Disaster Planning and Preparedness in the Hotel Industry

Ahmad Rasmi Albattat, Ahmad Puad Mat Som

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781787699380
• eBook ISBN: 9781787699397
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Disasters experienced by the hospitality industry have steadily increased over the past few decades, and the industry has emerged as one of the most vulnerable businesses to disasters and emergencies, with a wave of catastrophic events striking it in recent years. Disaster management has become a vital tool as key industry players seek ways to cope with these unexpected events. 

Disaster Planning and Preparedness in the Hotel Industry reveals that a majority of hotels are not financially capable to prepare and train personnel, and unable to afford financing activities or disaster and emergency preparedness plans and programs. Furthermore, it finds that although emergencies bring about trauma and hardship in hotels, they are at the same time establishing a re-engineered life cycle. The book goes on to suggest that for hotels to be well managed and adequately prepared for emergency, all stakeholders should be engaged in removing setbacks and barriers to effective disaster and emergency management and planning. It concludes that Jordanian hotel managers and stakeholders should establish a well detailed emergency planning and preparedness schedule and outline details of the collaborative management plan for emergency cases.  

By identifying major emergencies that have occurred in the hotel industry; investigating hotels' preparation for emergencies in the past; and exploring how hotels manage and overcome such emergencies; this book will increase the awareness of emergency managers and scholars on how to read, manage, and overcome the impact of emergencies in the hospitality industry.

Chapter 1

Introduction

The hospitality industry tends to be highly sensitive to the negative impacts that arise because of hazards such as natural disasters, clashes, conflict and terrorist attacks (Mansfeld, 1999). Henderson and Ng (2004) have asserted that this industry is vulnerable to both internal and external impacts. As a year-round industry, the vulnerability to hazards is greater because the guests and the employees are a part of the product itself and are, therefore, inseparable. These events are very hard to control and forecast (Gee & Gain, 1986), and they can affect even the well-prepared organizations (Lee & Harrald, 1999). With several disasters and hazardous events affecting the hospitality industry, it has become very important to be well-prepared and equipped to control the hazards (Peters & Pikkemaat, 2006). The hospitality industry has been unable to develop its business in hazardous and dangerous destinations (Reisinger & Movondo, 2005). It is very important to understand emergency risk and vulnerability in order to develop measures of reduction and mitigation. Researchers have argued that a better understanding of the process of emergency management will help to mitigate the effects of disasters even if prevention is out of the question (Ritchie, 2008).

The history and progression of disaster and emergency management needs to be understood (Haddow & Bullock, 2006). Literature states that emergency management was developed for civil protection in the 1940s during World War II to protect the people from nuclear war. In the 1950s, emergencies laws were developed and enhanced with time in response to hazards (Rubin, 2012). Disaster and emergency management has moved towards becoming an occupation (Wilson & Oyola-Yemaiel, 2000), and more professionalized (Drabek, 2007). Furthermore, this evolved disaster and emergency management has served as a guide to the efforts put forth to mitigate the effects of natural and human-made disasters (Alexander, 2002). In the 1980s, an integrated emergency management system (IEMS) was adopted by emergency managers to deal with all types of hazards, to control and manage disasters and integrate the stakeholder partnership in decision-making regardless of the hazard’s location or size (Blanchard et al., 2007; Canton, 2007).

Moe and Pathranarakul (2006) proposed a disaster and emergency management model that suggested an integrated approach, including two separate strategies: proactive and reactive. These strategies help the hospitality organizations to respond to disasters and integrate management in the process, thereby allowing mitigation, preparedness and disaster warning as a proactive approach. This integrated reactive and proactive approach is considered to be suitable for disaster and emergency planning. The model identified all planned activities conducted before the disaster to minimize the effects of such events as a proactive approach, and the activities conducted during response and recovery in the post-disaster stage as a reactive approach (Moe & Pathranarakul, 2006). Preble (1997) mentioned that these approaches have the following three components: first, the formulation phase which determines the future disaster management; second, the implementation phase which emphasizes the organizational structure to ensure the planned results are obtained; third, the evaluation phase which focuses on the after-disaster feedback.

