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ABSTRACT
The current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected countries all over the world in unprecedented ways. Honduras -a Central American country that for years has been focusing on the development of its tourism sector- has been hard hit by the measures implemented to contain the spread of the virus. The closing of borders, academic institutions, government establishments and the suspension of all work activity in the public and private sector in March of 2020 crippled the economy and hurt many businesses. Moreover, the prohibition of public transportation, public events and all sports, social and cultural activities resulted in a change of behavior of both national and international citizens who began to avoid leaving their homes to prevent getting infected with the virus. This thesis dissertation therefore focuses on exploring the resilient responses that hotels in Honduras have had to implement since the beginning of the pandemic. Data collection and its analysis aimed to provide an answer to the following research question: What resilient responses have been developed by the Honduran hotel industry as a result of changes in tourist behavior in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Findings of this research show that hotels have been through three phases: response, recovery and renewal. During each phase, different actions were taken, all which aimed to respond to the new behavior of tourists caused by the pandemic. The conclusion is that all hotels have been affected. Nonetheless, since remote, open-air destinations are now greatly preferred, hotels linked to beach tourism, eco-tourism and cultural-tourism have not been forced to be too innovative with their strategies, as they already possess the outdoor, nature-like setting that people are now desperately looking for. It is those hotels linked with tourism business the ones that have had to think outside of the box in order to attract guests and have more chances to thrive in this “new normal”.

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