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RESEARCH NOTE

A Perspective on SARS and Education


in Hospitality and Tourism
Rob Law

ABSTRACT. The highly infectious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) affected most continents in the world in 2003. While the
outcomes of different studies on SARS have been discussed in various
journals, there is an absence of published articles that examine the relationship of SARS and hospitality and tourism education. This research
note reviews the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong, analyses its influence
on hospitality and tourism education using a local university as a case
study, and offers suggestions to educators on how to deal with impacts
from diseases such as SARS and other epidemics. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH.
E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <http://www.
HaworthPress.com> 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Hong Kong, hospitality and tourism education, SARS


Rob Law is Associate Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong (E-mail:
hmroblaw@polyu.edu.hk).
Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, Vol. 5(4) 2005
Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JTTT
2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1300/J172v05n04_04

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INTRODUCTION
The SARS outbreak, caused by a type of mysterious atypical pneumonia virus, made Hong Kong globally famous in 2003, but for the
worst reasons. The epidemic started in Hong Kong in early March
2003 when a group of health care workers in a local hospital concurrently
developed a respiratory illness (Chien & Law, 2003; McKercher & Chon,
2004). The illness, which then spread to the community, became a severe
and extended epidemic until it officially ended in late June 2003 after the
World Health Organization removed Hong Kong from the list of SARS
transmission areas, declaring that Hong Kong was SARS-free. The epidemic affected 1,755 people in Hong Kong and 300 of them eventually lost
their lives (Lee, 2004). Other than causing medical problems, the SARS
virus also had a devastating economic and societal impact on the tourism
industry in Hong Kong, which the local economy largely relies on. During the SARS critical time period, most, if not all, sectors of the tourism
related industries experienced an unprecedented wide-scale cancellation
of bookings. For instance, the hotel occupancy rates in April and May
2003 were only 13.2% and 11.8%, representing 83.9% and 84.9% decreases compared to the previous year (Hotel Benchmark Survey,
2003). Similarly, the recorded hotel revenues in the same months were
about 90% less than the previous year. Inevitably, SARS negatively affected hospitality and tourism operators, who had no choice but to lay off a
large number of employees to save costs (Pine & McKercher, 2004).
Based on medical evidence, the SARS virus is highly infectious and
can be transmitted from the bodily fluid of a carrier over a short distance. This, inevitably, makes educational institutes a perfect place for
virus transmission. In the context of hospitality and tourism education,
the human-based working environment during industrial placements,
the close contact among students and lecturers, and the lack of experience in handling the epidemic all make hospitality and tourism education
vulnerable to SARS and other infections. However, the existing literature has virtually no published articles that deal with the epidemic in the
context of hospitality and tourism education. This research note, therefore, makes an attempt to bridge such a gap by offering some suggestions to hospitality and tourism educators in how to respond to SARS or
other infectious diseases. It is necessary to mention that this education-oriented paper does not offer suggestions for medical diagnosis, and
it does not aim to serve that purpose. In addition, the primary objective
of this research note is to raise the awareness of infectious diseases,
using SARS as an example, in the context of hospitality and tourism

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education. This paper, however, makes no attempt to generalize the


