QUESTION 2 Mr. Thomas, a hotel manager in the Arabian Paradise Hotel is concerned about the future of the tourism industry. As the coronavirus, COVID-19 has broken out in most of the countries, the business is almost closed. The lockdown (complete closure) was imposed by the local authorities to control the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus. After the announcement of lockdown, new tourists are not coming. The hotel industry is facing the toughest time. Revenue is stopped, and expenses are still there in the same amount such as the salary of employees, electricity bills, water and telephone bills, maintenance, etc. Another problem, Mr. Thomas is facing problems with the customers who are residing with them since the lockdown was announced. They cannot move out. As the day of paying a salary is approaching, Mr. Thomas is finding it difficult to pay salaries to the employees. Meanwhile, the government has given guidelines to not to remove any of the employees from their employment. Mr. Thomas calls a meeting to discuss the possible solutions to the challenges he is facing in the present crisis. His colleagues present in the meeting had a very positive and optimistic attitude; they all were ready to cooperate with management decisions. Major players in the tourism industry at the international level have announced significant job cuts. However, Mr. Thomas has a different idea. He understands the value of employees and he is trying to find out ways to pay their basic salary by saving money from the budget of training, incentives, and perks. He is reviewing the proposal sent by the HR manager to send some of the employees on education leave, or long leave with hall salary. Additionally, He has a plan to save money by stopping non-value adding activities. Mr. Thomas believes that this is an opportunity to cast an image of a socially responsible organization. Further, he wants to use this idle time to establish a long-term association with other players in the industry. Mr. Thomas believes that the situation will normalize, and the industry will run as usual with a smaller number of players who could survive this crisis. (10 Marks) Answer the following: 2.1 What are the challenges opportunities before the management of the Arabian Paradise Hotel in such a time of crisis? 2.2 What would you suggest to Mr. Thomas about short-term and long-term plans for overcoming the challenges posed by the COVID-19 on the tourism industry? 2.3 If you were the HR manager in the above case, what would you suggest to cut down the human resource cost in the short-term to minimize the effect of lockdown