[01] Ahmad Rasmi AlBattat, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. [02] Ahmad Puad Mat Som, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. [03] Azizan Marzuki, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. [04] Ayesha Farooq, Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah, Malaysia.

Proactive emergency planning is very important for hospitality industry, which may be prone to a range of internal and external disasters and emergencies. In spite of the importance of hotels in the hospitality industry, a lack of research has been undertaken to explore the hotel emergency management. Researchers were concerned about disaster response or recovery rather than proactive emergency planning and follow descriptive methods. This study aims to review some attempts to investigate how proactive emergency planning could mitigate disaster impacts. The findings of this study are based on qualitative research method, conducting face-to-face semi-structured interviews with industry key players in Malaysia. This study reviews the governmental statistics and reviews the tourist arrivals. Furthermore, analyses the occupancy rate during disasters. In the sample of 33 interviews majority of respondents indicated that the hospitality industry in Malaysia has been affected by several disasters. Respondents emphasize that the organization type, age, and size had a great effect on proactive planning and whether if the organization faced a disaster before. Although there was a governmental proactive strategy to plan for disasters and learn from the past to overcome the effect of such events and quick return to normality. But unfortunately, proactive emergency planning for the disaster has been a dereliction by industry key players.

Proactive Planning, Disaster, Hospitality, Malaysia

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