Managing Tourism Crises

Joan C Henderson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• eBook ISBN: 9781136381416
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

In a world of increasing uncertainty it is vital that managers within the tourism industry are equipped with superior decision making skills and expertise necessary to deal with crisis conditions. Tourism Crises provides an effective synthesis of crisis management and tourism research with a solid theoretical foundation. It examines the principles and practices of crisis management within the context of tourism as a multi-sector industry. Using up to date international case studies, it tackles the following areas: · Political disturbance: the relationship between politics and tourism and political inspired tourism crises. · Social unrest: host-guest relations and tourists as targets of unrest · Economic instability: crises arising from fluctuating exchange rates and lack of investor confidence · Environmental conditions: natural disasters and health crises · Technological crises; transport accidents and crises arising from technical failure · Corporate crises. Human resource issues and questions of finance With a user-friendly learning structure, each chapter will assess the presence of and tendency towards particular types of crisis, supported by a series of examples and cases, which describe organisational situations, challenges and responses. Approaches to managing crises will be assessed and appropriate tools and techniques of crisis management are explored, enabling readers to gain an insight into this critical aspect of tourism decision making and equipping them with the skills and expertise necessary to deal with crisis conditions.

1

Introduction

Learning Objectives

By the end of the chapter, the reader should be able to

Recognize the different causes of tourism crises.

Identify the characteristics of tourism crises and their various types.

Appreciate the consequences of tourism crises.

Understand the special features of the tourism industry which make it vulnerable to crisis.

Explain the key components of crisis management plans and underlying principles.

Introduction

The opening of the twenty-first century was marked by a wave of terrorist attacks, outbreaks of disease and devastating natural phenomena. Many of these incidents had local, regional and global repercussions and prompted tourism crises at corporate, industry and destination levels. Although some events were unprecedented, crisis and disaster have acquired greater prominence in recent years and the modern world appears to be one of heightened uncertainty and insecurity. Tourism cannot isolate itself from these forces and developments in the external environment have the capacity to precipitate tourism crises, as do industry and organizational circumstances. Some notable examples of tourism crises in the last decade are listed in Table 1.1, and this pattern seems set to continue in the years ahead.

A growing awareness of the threat of tourism crises and their potential to inflict harm is reflected in the number of academic publications devoted to the topic, including special editions of journals, many of which are referred to in the course of this book. More manuals and handbooks for practitioners are available and industry associations, official agencies and government bodies have been involved in their production. It is also an increasingly popular conference theme for both business and academic communities, with a strong emphasis on understanding crises and being prepared to meet them. These themes are central to this book, which deals with causes of crises, their dynamics, consequences and approaches to management.

Table 1.1: Selected tourism crises 1995–2005

Year	Event
1995	Earthquake in the Japanese city of Kobe killed over 5,500 and disrupted transport services throughout the prefecture.
1996	Indian Airlines plane hijacked on a flight from Nepal; 178 passengers released after eight days.
1997	Asian financial crisis and falling currency values depressed demand for intra-regional travel and investment in tourism.
1997	Terrorist attack on tourists visiting an historic site at Luxor in Egypt killed 58.
1998	Abduction of 16 tourists on an organized tour in Yemen, four of whom were killed.
1999	Industrial action by Cathay Pacific pilots over a labor dispute led to flight cancellations affecting thousands of passengers.
2000	Crash of a Concord plane chartered by a German tour operator at Paris killed 113.
2001	Foot and mouth outbreak in the UK restricted access to the countryside and damaged destination images.
2002	Terrorist bombings at nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali killed 191 and injured 300.
2003	Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus epidemic in Asia and Canada impacted on tourist movements and air travel.
2004	Indian Ocean tsunami in which over 200,000 estimated to have died, including 2,000 tourists in Thailand.
2005	Suicide bombings at an Amman hotel in Jordan killed 57 and injured 120.

Sources: Assorted news reports.

This first chapter provides an introduction to tourism crises and tourism crisis management. It discusses the features of such crises, their origins and evolution and recommended responses within the context of the wider literature on crisis management. Distinguishing characteristics of the tourism industry, comprising public and private actors, are outlined and shown to heighten its vulnerability to crisis, which assumes a variety of forms and is provoked by assorted catalysts. The overview stresses the significance of planning and management and sets the scene for the remainder of the book, which explores a multiplicity of tourism crises and the manner of their resolution.

