Issues and Challenges Faced by SME’s in Sultanate of Oman during COVID-19: A Case Study of the Tourism Sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.89.10819Keywords:
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), SME and Covid-19, Oman Tourism, Oman SMEsAbstract
The world economy has been greatly affected by Covid-19 and Oman has been among the countries facing challenges in the operation of SMEs in handling of business needs and meeting regular fixed costs. The SMEs most affected are those in the tourism sector where travel restrictions and lockdowns could not allow the businesses to receive visitors as expected who are the customers to the services and products offered. Using the sample size of 187 participants who own or work at the SMEs in tourism sector, it was established that the applied legislations and restrictions of movement had a positive correlation to SMEs business operations with a positive correlation coefficient of 0.478. However, a recommendation to the issues and challenges were issued stating that SMEs should invest in technology & tools, creation of an oversight of SME financial status, prioritising of value over culture, and trusting & empowering the people that deal with SMEs.
References
Connelly, L. and Peltzer, J. (2016) Underdeveloped themes in qualitative research: Relationship with interviews and analysis. Clinical nurse specialist, 30(1), pp.52-57
Da Silva, F. and Núñez, G. (2021) Free competition in the post-pandemic digital era: The impact on SMEs.
Razumovskaia, E. and Shelyakin, V. (2020) The Effectiveness of Russian Government Policy to Support SMEs in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 6(4), 160
Yong, A. and Pearce, S. (2018) A beginner’s guide to factor analysis: Focusing on exploratory factor analysis. Tutorials in quantitative methods for psychology, 9(2), pp.79-94
Grayson, S., Doerr, M. and Yu, J. (2020) Developing pathways for community-led research with big data: a content analysis of stakeholder interviews. Health Research Policy and Systems, 18(1), pp.1-12
Chuang, H. (2020) Could independent companies assume a critical part in the Coronavirus recuperation? [Online] Available from https://www.sc.com/en/navigate-the-future/smes-role-in-the-covid-19-recovery/ [24th March, 2021]
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Yasser Alhanai, Dr. Maria Teresa Matriano
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
