Crisis Communication and Recovery for the Tourism Industry

Abstract

As the number of disasters and crises affecting the tourism industry increases, it is becoming necessary to understand the nature of these disasters and how to manage and limit the impacts of such incidents. This paper defines crises and disasters before discussing the area of crisis communication management and crisis communication in the tourism industry. The paper then applies the foot and mouth disease (FMD) which occurred in the United Kingdom to crisis communication theory at a national level (by examining the response of the British Tourist Authority) and at a local level (by examining the response of a District Council). The response was limited in part because of a lack of preparedness, but also due to the nature of the foot and mouth outbreak, and the speed and severity of international media coverage. Action was taken in the emergency phase of the crisis and was reactive involving inconsistency in developing key messages to stakeholders, partly due to confusion and a lack of information at the national level. Recovery marketing was also limited due to the length of time of the disease outbreak. This paper provides lessons for destinations and organisations are discussed which may help develop crisis communication strategies for tourism organisations.     

Defining Special Events in Galleries from a Visitor Perspective

Abstract

In an attempt to alter public perceptions of art galleries as elitist institutions, art galleries are shifting their directions to become more visitor focused. With contemporary policies being adopted to explicitly pursue access that is more equal and participation, new programs and strategies are being developed to make art galleries more appealing to people who would not normally visit them. One such visitor-focused strategy increasingly being utilized is the staging of special events. To document the impacts special events are having on art galleries, and to assess whether special events are enabling these institutions to achieve their aims of becoming more visitor focused and less “elitist,” it is important that these institutions develop an awareness of how their visitors understand and respond to such events. This study explores visitor perceptions of special events in art galleries using a qualitative methodology and has developed a set of categories that reflect those visitor perceptions.     

Crisis Management and Tourism

Summary

Undoubtedly, the tourism industry is one of the most susceptible and vulnerable industries to crises. Recent major events that had devastating impacts on the industry ranges from natural disasters to epidemics, and from mismanagement to terrorist attacks. These kinds of episodes are not confined to any geographical region, as crises respect no political or cultural boundaries. Two major recent events illustrate this point: the BSE crisis in the UK in the 1990s, which was followed by the foot and mouth disease in 2000 and 2001, crippled the industry in several regions of England. Most recently, the events of September 11th in New York and Washington changed the way the industry operates forever. Crises are not new to the tourism industry. However, it has been observed that tourism management capability and ability to deal with complex and critical situations are limited.

This paper discusses the concept of crisis management and its relevance to tourism. It presents an overview of the general trends in tourism crises events of the last two decades, assesses the impacts of major man-made crises on the industry, and argues for the importance of crisis management in tourism management. The paper also discusses the complex issue of crisis definition and its implications for organizations, and provides an operational definition of crisis management. Critical issues in crisis management, such as crisis anatomy, crisis incubation, risk perception in tourism and destination image, are discussed. Finally, the paper explores and analyses, in the context of crisis anatomy, the public sector handling of a major resort pollution crisis in Southern Brazil.     

Malaysia's Response to the Asian Financial Crisis

Summary

Tourism is a fragile industry and the damage caused by a crisis may have serious implications for a national economy. Crisis management is the means by which the impact of a crisis may be minimised and recovery assisted. This paper analyses the Malaysian response to the Asian financial crisis in the context of tourism and considers whether there is the potential for crisis management at a sectoral level, and if so how it should be developed and implemented. It concludes that although both the public and private sector recognise the need for such a measure, issues such as funding and the identification of appropriate indicators need to be resolved.     

Crisis Management During the SARS Threat

ABSTRACT

No one could have predicted the outbreak of SARS and its impact on the tourism business. Within a fortnight, hotel occupancy dropped by more than 80% to a single digit record. The hotel industry in Hong Kong was largely caught unprepared, and had to quickly work out ways in which to mitigate the loss of business and profit. This paper identifies the impact of SARS on hotels in Hong Kong, and the relevant human resources strategies used to tackle the crisis. The findings show that unpaid leave and involuntary separation were the most common immediate solutions adopted by the hotels.     

