Managing Tourist Health and Safety in the New Millennium

Jeff Wilks, J Stephen, F. Moore

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780080440002
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136381348
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Managing Tourist Health is a seminal study which combines a range of state of the art reviews of the issues facing tourism managers and professionals in the fast growing area of tourist health and safety. An international range of contributors, each a specialist in their chosen field, have written papers for this book to explain many of the complex issues affecting tourists, the tourism industry and governments in ensuring tourism is viewed as a safe and enjoyable experience for all. The contributors have a wealth of interdisciplinary experience ranging from medicine, law, tourism research, safety science, ergonomics, management, consultancy among other cognate areas of study. Future research directions are examined in many of the chapters together with current state of the art knowledge in relation to key studies. The editors have worked in this area of research since the late 1980s and have accumulated a wide range of academic, professional and consultancy experience for governments and the private sector. The book extends this understanding through a multi-disciplinary perspective combining some of the leading researchers who have published in this area since the emergence of tourist health as a legitimate area of study in the 1970s.

Chapter 1

Current Status of Tourist Health and Safety

Jeff Wilks and Stephen J. Page

The terrorist attacks in the United States of America on 11 September 2001 changed forever our views of traveller safety and security. The impact of these attacks has been far-reaching and has seriously affected the way the tourism industry operates. One month after the event, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that nine million jobs would be lost in the tourism industry as a direct result of these attacks and predicted that it will take years for employment to return to pre-11 September levels (www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2001/36.htm).

While 11 September 2001 focused world attention on terrorism, it is important to appreciate that tourist health, safety and security issues have been quietly gaining recognition in the background during the past decade. ‘In the background’ is the qualifier, as tourism is about selling dreams. Irrespective of how important health and safety issues become, some tourism-marketing officials will always play them down since ‘bad news’ in any form is not conducive to selling holidays (Wilks & Oldenburg 1995).

This attitude toward tourist health and safety is slowly changing as public liability insurance becomes more difficult to obtain and insurers are requiring operators to minimise their exposure to claims by adopting ‘best practice’ risk management strategies (Liability Insurance Taskforce 2002). Best practice strategies call for an acceptance that things may go wrong; that customers are sometimes injured; that in contract law promises about a holiday must be kept; and that regular staff training and operations monitoring are a necessary component of modern business. In the United Kingdom, recent research by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) estimated that around 5% of the 20 million annual package holidays taken overseas had customers who were fairly or very dissatisfied. Health, safety and security issues certainly feature as one element in the tourist dissatisfaction equation (Anonymous 2001). However, tourist health and safety is no longer just a burden for the industry. In many cases good health and safety practices generate income (Caribbean HEAT www.carec.org/projects/ hotels/carib_heat.htm; Hospedales 1997) and at the very least, good practices will prevent lawsuits, disappointment, financial cost and lost customers.

This book explores the developing topic of tourist health and safety at the beginning of the new millennium. Throughout the book the general term ‘health, safety and security in tourism’ refers to the protection of life, health and the physical, psychological and economic integrity of travellers, tourism employees and host communities. It also implies the safeguarding of the security interests of tourism entrepreneurs and operators and the countries sending and receiving visitors. This is the risk identification approach adopted by the World Tourism Organization (2003).

Sources of Health, Safety and Security Risk in Tourism

According to the World Tourism Organization (2003), risks to the safety and security of tourists, host communities and tourism employees originate from the following four sources:

• The human and institutional environment outside the tourism sector;
• The tourism sector and related commercial sectors;
• Individual travellers (personal risks); and
• Physical or environmental risks (natural, climatic, and epidemic).

It is worth exploring these to illustrate the full extent of potential risks in each sector.

The Human and Institutional Environment

The risks from the human and institutional environment exist when visitors fall victim to:

• Common delinquency (e.g. theft, pick-pocketing, assault, burglary, fraud, deception);
• Indiscriminate and targeted violence (e.g. rape) and harassment;
• Organized crime (e.g. extortion, slave trade, coercion);
• Terrorism and unlawful interference (e.g. attacks against state institutions and the vital interests of the state), hijacking and hostage taking;
• Wars, social conflicts and political and religious unrest; and
• A lack of public and institutional protection services.