In hospitality organizations, potential emergencies could be avoided by using proactive emergency planning (Peters & Pikkemaat, 2006). Disaster and emergency planning should be applied in hotels, making them well-prepared before the disaster strikes; during the disaster, emergency planning should be applied effectively, and rapid recovery to the normal stage should occur after the disaster (Yu, Stafford, & Armoo, 2006). Recently, scholars of the hospitality sector have paid more attention to the term ‘disaster and emergency planning’. Scholars Carlsen & Liburd (2008); Chien & Law (2003); De Sausmarez (2007); Drabek (2007); Dynes (1994); Henderson (2002); Israeli & Reichel (2003); Kreps (1991); Malhotra & Venkatesh (2009); Paraskevas & Arendell (2007); and Pforr & Hosie (2008) are amidst those who conducted research on emergency planning.

Exploring the literature shows that although numerous research has been done to investigate the impact of disasters and emergencies on organizations (Hartman & Mahesh, 2008), comparatively fewer studies have examined disaster and emergency planning in hotels and how they can be prepared for the next disaster and its effects mitigated. Studies have been repeatedly conducted in other fields, such as social science, political science, medical science, economics and management, see for example Simmons (2009), Veil, Buehner, and Palenchar (2011) and Wilson and Tiefenbacher (2012), but not with regard to the hotel industry.

Therefore, it is no surprise that no particular study has covered the role played by disaster and emergency planning and preparedness within the Jordanian hospitality industry (Cavanaugh, Gelles, Reyes, Civiello, & Zahner, 2008; Pennington-Gray, Thapa, Kaplanidou, Cahyanto, & Mclaughlin, 2011). Limited research has been conducted to study the impact of natural and human-made disasters on the Jordanian hospitality industry, which includes the work of Weimann (2006), who mentions the terrorist bombing of three Jordanian hotels in 2005, killing around 67 persons and wounding more than 150 others. His study concentrated on terrorist activities in general, especially the usage of the internet to plan terrorist activities; however, there was no mention of emergency planning and preparedness in the hotel industry. Ali and Ali (2010) argued that only a few studies have been conducted to explore whether managers have a set of precautions and regulations in place as to what should be done before, during and after emergencies. By using qualitative research, his study tries to illustrate the impact of disasters on the tourism industry and establish a strategic approach to crisis management.

Considering the increasing number of disasters and emergencies and their impact on the hospitality industry, hotel managers should prepare their organizations in a strategic and comprehensive manner. They need to apply new models and patterns to overcome such impacts, pay more attention to planning and reduction efforts rather than response and recovery, and finally, reduce the occurrence of disaster-linked events with the help of the hospitality open-access system (Ritchie, 2008). Disaster and emergency strategic planning and preparedness can be modified in response to the type of disaster, which will help limit the making of precipitous decisions that could complicate the situation rather than solve it, thereby creating a new disaster for the hospitality organization (Ritchie, 2008). Disaster and emergency planning should design ways by which disasters may be prevented, reduced and mitigated, and organization made prepared. Understanding disaster risk and vulnerability is very important in order to develop measures of reduction and mitigation. Because practicing emergency planning to mitigate the impact of disasters and emergencies more effectively is imperative, this study aims to study disaster and emergency planning and preparedness in hotels in Jordan.

The hotel industry has a vulnerability and sensitivity to internal and external hazards (Santana, 2004). Mendoza, Brida, and Garrido (2012) have declared that the hotel and hospitality industries have been repeatedly affected by natural and human-made disasters, which has directly impacted the arrival numbers. Therefore, proactive preparedness should be done before a disaster takes place, especially with regard to improving operational capabilities and facilitating an emergency management response (Bumgarner, 2008).

Emerging literature reveals that disaster and emergency planning in hotels has been incorporated into reactive response only since the last few decades. Ritchie (2008) asserted that, considering the growth of disasters in recent years, more studies should be done on emergency preparation and emergency action implementation, and research should move towards emergency planning and reduction rather than emergency management. Researchers emphasized the importance of disaster frameworks, asserting the importance of emergency planning, prevention, reduction and readiness for such events (Faulkner, 2001; Heath, 1998; Ritchie, 2004; Smith, 2012).

Ritchie (2008) contended that hospitality emergency planning and preparedness research for hazardous incidents (proactive response) should be executed rather than responding to the incident (reactive response). He noticed a growing number of reactive response research, with less consideration to proactive disaster and emergency planning and preparedness in the hotel industry. Proactive research will help improve the efforts for a better understanding of hospitality emergency planning and the development of appropriate strategies for the hospitality industry to simplify effective emergency planning and preparedness; thereafter, this planning and preparedness research can be linked with the research on response and recovery. Practitioners should give more attention to the mitigation and preparedness phases in all kinds of disasters (Drabek & McEntire, 2003). However, education in emergency preparedness is lacking (Piotrowski, 2006), and probably to a certain degree, with this exception, emergency planning is not among the top considerations (Richardson, 1993). Besides, it has been noticed that organizations which have ignored their vulnerability to disasters will be less prepared (Mitroff, Shrivastava, & Udwadia, 1987).

