Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Sports www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper) 2312-5187 ISSN (Online) 2312-5179 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.3, 2015 7 Impact of HIV/AIDS on Hotel Staff Productivity in Kenya: A Survey of Selected Hotels in North Coast Erick Kithinji Mbaeh* 1 Frida Kwayera Wafula 1 Catherine Muthoni Munyi 1 Joseph Muiruri Njoroge 2 1. Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Faculty of Education and social sciences, Kenya Methodist University Kenya 2 Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Kisii University, Kenya *Corresponding author: erick.mbaeh@kemu.ac.ke or mbaeherick@yahoo.com Abstract The gist of this paper was to find out how HIV/AIDS pandemic influence the productivity of employees in Kenya’s North Coast. Although major strides have been made by the government to prevent the scourge, it is evident that many employees in the hotel industry still contract and die from the disease. To this end, the study aimed at establishing the impacts of HIV/AIDS on staff productivity and what people should do/are doing to alleviate the suffering of staff productivity in selected hotels at Kenya’s North Coast. Specifically, the study sought to investigate how absenteeism influences staff productivity, how loss of skills affect staff productivity, how employees’ increased turnover affect productivity and whether employee stigmatization affect productivity. The study reviewed two theories: the economic theory and the theory of planned behavior. Simple random sampling technique was adopted in selecting six hotels and stratified sampling to choose 43 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The major findings of the study show that a number of the hotels 9 (30%) had lost staff due to the scourge, and 23 (77%) of the respondents concurred that HIV/AIDS illness caused absenteeism in hotels working hours, and 6 (20%) of staff turnover was due to the illness. Apart from undertaking frequent HIV/AIDS campaigns to sensitize the employees on the dangers of HIV/AIDS, and implementing counseling programs, it was recommended that the management should come up with improved strategies of motivating the staff in order to raise their esteem and eventually increase productivity. Keywords: Impact, HIV & AIDS; Hotels; Staff Productivity; Pandemic; Motivation; Absenteeism 1. Introduction A business cannot make it without employees. As a human philosopher, Armstrong (2001) stated that employees are regarded as the most valued asset that individually and collectively contributes to the achievement of the organizations’ goals and objectives. Generally, employees’ productivity is the overall target in the achievement of organizational goals and achievement, thus their working condition should be critically looked upon. Employees generally need to improve their productivity as an individual or as a team, which only comes once they know what is expected of them and being focused towards effective productivity (Bjorkim, 2006). The most important thing in an industrial sector is employee’s productivity. One of the major concerns of companies and industries has focused on improving worker productivity, which is one of the job performance measures (Borman, 2004). Greuras (1996) defined productivity as a measure of output from a production process per unit of input. For example, labor productivity is typically measured as a ratio of output per labor-hour. Fiorina (2000) suggests that employee productivity is particularly an important issue to managers and supervisors as the primary purpose of their job is to get the most out of the people they are responsible for. Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries and HIV/AIDS pandemic is a persuasive element in our day to day life. It is an industry characterized by high job mobility that in itself creates increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection. Tourism is also of great importance to the economy of Kenya especially in terms of foreign currency earnings. Studies have shown that there is an increased prevalence of HIV/AIDS among the youth compared to the adults. It has also been argued that young people are engaging in pre-marital sex at an early age than before when virginity was valued. The impact is most severe among the youthful in the prime working ages of 16-55 (Armstrong, 2001). It has been declared a national disaster in Kenya, and measures to eradicate it must be sought. The society needs to be educated about it and taught measures to prevent it. If affected in one way or the other, they should be taught how to live with it given prevention measures to control it. Tourism is significantly affected by HIV/AIDS due to the mobility of the workforce, the nature of the industry, the presence of ‘sex tourism’ and resultant government’s blind eye due to overreliance on the tourism revenue. HIV/AIDS has resulted in the loss of professionals in the country. This has greatly affected the service delivery in the tourism industry. The loss of professionals and qualified personnel in the industry will result to additional operational costs (Bjorkim, 2006). The pandemic has also caused a decline in the provision of quality service due to employment of untrained and inexperienced staff to replace the professionals. Management often lose grip on the best practices of leading them to be most productive. When this happens employees become disgruntled workers more often and the quality of the work delivered suffers. At the same time, a manager can be a positive influence and lead employees in a successful manner. It is just how he approaches his job that will make the