Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Hotel Industry – Case of the Czech Republic

Abstract

This paper concerns Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the hotel industry. The main goal was to find out how the CSR activities of hotels changed during the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). The research on this topic was executed in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic, due to the local tourism diversity, provides a representative picture of the topic in a European context. A unique questionnaire survey of 154 respondents selected by quotes was performed in May 2022. Managers of hotels answered questions about CSR efforts before the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) and now. CSR activities were examined in several areas of economic, social, and environmental responsibility. The picture of CSR evolution over time influenced by the COVID-19 crisis can be seen. The paper presents several surprising facts. It shows that smaller facilities can also perform CSR and that lower annual turnover is not a barrier for hotels. The gathered data and implications are analysed in detailed contingency tables and visualized in a graph. Due to the specificity of the data, the uncertainty coefficient and Cramer's V coefficient were chosen to explore possible associations in the dataset. The largest benefit of this study is that the data represents not only external reports of CSR but also strategic thinking of hotel facilities. The next benefit of the study is a unique model of specific CSR activities that hotels perform now.