamora et al., 2014).