findings to the management of all crises.
RESPONSE OF THE HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM
EDUCATION AT A LOCAL UNIVERSITY
At the beginning of the SARS outbreak, schools were criticized for
having taken insufficient precautions, or for having taken no precautions at all, against the spread of the virus (Hui, 2003). In late March
2003, government officials in Hong Kong began to issue measures and
guidelines for schools (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2004; Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, n.d.). As the spread of SARS showed no
sign of slowing down, the Hong Kong Government announced on 27
March 2003 that classes at all schools, except for universities, would be
suspended until late April 2003. Still, local universities suspended their
classes for a period of two to three weeks, and missing lecturing materials were covered in makeup classes after the class suspension period.
As the largest provider of hospitality and tourism education in Hong
Kong, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management [SHTM] at the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University [PolyU] has a compulsory industrial
placement, or internship, for its full-time undergraduate and higher
diploma programs. Although there have been some variations since its
initial introduction in the early 1980s, the industrial placement program
offered by SHTM at PolyU has been an ongoing exercise to serve students and related industries until April 2003. After that, students could
choose to suspend their placement arrangements. Such a choice was provided, as customer contact was perceived as high-risk during that time, no
insurance was covered for SARS, and most importantly, it was SHTM
and PolyUs responsibility to ensure that their students were safe during
internship. The industry, however, had a different view, as some practitioners thought that even though the external environment was unfavorable business must still go on. For this reason, businesses needed a
workforce in order to operate and students were under pressure not to
stop their internships. Having carefully considered the related issues,
potential risks, and consequences of placing university students in this
industrial setting, the decision to suspend industrial placements was
made. The suspension of internship lasted till late August 2003, and the
full industrial placement program resumed again from September 2003.
All affected students were informed that their internship training was
flexibly assessed by counting part-time experience or by other means in

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order to minimize the influence on their graduation requirements. Eventually, all final-year SHTM students were able to graduate.
Due to the SARS outbreak, classes at PolyU were suspended for
three weeks in April 2003, and all pre-arranged activities such as hotel
visits were also cancelled. Similarly, the examinations and tests that
were originally scheduled to take place during the period of class suspension were re-arranged. Although there were no formal classes,
teaching and support staff were still required to work at the university to
provide academic counseling and learning support to students through
alternative channels. In other words, the support for students learning
still continued. In particular, lecturers had to arrange for learning materials, such as supplementary exercises, for students during the class suspension time. The communications between lecturers and students were
conducted through e-mail messages, websites, telephones, or other
means. In addition, lecturers could make modifications and adjustments
in their teaching mode and materials, and inform their students through
appropriate channels. In short, although classes were suspended, learning support was still available to all students.
IMPACT OF SARS ON HOSPITALITY
AND TOURISM EDUCATION
As an epidemic for which the world has no recent experience to deal
with, SARS imposed an unprecedented negative impact on hospitality
and tourism education in Hong Kong. Hospitality and tourism educators
limited knowledge about the virus, together with the fears of the disease
and the insufficient communications between government bodies and
education institutes, posed a critical challenge to the entire hospitality and
tourism education system. In general, hospitality and tourism educators
were unsure about how and what to do if the epidemic continued over the
medium- to long term. Specifically, these educators had no immediate
answer to the following questions:
Is it safe when hospitality and tourism students come into close contact with other people on campus or during industrial placement?
Can hospitality and tourism students sit in the same examination
hall or stay in the same dormitory with health care students?
What are the possible ways of transmitting SARS and other viruses?

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How can students continuous assessments be distributed, collected,


and graded during class suspension?
How can the component of industrial placement be evaluated when
the internship is suspended?
Most importantly, how can the quality of hospitality and tourism
education be maintained?
WHAT SHOULD HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM
EDUCATORS DO?
As mentioned, schools and the hospitality and tourism industries
could be a perfect environment for spreading harmful viruses. For this
reason, it is of particular importance for hospitality and tourism educators to work closely with medical authorities, industrial practitioners,
students, and the education community in order to minimize the risk of
infection. Specifically, hospitality and tourism educators should follow
the guidelines provided by medical authorities. More importantly, educators should act proactively to deal with the problem. A practical approach would be to set up a contingency plan with detailed descriptions
for implementation.
A few groups or a task force should be formed comprising hospitality
and tourism lecturers and supporting staff, students, university administrators, industrial practitioners, and possibly representatives from official
bodies. These groups should include, but not be limited to, the teams of
(1) internship management team to handle industrial placements, (2) staff
and student guidance team to provide assistance to staff and students, (3)
team to handle arrangements for alternative teaching and learning channels, and (4) crisis management team to deal with school management
during any outbreak. The groups should meet regularly to share experience and information. These meetings, however, should not be used to
serve individuals special interests. Furthermore, hospitality and tourism
educators should ensure that personal and environmental hygiene is
maintained by everyone on campus. Likewise, preventive measures such
as body temperature checking should be performed on a daily basis, and
suspected cases should be reported to the medical authority immediately.
Lastly, health and safety education should be included in the program syllabi. For instance, there should be a food safety management subject that
deals specifically with procedures regarding kitchen safety, and the delivery, handling, and storage of meat, vegetables, and dairy products that
can be affected by bacteria and viruses. Students are unlikely to be chefs

