Crisis Management

• Defining a Crisis 


  A crisis is a physical disruption on a destination that occurs suddenly and unplanned, causing negative effects on the number of tourists or tourism income at a destination.
• Effects of Crises on Tourism:

  1. threaten the normal operations and conduct of tourism related businesses.
  2. damage a tourist destination's overall reputation for safety, attractiveness and comfort by negatively affecting visitors' perceptions of that destination
  3. downturn in the local travel and tourism economy
  4. interrupt the continuity of business operations for the local travel and tourism industry
• Types of Crises:

  1. Immediate: these come with little to no warning signs, therefore, organizations are unable to research the problem or prepare a plan before a crisis hits
  2. Emerging: these are slower in developing and may be able to be stopped or limited by organizational action
  3. Sustained: these may last for weeks, months or even years
• Examples of types of crises:

  • natural disasters
  • crime
  • health related
  • visitor dissatisfaction
  • Terrorist
• Short term impacts of crises on tourism:

  • disruption to current and future holiday plans
  • financial inconvenience to operators and visitors
  • negative publicity
  • reduction in visitor numbers
  • staff redundancies
  • impact on the destination's image and brand
• Medium/Long-term effects of crises on tourism:

  • aversion to travel to a destination or in general
  • long-term reduction in visitor numbers
  • decreased revenue and increased costs
  • long-term unemployment
  • loss of skilled workers
  • business failure
• Crisis preparedness:

  • the tourism industry needs to work towards protecting/rebuilding the destination's image
  • a destination caught unprepared can face numerous conflicts, disorder, and stress among industry players
  • being prepared is a more cost effective approach to dealing with recovery and response during times of turmoil than not having a contingency plan
• Hystad and Keller (2007)


  According to Hystad and Keller, decisions made regarding crisis mitigation before an actual crisis or disaster will enable a quicker and more organized response by providing a clear direction to follow
• Strategic Response to the Crisis: Bierman's Framework

  1. Identify the problem/event as a crisis or hazard
  2. Establish a crisis management team and define roles
  3. Promote the destination during and after the crisis
  4. Monitor recovery and analyze the crisis experience
• Challenges with crisis management

  to prepare urgent and exclusive action plans for those situations whose warning signals and damaging effects are difficult to forsee.
• Challenges with crisis management

  the necessity of cooperation among manifold parties striving for recovery and dealing with many different victims e.g. residents, potential visitors and tourism employees
• Challenges with Crisis Management

  Ongoing communication between all parties involved is needed pre-crisis in developing a strategy and during a crisis. Lack of communication can aggravate the already devastating effects of the crisis