Open AccessJOB SECURITY CRISIS AT THE HOTEL INDUSTRY TOWARDS INTENTION TO QUIT DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Author(s) -
Samihah Suhail,
Norsiah Mat,
Zuraida Hassan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of tourism, hospitality and environment management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0128-178X
DOI - 10.35631/jthem.624003
Subject(s) - salary , tourism , gloom , business , covid-19 , hotel industry , unemployment , revenue , economic growth , economics , finance , market economy , geography , medicine , disease , archaeology , pathology , neuroscience , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology
The emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia last year has caused the tourism industry to be squeezed with various challenges. Based on current statistics for 2019 which recorded an increase in foreign tourist arrival of 2.7 percent, with an increase of 6.8 percent over the previous year. However, the national tourism sector experienced a severe decline in the percentage of foreign tourist arrivals due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The COVID-19 crisis is a new crisis that has hit the hotel industry around the world, including Malaysia. The gloom of the tourism industry also effects the number of visitors and tourists staying at the hotel. This is because Malaysia is one of the tourisms led countries where the hotel industry is a major contributor to the overall GDP of the country’s economy. This has resulted in many hotels in Malaysia being forced to close temporarily or wind up. For the record, a total of 109 hotels had to close in 2020. Based on data from the Malaysian Hotel Association in 2020, a total of 542 people equivalent to 3 percent of workers were laid off, while 20 percent (3,641) were asked to take unpaid leave and a total of (2,880), 16 percent had faced pay cuts. On the part of the hotel management, salary cuts, termination of rewards and layoffs are some of the drastic actions that have to be taken to ensure business continuity. However, this approach is seen as unfair for hotel workers. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the relationship of job security towards intention to quit during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data of the study involved respondents from the state of Kedah. The population for this study was 1,230 employees working in 40 hotels in Kedah. The target of the population, 291 employees were identified through cluster sampling. In addition, the data of this study was collected using a distributed questionnaire while for the data analysis process using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS). The results from the analysis found that job security had not a significant relationship with the intention to quit.