Because of the economic crisis almost all businesses are navigating difficult times with severe consequences for employment and the whole economy. The initial economic downturn, has affected almost all sectors of the economy. The economic crisis leaded the companies cut off investments, wages, and reduced personnel. Nevertheless, the high rate of unemployment reduced workers’ income resulting to a further reduction of consumption. The whole situation simply feeds a recession cycle that cannot break without radical economic reform for the whole country and its economic activities. The main purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the influence of economic recession on hotel performance in Abia state, Nigeria. To achieve the objective of the study, survey research design was adopted. The researcher adopted primary data in getting the required information through the use of structured questionnaire. 210 management staff from 15 selected hotels in Abia State, Nigeria constitute the sample size of the study. Data collected were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that economic recession (income rate, cost of production, and unemployment rate) has significant influence on customer patronage of hotels in the study area. The study recommends that government of Nigeria should work towards reducing the rising rate of inflation and other economic crisis to encourage businesses including hotel business in Nigeria. Also, Hotel industry in the midst of recession should cut down their cost of operation such as reducing unnecessary expenses that are not very important to the business. That would help in improving their performance.
Keywords: Cost of production, Economic Recession, Hotel performance, income rate., unemployment rate