Individual chapters cover tourism crises related to economic, political, socio-cultural, environmental and technological issues with additional separate chapters dedicated to questions of terrorism, health and commercial crises. The final chapter reviews the principal themes which emerge from the accounts and examines the lessons to be learned, highlighting examples of best practice and considering the challenges of implementation in an era of rapid change when the future is unknown and unpredictable. It is hoped that the book will afford new insights into the important topic of managing tourism crises, which cannot be ignored by anyone with an interest in tourism.

Tourism Crises, Causes and Consequences

There is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a crisis and different writers present their own interpretations. These do, however, frequently correspond and it appears that “three elements must be present: a triggering event causing significant change or having the potential to cause significant change; the perceived inability to cope with this change; and a threat to the existence of the foundation of the organization” (Keown-McMullan, 1997, p. 4).

A distinction can be drawn between disasters which owe their origins to factors such as extreme weather, yet impinge on industrial activity, and crises which are products of institutional stresses (Faulkner, 2001). The latter are more amenable to control, but the two have qualities in common and are connected when catastrophes outside an organization provoke a crisis within it. Emergency is another term sometimes employed interchangeably with crisis, but it refers to a less serious and therefore more easily managed event or threat. An associated concept is that of risk pertaining to latent, rather than actual, individual or sets of conditions which can become crises if realized and of sufficient gravity. Risk assessment is a key stage in planning for crisis, involving the anticipation of what might go wrong and identification of the reasons for divergences from expectations (van Waldbeek, 2005).

Every crisis is unique, yet characteristics generally cited include unexpectedness, urgency and danger (Hermann, 1972). They are precipitated by catalysts powerful enough to undermine structures and modes of operation, with repercussions for the profitability of commercial ventures which might even be destroyed (Shrivastava and Mitroff, 1987). Lives and company and individual reputations may be put in jeopardy, thereby eroding staff morale. Participants are taken by surprise and have little time to make difficult decisions in an atmosphere of tension and instability. Crises also reach a crucial point when change, for the better or worse, is unavoidable and the experience may prove beneficial for people and organizations (Prideaux et al., 2003).

Tourism crises usually share these attributes, although certain crisis situations can be predicted and lack immediacy such as those facing destinations suffering from rising sea levels due to global warming. They are also not restricted to the corporate arena and the phrase can be extended to describe circumstances in which tourists and members of the tourism industry individually or collectively, including destinations, are faced with change, which is potentially destructive for every, or certain, parties (a concept definition which is repeated at the end of the chapter). Generalizations may, however, be misleading and tourism crises display a remarkable range and variety, which it is the intention of this book to convey.

Existing typologies of corporate crises as a whole are founded on root causes (Shrivastava and Mitroff, 1987), time (Booth, 1993), gravity (Brecher, 1978) and facets of business operation (Meyers, 1986). Specific tourism crises can be classed in these ways and domain of origin or cause is a relatively straightforward method which permits comprehensive analysis. It represents the rationale for this book's organization and a conceptual framework is presented in Figure 1.1.

Causes of many tourism crises can be traced to developments in the economic, political, socio-cultural and environmental domains, which affect demand and supply in generating and destination countries. Economic downturn and recession, fluctuating exchange rates, loss of market confidence and withdrawal of investment funds can all engender a tourism crisis. Political events such as war, military coups, deteriorating international relations, the imposition of sanctions and terrorism will have a similar outcome. Civil unrest and growing crime and violence may act as triggers and natural disasters of earthquakes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions and flooding will almost inevitably do so. Deterioration in public hygiene and infectious disease also lead to tourism crises. Crises generated within the industry too can be analyzed under the headings of economic, socio-cultural and environmental when tourism has adverse impacts in these fields.

Technological is a fifth domain in which crises are initiated when technology in an assortment of manifestations fails to perform as expec...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Economic Tourism Crises
• Chapter 3: Political Tourism Crises
• Chapter 4: Terrorism and Tourism
• Chapter 5: Socio-Cultural Conflicts and Tourism
• Chapter 6: Environmental Tourism Crises
• Chapter 7: Tourism and Health Crises
• Chapter 8: Technological Failure and Tourism
• Chapter 9: Commercial Crises
• Chapter 10: Crisis, Tourism and Tourism Crisis Management
• Index