A considerably increased literature is devoted to global disasters such as September 11 (Prideaux, 2004), the bird flu of 2001 (Sperling & Biermann, 2009), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) of 2002–2003 in Southern China and Hong Kong (Kim, Chun, & Lee, 2005), Bali bombing of 2002 (Hitchcock & Darma Putra, 2005), Iraq War of 2003 (Copson, 2003), Tsunami of 2004 (Chandrasekharan, Sarangi, Nagarajan, & Singh, 2008), Hurricane Katrina of 2005 (Trotter & Fernandez, 2009), London bombing of 2005 (Lockey et al., 2005), Amman bombing of 2005 (Weimann, 2006) and Arab Revolution of 2010 (Cordesman, 2011). Nevertheless, there is relatively a dearth of research focusing on the importance of disaster and emergency planning and preparedness in the hotel industry. Keown-McMullan (1997) asserted that emergency planning is still a new concept in the hospitality industry. Ritchie (2004) asserted that disasters cannot be stopped but can be limited.

Jordan has been known as a safe destination in the heart of the Middle East (JTB, 2011; Al-dalahmeh, Aloudat, Al-Hujran, and Migdadi, 2014), with a total of 6.5 million arrivals in 2012 (MOTA, 2012a). These arrivals spent approximately 3.2 million nights in Amman hotels and used 1.7 million beds in the five-star hotels (MOTA, 2012b). But Jordan may be subjected to several types of disasters which could be classified as potential threats (Al-dalahmeh et al., 2014). According to The United Nations Development Programme (2010), Jordan is more vulnerable to natural disasters such as flash floods, earthquakes and epidemics, as well as human-made disasters such as terrorist attacks, arsons and armed conflict, apart from mass population migrations (Momani & Alzaghal, 2009). These types of emergencies are worthy of attention. Therefore, there is an urgent need for establishing an early warning system in Jordan, which could benefit in preventing and mitigating the effect of emergencies, saving lives and assets.

Moreover, Jordan has been subjected to a huge influx of refugees from the surrounding countries that are under revolt (Al-dalahmeh et al., 2014). Aloudat, Michael, and Yan (2007) conclude that a lack of proper knowledge about disaster warning systems will result in misinterpreting the message, causing adverse results when an extreme event occurs. According to UNWTO (2013b), statistics show that the arrival of international tourists in the Middle East decreased by 5.4% in the year 2012, and 5.6% in the year 2011. Furthermore, a decrease in international tourism receipts, by 2.2% in the year 2012 and 14.4% in the year 2011, was noticed due to the impact of the Arab Spring revolution. For the same reason, Jordan received only 3.96 million tourists in the year 2011, a decline of 5.9% from the year 2010. And it received three billion dollars in international tourism receipts, which is a decline of 8.3% from the year 2010. In contrast, the occupancy rate for Amman hotels increased from 56.6% in the year 2011 up to 65.1% in the year 2012 (UNWTO, 2013a).

Jordanian hotels were negatively affected by the serious political instability in the Middle East region since the year 2000 (Ali & Ali, 2010). Maditinos and Vassiliadis (2008) concluded that these terror acts have an apparent negative impact on the Jordanian hospitality industry. Sawalha, Jraisat, and Al-Qudah (2013) concluded that Jordanian hotels lack proactive planning and strategies that could be used to mitigate, prevent and cope with emergencies. Their findings emphasized the excessive dependency on the security department and security management, while many disaster and emergency planning and preparedness strategies are still not implemented.

Considering this gap and the scarcity of studies, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of disaster and emergency planning and preparedness in the Jordanian hotel industry. It discusses whether hotel stakeholders and managers understand the importance of planning and preparedness for the disasters, and whether they apply this understanding to prepare for the next hazardous event. Therefore, it is important to examine how hotel organizations are involved in disaster and emergency planning for the upcoming events, and what are the current levels of planning and preparedness among hospitality stakeholders to deal with future hazards.