Risks that occur in the broader community impact similarly on tourists and residents. Tourists are not always targeted, but are often caught up in events by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Protection of tourists at this level is the responsibility of national governments and contributes to whether a destination is perceived to be safe.

Tourism and Related Sectors

Through defective operation, tourism and sectors related to tourism such as transport, sports, and retail trade can endanger visitors’ personal security, physical integrity and economic interests through:

• Poor safety standards in tourism establishments (e.g. fire, construction errors, lack of anti-seismic protection);
• Poor sanitation and disrespect for the environment's sustainability;
• The absence of protection against unlawful interference, crime and delinquency at tourism facilities;
• Fraud in commercial transactions;
• Non-compliance with contracts; and
• Strikes by staff.

The protection of tourists from problems occurring in areas directly related to tourism is the joint responsibility of tourism authorities at each destination, tourism industry associations and relevant sectors of local government. Problems in this area are not necessarily the ‘fault’ of the tourism industry, but can have a dramatic and negative effect on a destination's image. For example, the Childers backpacker fire in Queensland during 2000 resulted in the deaths of 12 overseas visitors (Queensland Fire and Rescue Authority 2000). A jury found Robert Paul Long guilty on 18 March 2002 of two counts of murder and one count of arson. Even though Long was not in any way associated with the tourism industry, the fact that tourists were killed in the fire focused international media attention on Queensland as a travel destination. The fire also drew attention to widespread problems of fire safety within Queensland budget accommodation, resulting in a massive government audit of all facilities throughout the State.

Individual Travellers

Travellers or visitors can endanger their own safety and security, and those of their hosts by:

• Practicing dangerous sports and leisure activities, dangerous driving, and consuming unsafe food and drink;
• Travelling when in poor health, which may deteriorate during the trip;
• Causing conflict and friction with local residents, through inappropriate behaviour toward local communities or by breaking local laws;
• Carrying out illicit or criminal activities (e.g. trafficking in illicit drugs);
• Visiting dangerous areas; and
• Losing personal effects, documents and money through carelessness.

Most travel health and safety problems occur at the level of individual travellers. Studies of insurance claims, for example, show that minor illness, lost luggage and theft predominate (Ryan 1996; Leggat & Leggat 2002). Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of injury-related death for tourists’ worldwide (Wilks 1999; Page et al. 2001), followed by drowning (Wilks 2003). Unfamiliar adventure activities, such as scuba diving, account for a significant number of tourist hospital admissions each year (Wilks & Coory 2000; 2002), while pre-existing illness continues to be the main cause of fatalities (Wilks, Pendergast & Wood 2002).

For many years there was an expectation, probably stemming from the tourist operator's legal ‘duty of care’ responsibilities (see Atherton & Atherton 1998) that travellers should be protected from the consequences of their own actions. This seems to be changing. While operators still have a duty to warn customers of things that are unfamiliar and perhaps unexpected, the onus of taking responsibility for yourself and your actions seems to have, at least to some extent, moved back to the individual traveller. Travellers now have access to a vast knowledge base about travel issues and therefore they have fewer excuses for being uninformed or unprepared for travel. At the same time, people are looking for vacation experiences that are very different to their day-to-day routines. Consequently, there is currently an enormous growth in the area of adventure travel. Later chapters specifically examine the health and safety issues that arise from adventure travel, and the role and responsibilities of both operators and participants.

Physical and Environmental Risks

Finally, physical and environmental damage can occur if travellers:

• Are unaware of the natural characteristics of the destination, in particular its flora and fauna;
• Are not medically prepared for the trip (vaccinations, prophylaxis);
• Do not take the necessary precautions when consuming food or drink or for their hygiene; and
• Are exposed to dangerous situations arising from the physical environment (e.g. natural disasters and epidemics).

