Chapter 1: Planning for Disaster and Emergency Preparedness in Hotels

The hospitality industry in Jordan has experienced a steady increase of disasters these past few decades (Rindrasih, Witte, Spit, & Zoomers, 2019) thus increasing the importance of disaster management (Kankanamge, Yigitcanlar, & Goonetilleke, 2020; Kumar, Valeri, & Shekhar, 2021; Santos, Ramos, Sousa, Almeida, & Valeri, 2021a; Santos, Sousa, Ramos, & Valeri, 2021b; Toanoglou, Chemli, & Valeri, 2021). Key players in the hospitality organizations have increased their efforts to look for viable solutions to address unexpected events (Rosselló, Becken, & Santana-Gallego, 2020) with the potential to threaten the operational survival of many organizations in the hospitality industry (Chemli, Toanoglou, & Valeri, 2020; Mitroff, 2004; Motta & Sharma, 2020). These unwelcomed events are potential threats for both the private and public sectors (Beirman, 2020; Prideaux, 2004; Ritchie, 2009). The most effective way to resolve disasters, according to Kash and Darling (1998), lies in evaluating the present level of disaster planning and preparedness in the hospitality industry and examining the relationship between disaster planning activities, disaster preparedness and organizational characteristics such as type, size and age (Ahmad, Jamaludin, Zuraimi, & Valeri, 2020; Hosie & Pforr, 2009; Severin, Lyons, & Weber, 2019; Valeri & Katsoni, 2021).