Room Division Management: Safety and Security Measures in the Hospitality Industry

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Room Division Management
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Introduction
The Hospitality industry has emerged as one of the most important industries of the
recent times and on an annual basis contributes more than trillions of dollars to the world
economy. Thus, within a very short time the industry has become the backbone of the
economy of several nations of the world. In the present times it is generally seen that the
focus of the majority of the nations of the world is on the development of this particular
industry with the objective to stabilize their dwindling economy. However, in the present
times safety has emerged as one of the most common concerns which this particular industry
is facing at the current moment. The various manmade disasters like terrorists activities as
well as the natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and
others have impacted the tourism industry in an adverse manner and it is generally seen that
the tourists do not like to visit the tourist destinations which are the hosts to recurrent natural
as well as manmade disasters. Thus, it would be apt to say that safety and stable environment
are the two key requirements of this particular industry.
Tourism industry and disasters
The recent manmade as well as the natural disasters have made it imperative for the
various organizations associated with the hospitality industry to take various kinds of
precautionary measures so that the safety as well as the personal wellbeing of the tourists is
safeguarded. However, the recently conducted Asia Pacific Survey shows that around 50% of
the Hoteliers have not increased their investments regarding ensuring the safety of the tourists
even after the 9/11 and other kinds of manmade and natural disasters (Hotel-online.com
2018). The end result of this particular act on the part of the Hoteliers is the fact that it has
adversely affected the tourism industry in the recent times in addition to the net decrease in
the number of tourists which frequent some of the most popular locations of the world. Some

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of the most popular disasters which have adversely affected the tourism industry are the 9/11
USA attack, the Bali bombing, the earthquakes of Japan, Tsunami among others. Therefore,
there is a growing urge on the part of the hospitality industry as well as the tourists who take
the help of the services offered by them to ensure the safety of the tourists by enhancing the
safety measures. This is not only likely to enhance the quality of the services provided by
these organizations to the tourists who take the help of the services provided by them to the
tourists but at the same time is likely to help them to attract more tourists to the services
offered by them.
Paris Attack
On November 13th, 2015 a series of coordinated terrorist attacks were carried out in
Paris, France. The attack started at 9:16 pm Central European Time, with three suicide
bombers striking during a football match at Stade de France in Saint Denis. This attack was
followed by several mass shootouts and another suicide bombing in many restaurants and
café’s. The terrorists then attacked the Bataclan Theater where the band ‘Eagles of Death
Metal’ were performing and the terrorists took hostages there, which later resulted in a
confrontation with the police. A total of 130 people were killed by the terrorists and 413 were
injured due to the attack (100 of them serious injuries) (Callimachi 2015; Bigo et al 2015;
Haug 2015; Castanho 2018.).
Earthquake in Japan
On 2011, a massive earthquake hit the pacific coast of Tohoku in Japan at 2:46pm
Japan Standard Time on March 11th. The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.1 on the
richterscale with an epicenter of 70 km and hypocenter of 29km, and was the most powerful
earthquake to hit the country, and the 4th most powerful in the world, since 1900. The
earthquake created tsunami waves that were about 40 m tall and travelled 10km inland, and

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shifted the island of Honshu by 2.4m and the earth’s axis by about 10-25cm. The disaster
caused 15,985 deaths, 6,165 injuries and 2,539 people to go missing. 228,863 people were
reported to be displaced by the incident, 121,776 buildings were declared to be totally
collapsed, 280,923 half collapsed and 726,574 partially damaged. The tsunami also caused
level 3 meltdowns of three nuclear reactors in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Fujii
et al. 2011; Mori et al. 2011; Bassett et al., 2016).
Impact of these incidents on legislations and procedures
The recent natural disasters as well as the terrorist attacks have compelled the various
organizations associated with the hospitality industry to rethink about the safety measures
which they have in place for the safety of the tourists with the inherent objective to ensure the
safety of the tourists who avail their services but also to maintain the continuity of their
business. It is a reflection of this particular fact that the various organizations associated with
the hospitality need to follow various safety parameters which were quiet unheard of in the
earlier times. Thus, the various organizations associated with the hospitality industry need to
follow various kinds of PMS systems as well as security intelligence databases to ensure the
safety of the tourists. Furthermore, the article “Safety And Security In The Age Of Global
Tourism” (2011) by the authors Kővári and Zimányi examines the safety and security of
travel and tourism within the travellers and employees. Safety and security issues have been
operated as an essential condition of tourism. The authors argues that safety and security
issues in tourism start from the beginning of the 1950s and in the last two decades in tourism,
there are a lot of issues gained much bigger such as terrorist act, local wars and natural
disasters. Also, he's trying to not only give a theoretical insight the security problems but how
to responses and possible action in the crisis situation due to the security problems in the
tourism destination. After the tragedy 9/11, security has supported a significant change in
order to protect the employees and guests also their belongings as well as the achievements of