Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the
performance of the tourism sector in Sri Lanka. There is a dearth of
studies that have used a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to assess the impact
of COVID-19 on the tourism industry. The impact of COVID-19 on the
performance is measured by developing a BSC including; financial,
customer, learning and growth, and internal business indicators. This
study collects primary data using a questionnaire from 110 tourist
accommodation providers. Initially, the reliability and validity of the
questionnaires are ensured and conducted the descriptive analysis to
measure the impact on the performance. In addition, due to the lack of
normality in the data set of this study, the Kruskal Wallis test was
performed to analyze the difference in performance between the number
of employees, star ratings, and the number of years in existence. The
findings revealed that there is a high-level impact on all performance
indicators. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 does not change
according to the number of employees and the star rating but there is a
difference in financial performance with the number of years in
existence. The findings of this study create the BSC to assess the impact
of COVID-19 on the tourism industry which adds new knowledge to
stakeholder theory. The methodology, findings, and recommendations
of the study are academically and professionally significant for a variety
of hotel sector firms, the tourist board, and policymakers.