Tourism Crisis Management and Organizational Learning

SUMMARY

To date limited attention has been provided on the review stage of the crisis management framework, despite the importance of organizational learning for developing effective tourism crisis strategies. Using the concepts of double loop learning (Argyris and Schon, 1996), doubting (Blackman and Henderson, 2004) and Preskill and Torres (1999) core processes of evaluative enquiry, the paper discusses the possible application of critical evaluative inquiry and managed reflection by DMOs. The paper recommends that DMOs question their existing knowledge, assumptions and beliefs through reflection and dialogue with stakeholders and collect and analyse information, not just related to confirming the success of crisis strategies, but to assesses the likely impact of alternatives. Challenging existing mental models and capturing this emergent knowledge should enable DMOs to develop even better tourism crisis communication strategies in the future.     

Market Segmentation in Time of Crisis

SUMMARY

The MICE sector (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions), has generated high foreign exchange revenue for the economy worldwide. In Thailand, MICE tourists are recognized as 'quality' visitors, mainly because of their high-spending potential. Nonetheless, Thailand's MICE sector has been influenced by a number of crises in the past since September 11, 2001. While a number of researchers have discussed the tourism market segmentation strategies during a crisis situation, less effort has focused on the MICE sector. Using Thailand as a case study, this research has adopted Seaton and Bennett's (1996, p. 31) concept of tourism market segmentation in order to understand the market segmentation strategy implemented by organizations in the MICE sector in time of crisis.     

旅游企业信用缺失的道德治理

信用缺失已经成为困扰我国旅游产业健康发展的严峻问题.单纯依靠经济、法律等强制手段,对于治理旅游企业信用危机作用有限.道德治理是刚性治理结构的有益补充,通过道德治理,使企业树立自我监管的伦理意识,对于建立旅游企业信誉机制,抑制企业败德行为的发生将起到积极作用.     

Tourism Market Recovery in the Maldives After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

SUMMARY

This paper will use a range of tourism data and a case study to examine the rates of recovery of ten source markets for the Maldives in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The market response and recovery rates for these ten markets varied significantly and the reasons for this will be explored. It is evident that a 'one size fits all' marketing strategy will not in itself be sufficient to achieve acceptable rates of recovery following a disaster. The strategies, opportunities and rates of market recovery experienced in the Maldives will provide useful insights for the marketing and monitoring of other destinations that have experienced a crisis or disaster.     

Crisis Management,Tourism and Sustainability: The Role of Indicators

The damage to tourism caused by a crisis or disaster may not only have serious implications for a national economy but also threaten the livelihoods of many in the destination. The monitoring of crisis indicators could allow intervention to minimise the crisis and offers a chance of protecting tourism for the benefit of all stakeholders. This paper evaluates the role of crisis indicators in sustainable tourism development, and shows why this is closely connected to issues in sustainable tourism. The author challenges the conventional classification of crises and suggests that grouping them according to their triggers is more useful in predicting and managing a potential crisis. Empirical data gathered during interviews with senior Malaysian public and private sector representatives highlight some of the practical issues associated with the identification and monitoring of appropriate indicators. The paper concludes that the new classification allows crisis management to be more cost-effective and may also be a key to indicator development for other aspects of sustainable tourism. The travel trade may hold the key to indicators of market trends, but there would be issues in obtaining the necessary information for reasons of confidentiality.     

TRAMO/SEATS在危机事件中对旅游影响研究的应用

国内外对旅游危机事件的研究集中于管理方面,近年相关热点转向对旅游影响的研究.以往定性研究多,从经济数量模型进行定量分析研究的较少.本文使用在经济金融领域使用广泛的ARIMA改进版--TRAMO/SEATS方法评估危机事件,如疾病、地震等突发事件对中国旅游业的影响.作为欧盟各国统计局主要统计方法,TRAMO/SEATS方法能够最大程度地反映旅游业季节性波动的特点.通过该方法对2003年在中国内地和香港地区爆发的SARS进行实证研究,分析评估该危机事件的长期影响.在此基础上提出,国家短期内应当通过提高产品质量和拓展高质量的细分市场实现旅游效益型增长;恢复后期才可以推出更为直接的促销手法实现旅游数量型增长,采取刺激旅游人数快速增长的政策和措施.     