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during their industrial training but they are often required to handle meat,
vegetables, and dairy products in a kitchen.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Although most SARS cases were recorded in Mainland China, Hong
Kong, and Taiwan, the influence of SARS was not confined by geographical boundaries. In total, almost thirty countries in all continents except
Africa were affected. And SARS does not seem to have completely disappeared. While vaccine for SARS virus is still being tested in medical
laboratories, new cases in Mainland China in late 2003 and early 2004 offered a hint of the possible reemergence of the disease (Adiga, 2004;
Greenfeld, 2004). If proper preventive and precautionary procedures are
not taken, SARS, as well as other infectious diseases such as the outbreak
of bird flu in Asia (Reuters News Service, 2004) could potentially affect
everyone involved in hospitality and tourism education, with a possible
chance of paralyzing the whole education system. While hospitality and
tourism educators cannot contribute much in medical research, they can
certainly help to maintain education institutes and industrial environments as a safe place for students and staff.
As previously mentioned, an expected contribution by this paper is the
increased awareness of potential epidemics. The experience of SARS,
which may not be directly applicable to other crises, can surely serve as
an excellent reference for tourism and hospitality educators on managing
their programs under catastrophic situations. Recent crises caused by natural disasters such as the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in the
U.S., and terrorist attacks like the bombings in London and Bali basically
require hospitality and tourism educators to take immediate action to set
up contingency plans to deal with different potential crises.
REFERENCES
Adiga, A. (2004). SARS was an economic disaster. Could bird flu be as bad? TIME Asia
Magazine, February 9, 2004, 21.
Chien, G. C. L., & Law, R. (2003). The impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome on hotels: A case study of Hong Kong. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 22(3), 327-332.
Education and Manpower Bureau (2004, February). Handbook on prevention of SARS in
schools. Retrieved September 15, 2004, from http://www.emb.gov.hk/FileManager/
EN/Content_655/sarshandbook.pdf

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Greenfeld, K. T. (2004, January 5). The Return of SARS? Time Online Edition. Retrieved October 7, 2005, from www.time.com/nation/article/0 ,8599,570321,00.html
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (n.d.). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome: Introduction. Retrieved August 20, 2004, from www.polyu.edu.hk/cvp/index.html
Hotel Benchmark Survey. (2003, August 8). Asian Hotel & Catering Times, pp. 52-55.
Hui, P. (2003, March 20). Lack of precautions in schools criticized. South China
Morning Post, p. C4.
Lee, K. S. (2004, September 10). Continued Vigilance to Combat Possible Re-emergence of SARS. Education and Manpower Bureau circular memorandum
(No.232/2003). Retrieved April 5, 2004, from http://www.emb.gov.hk/
FileManager/EN/Content_243/EMBCM03232E.pdf
McKercher, B., & Chon, K. (2004). The over-reaction to SARS and the collapse of
Asia tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 31(3), 716-719.
Pine, R., & McKercher, B. (2004). The impact of SARS on Hong Kongs tourism
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(2),
139-143.
Reuters News Service (2004, September 10). New Vietnam bird flu death likely H5N1
typeWHO. Planet Ark. Retrieved September 10, 2004, from http://www.planetark.
com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/27042/newsDate/10-Sep-2004/story.htm

SUBMITTED: April 9, 2005


FIRST REVISION SUBMITTED: July 18, 2005
FINAL REVISION SUBMITTED: October 10, 2005
ACCEPTED: October 12, 2005
REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY

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