Physical and environmental risks are also largely personal risks, but are not caused deliberately. Rather, these result from the traveller's ignorance or his/her disregard for potential risks. While physical and environmental risks do not feature prominently in the tourist health and safety literature, a single environmental disaster has the potential to claim a large number of lives (World Tourism Organization and World Meteorological Organization 1998).

Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States, the term ‘risk management’ has become strongly associated with the physical safety and security of travellers. Surveys show that consumers list safety and security as a very high priority (Taylor 2001) and businesses have needed to respond accordingly. While there are many types of risk to which the tourism industry must respond across the four broad areas identified earlier, the focus of the new millennium centres on the physical safety of customers and staff.

The chapters in this book reflect the current interest in physical safety, especially prevention of injuries in adventure tourism activities. As travellers worldwide become more interested and involved in ecotourism, personal health promotion, outdoor activities and travel to remote destinations, the growth of adventure tourism will continue. Given that the research shows international tourists are most likely to be injured or killed while in unfamiliar environments and while participating in unfamiliar activities (Page & Meyer 1996), the focus on adventure tourism is timely and appropriate.

Figure 1.1: Risk management overview.

Risk Management

Any current discussion about the health and safety of tourists must include an appreciation of risk management as a concept, and the steps required to systematically address potential problem areas confronting most modern businesses. A national standard for risk management has been available in Australia and New Zealand since 1995 (Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand 1999). The standard provides a step-by-step framework for taking control of risks and their impacts. The basic framework is presented in Figure 1.1 and is well suited to managing the risks associated with tourist health, safety and security.

Identifying Risks

Most of the available literature on tourist health and safety is at the level of identifying risk, and to a lesser extent, understanding its causes and consequences. However, there are still significant gaps in our knowledge, especially across destinations. One approach to identifying health and safety risks for tourists is to consider ‘snapshots’ of visitor accidents at various levels. Wilks (2003) describes four levels: deaths; serious injury and illness requiring hospitalisation; injuries and illness treated by emergency departments and general medical practitioners; and other health areas, including treatment, support and advice provided for tourists by paramedic and emergency services, the Coast Guard, pharmacists, lifeguards and local citizens. In Australia, Surf Life Saving Queensland provides an excellent example of a community-based organization playing a major role in tourism and injury prevention. During the 2000–2001 season, Surf Life Saving Queensland members performed 3,370 rescues and 42 resuscitations, provided 14,964 first aid and 9,176 marine stinger treatments, and initiated 152,578 preventative actions (Surf Life Saving Queensland 2001). These services were acknowledged during 2001 with state and national tourism industry awards.

Snapshots of T...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• ADVANCES IN TOURISM RESEARCH
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Plates
• Contributors
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Current Status of Tourist Health and Safety
• Section 1: Medical Conditions and Injuries
• 2. Travellers’ Health: An Epidemiological Overview
• 3. Evaluating the Nature, Scope and Extent of Tourist Accidents: The New Zealand Experience
• Section 2: Adventure Tourism
• 4. Risk Acceptance in Adventure Tourism — Paradox and Context
• 5. Current Status and Future Directions in the Adventure Tourism Industry
• 6. Managing Tourist Safety: The Experience of the Adventure Tourism Industry
• Section 3: Advice and Best Practice
• 7. Current Issues in Travel and Tourism Law
• 8. Travel Agents’ Health and Safety Advice
• 9. Safety and Security for Destinations: WTO Case Studies
• Section 4: Selected Issues
• 10. International Tourists and Transport Safety
• 11. Towards a Framework for Tourism Disaster Management
• 12. Biting Midges and Tourism in Scotland
• 13. Tourist Safety and the Urban Environment
• Conclusions
• 14. Risks, Rights and Responsibilities in Tourist Well-Being: Who Should Manage Visitor Well-Being at the Destination?
• Author Index
• Subject Index