Assessing Counter-Terrorism Preparedness in the Hospitality Industry: Evidence from Dusit D2 Hotel, in Nairobi, Kenya
Abstract
This paper quantitatively assessed employee perceptions regarding the operational counter-terrorism preparedness and the adequacy of mitigation strategies at the Dusit D2 Hotel in Nairobi, following the critical 2019 attack. The research employed a quantitative, cross-sectional design, utilising Stratified Random Sampling to survey 110 employees, achieving an 83.3% response rate from the target sample. Data analysis utilised descriptive statistics and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to compare perceptions across three employment cadres: Top Management, Middle Management, and First-level Staff. The findings revealed a critical imbalance in the hotel's security posture. While the organisation shows high confidence in its physical and technological mitigation measures (e.g., Mass Notification Systems and Physical Barriers), its operational readiness is severely undermined by human and procedural deficiencies. The ANOVA results showed a statistically significant difference (p=0.033) in the perceived Overall Operational Preparedness across the employment cadres, confirming a distinct preparedness gradient where confidence diminishes significantly from Top Management to First-level Staff. Further analysis established that an overwhelming 74.0% of all employees deemed the counter-terrorism training to be inadequate, a systemic failure that held true across all hierarchical levels (p=0.331). The study concludes that the hotel's operational resilience is compromised by a critical failure to translate strategic security measures into confident, actionable capabilities among the frontline workforce
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