MSMEs’ resilience strategies during the Covid-19 Crisis: a case of the tourism sector in South Africa

MSMEs are widely regarded as important building blocks for economic prosperity and broader social well-being for both developed and developing nations. However, MSMEs face several challenges that impede their ability to fully provide the much-needed boost to the socio-economic development of countries. Tourism MSMEs are often significantly impacted by crises that include economic downturns, natural disasters, and public health emergencies that destroy infrastructure and affect human movement, notably the outbreak of pandemics and epidemics. The Covid-19 pandemic altered every business operation across the globe. This was mainly because the pandemic was new and no reference case for the Covid-19 crisis existed in living memory. As such the survival of all businesses was at high risk, particularly, the tourism MSMEs in South Africa. The industry’s operations were severely affected by the restrictions imposed by the government of South Africa especially in the year 2020 and 2021. Despite operating their businesses in a crisis, the tourism MSMEs entrepreneurs exhibited resilience as they navigated the pandemic, through being agile, adaptive, and exploring new opportunities of operating and utilising government support. It is in this regard that gaining a deeper understanding of the resilience strategies that were employed by the tourism MSMEs during and strategies being employed during post Covid-19 pandemic crisis is of paramount significance. The study adopted qualitative interpretivist approach through document analysis. Collected data was analysed using the ATLAS.ti.software. The study concludes that even though the Covid-19 had some devastating effects on the MSMEs tourism entrepreneurs, that are still being felt now, it forced the entrepreneurs to adapt and be innovative. It is in this regard that the study concludes that the identified strategies are very vital for the survival of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study also concludes that the tourism MSMEs entrepreneurs became more resilient to the pandemic as it progressed hence, they implemented the identified strategies revealed by the study findings.