How are small and medium- sized hotels of Valparaíso prepared for natural crises?
Fjällberg, Laura (2018)
Fjällberg, Laura
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018081514508
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018081514508
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis was to find out how prepared the small and medium -sized hotels of Valparaíso are for natural crises. Hotel business environment is extremely vulnerable for external changes – such as natural crises, which are not uncommon in Chile. It is one of the countries with the highest seismic activity in the world and has a variety of different natural crises occurring usually several times a year. To delimit the topic, research focused only on the city of Valparaíso which is where I lived during 2015 and 2016. Thesis was written between years 2015 and 2018.
Crisis management has become an important term lately. There is room for more studies focusing especially on natural crises, their effects and how to get well-prepared for them for the business activities to continue as normal as possible after crises and to lessen the losses during them.
The theoretical part of this thesis is divided in four chapters; introduction to the thesis, introduction to different kinds of natural disasters, historical background of Valparaíso related to natural crises and crisis management in business environment. Especially the fourth chapter is important since it is mapping out different ways to prepare hotels for natural crises. The two first chapters are important as well since they are giving a deeper understanding of the phenomena and how connected they are to the studied region.
Based on the findings in the theoretical part, 20 semi-structured questions were formed for an in-depth interview that was conducted to three managers of small and medium- sized hotels of Valparaíso to get more understanding on how they had prepared their businesses for natural crises. Experiences of previous natural crises were discussed as well, along with the possible reasons for different outcomes.
It seems that small and medium -sized hotels of Valparaíso are not very well formally prepared for natural crises. Anyhow, the informal preparation - such as the knowledge based on experience that Chilean employees have, and strong buildings that can withstand earthquakes - is on a good level. Some issues that were brought up during discussions were the lack of insurances as they are almost impossible to obtain because of their high price and the need for more help from the Chilean government. More research is needed in natural crises management in the hotel industry as well as a broader study on the preparedness of hotels of Valparaíso. More widely, preparedness of hotels in Chile for natural crises could be a good topic for future research.
Crisis management has become an important term lately. There is room for more studies focusing especially on natural crises, their effects and how to get well-prepared for them for the business activities to continue as normal as possible after crises and to lessen the losses during them.
The theoretical part of this thesis is divided in four chapters; introduction to the thesis, introduction to different kinds of natural disasters, historical background of Valparaíso related to natural crises and crisis management in business environment. Especially the fourth chapter is important since it is mapping out different ways to prepare hotels for natural crises. The two first chapters are important as well since they are giving a deeper understanding of the phenomena and how connected they are to the studied region.
Based on the findings in the theoretical part, 20 semi-structured questions were formed for an in-depth interview that was conducted to three managers of small and medium- sized hotels of Valparaíso to get more understanding on how they had prepared their businesses for natural crises. Experiences of previous natural crises were discussed as well, along with the possible reasons for different outcomes.
It seems that small and medium -sized hotels of Valparaíso are not very well formally prepared for natural crises. Anyhow, the informal preparation - such as the knowledge based on experience that Chilean employees have, and strong buildings that can withstand earthquakes - is on a good level. Some issues that were brought up during discussions were the lack of insurances as they are almost impossible to obtain because of their high price and the need for more help from the Chilean government. More research is needed in natural crises management in the hotel industry as well as a broader study on the preparedness of hotels of Valparaíso. More widely, preparedness of hotels in Chile for natural crises could be a good topic for future research.