Chapter 2

Disaster and Emergency Planning and Preparedness in Hotels

2.1. Introduction

This chapter evaluates the history of disaster management, typologies, models and processes of disasters, deals with emergency management and discusses the concepts of planning and preparedness in literature in addition to their application in the hotel industry. Limited literature is related to disaster and emergency planning and preparedness in hotels. This chapter outlines an overview of the impact that major disasters and emergencies have had on the country’s hotel industry, and concludes with disaster and emergency management in Jordan.

2.2. The Evolution of Disasters

Disasters are not merely an attraction or an interesting event that adorns our collective historical record; rather, these disruptions have served to guide and shape history. Theorists have even ventured to suggest that many of history’s great civilizations, including the Mayans, the Norse, the Minoans and the old Egyptian Empire, were ultimately brought to their knees not by their enemies but by the effects of floods, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, El Nino events and other widespread disasters (Fagan, 1999). From a modern perspective, each of the catastrophic events that has occurred as of late, including the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (over 230,000 killed), the 2005 Kashmir earthquake (80,000 killed), the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China (68,000 killed) and the 2010 Haiti earthquake (perhaps as many as 200,000 killed), might seem anomalous, but these disastrous events are not even close to record-breaking, or even unique, when considered in a greater historical context (see Table 2.1).

Table 2.1. Selected Notable Disasters throughout History.

Year	Disaster
1201	Earthquake in the Middle East
1556	Earthquake in China
1737	Typhoon in India
1780	Hurricane in the Caribbean
1815	Volcano in Indonesia
1917	Influenza epidemic worldwide
1931	Flood in Yangtze River, China
1932	Famine in Russia
1970	Cyclone in Bangladesh
1976	Earthquake in China

Source: Coppola (2011).

2.2.1. The History of Disasters

Faulkner (2001) states that, ‘although the root cause of disasters is self-inflected through the problems caused by inept management structures and practices, disasters refer to situations where a destination, in the context of tourism, experiences unpredictable catastrophic changes over which it has little control’ (p. 136). Faulkner further stated that it is very difficult to identify certain events as disasters because of the difficulty in assessing the accurate reasons behind what actually causes damage.

Faulkner (2001) maintains that disasters and crises are more or less similar and the difference between them is only in its root cause. The former represents situations where the cause of the problem is associated with ongoing change and failure to adapt to it, while the latter is triggered by sudden events over which control is difficult. The concepts and definitions of disasters have been presented in the literature, which asserts the importance of differentiating the criteria for disasters from other crises (Moreira, 2007). On the one hand, disasters seem less-frequent events, with external root cause, high impact, low predictability and controllability and with a short timeline. On the other hand, crises are known to have an internal root cause, relatively lower effects, high frequency of occurrence, high predictability, high controllability and a prolonged timeline (see Table 2.2).

Table 2.2. Disaster versus Crisis: Criteria Differences.

Criteria Differences	Disaster	Crisis
Cause root	External	Internal
Effects and repercussions	High	Law
Recurrent	Low	High
Event timeline	Short	Long
Reaction time frame	After the event occurred	Allow decision and action
Predictability	Low	High
Controllability	Low	High

Source: Adapted from Moreira (2007).

2.3. Definitions

The term ‘disaster’ is generally applied in many business studies, as well as natural science, political science, economics, technological studies, hospitality studies, etc. (Laws & Prideaux, 2006). Looking back into the origin of the word itself, the word disaster comes from the Latin term ‘dis astro’ or bad star, which denotes calamity brought about by the planet’s unfavourable position (Norris, 2006). However, the term has been used extensively in different sciences with definite meaning. For example, mental health researchers consider disasters as a particular type of traumatic event, a category of trauma. Ecological researchers define it as an event caused by humans with a great effect to the earth (Drabek & Hoetmer, 1991). Meanwhile, geological researchers define it as an event caused by the deformation and movements of the earth crust (European Environmental Agency (EEA), 2007). From a technological scholars’ point of view, disasters mean everything that can go wrong when a system fails (Erikson, 1989). As Richardson (1994) noted, since the sixteenth century, the term has become a major part of daily language in all areas because the environment has become more crowded with more number of human settlements, pressure of urbanization and greater dependency on technology, which creates opportunities for disaster in all aspects of human l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• About the Authors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Disaster and Emergency Planning and Preparedness in Hotels
• Chapter 3 Analysis and Findings
• Chapter 4 Conclusion and Future Direction
• References
• Index