Exploring Visitor Acceptability for Hardening Trails to Sustain Visitation and Minimise Impacts

Protected natural area managers are challenged to provide high quality recreation opportunities and ensure the protection of resources from impacts associated with visitation. Development of visitor use facilities and application of site hardening practices are commonly applied tools for achieving these competing management objectives. This study applies stated choice analysis to examine visitor opinions on acceptability when they are asked to make tradeoffs among competing social, resource and management attributes in backcountry and frontcountry settings of Acadia National Park. This study demonstrates that asking visitors about recreation setting attributes uni-dimensionally, a common approach, can yield less informative responses. Analyses that considered direct tradeoffs revealed more divergent opinions on acceptability for setting attributes than a unidimensional approach. Findings revealed that visitors to an accessible and popular attraction feature supported trail development options to protect resource conditions with unrestricted visitor access. In contrast, visitors to a remote undeveloped island expressed stronger support for no or limited trail development and access restrictions to protect resource conditions.     

A Cautionary Tale of a Resort Destination's Self-Inflicted Crisis

SUMMARY

Rotorua was New Zealand's first tourism destination, rising to prominence a hundred years ago on the back of the central government's vision for a South Pacific spa to rival those of Europe. Government resources were used to develop and support Rotorua's infrastructure and tourism industry, like no other in the British Commonwealth, for the best part of the 20th century. By the 1980s however, Rotorua's tourism industry was in a crisis, and it is posited that the crisis was largely self-inflicted. The paper provides an historical summary of key events leading to the crisis, and subsequent efforts to regain destination competitiveness through a public-private partnership. Written from the perspective of the CEO of the destination's inaugural regional tourism organisation charged with co-ordinating the marketing response to the crisis, the case provides a cautionary tale of how one destination's success as a destination has risen, fallen and risen in line with government intervention.     

Developing a Research Agenda for Tourism Crisis Management,Market Recovery and Communications

SUMMARY

This article focuses on the need to develop a comprehensive research agenda for crisis management and market recovery in tourism. A review of the literature on research into risk, crisis and disaster management indicates that research has emerged on an ad hoc basis. Analysis of a database of over 2400 relevant references supports the need for a research agenda that will focus on crisis management and market recovery and communications, rather than prevention. The BEST Education Network research agenda on risk and crisis management for sustainable tourism is then presented as a basis for further development of a crisis management and market recovery research agenda. In particular, it elaborates on research issues related to the communication during tourism crises, assessing strategies for market recovery and understanding these issues from the DMO's perspective.     

旅游宣传片的说服效应——基于危机情境的纵向跟踪实验研究

旅游宣传片是旅游目的地危机管理的重要营销工具,目前关于旅游宣传片说服效应的纵向跟踪研究缺乏。文章基于巴厘岛阿贡火山连续爆发事件,采用情境实验法探究不同类型旅游宣传片对潜在市场群体的说服效应。研究发现:全景综述型旅游宣传片的短期说服效应更好,危机主题导向型旅游宣传片的长期说服效应更好。在短期说服效应上,全景综述型旅游宣传片正向显著影响认知形象中的自然环境、娱乐活动、宗教氛围、旅游基础设施、感知安全、情感形象和行为意愿;危机主题导向型旅游宣传片正向显著影响认知形象中的宗教氛围、感知安全、情感形象和行为意愿。在长期说服效应上,危机主题导向型旅游宣传片正向显著影响认知形象中的宗教氛围、感知安全和行为意愿;全景综述型旅游宣传片正向显著影响认知形象中的宗教氛围和感知安全。文章为进一步了解旅游宣传片说服效应的时间效度提供了理论依据,也为危机情境中旅游目的地营销组织在旅游宣传片的营销与建设上提供了实践指导。