Analysis of Emerging Issues in Hospitality and Tourism Sector

This report examines the emerging issues within the hospitality and tourism industry, specifically focusing on the impact of natural disasters and climate changes in Australia. It analyzes both the positive and negative consequences of these events, such as infrastructure destruction, economic losses, and potential for new environmental formations. The report provides recommendations for mitigating these challenges, including developing crisis management plans, leveraging government initiatives, and improving safety measures for tourists. It emphasizes the importance of proactive measures, such as early predictions of disasters and collaboration between government and tourism companies to ensure the industry's resilience and sustainable development. Furthermore, it suggests the need for effective communication, health and safety protocols, and collaboration with local businesses and law enforcement agencies to manage crises and restore the tourism sector effectively.

0Running head: EMERGING ISSUES IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM
Emerging issues in hospitality and tourism
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Executive summary
Considering the huge effects created by these natural disasters in terms of loss of lives,
destruction of infrastructure and loss in economy, it had been important for the tourism
businesses to bounce back and ensure that the business could flourish again and the customers
could be kept satisfied. The report was prepared to analyse the various issues and resolution
techniques to deal with the issues and ensured successful business management for the
companies within the tourism and hospitality sector. Few of the positive impacts created could
be the new environment and nature that might be formed after the devastation caused by the
natural disasters, awareness among the tourism businesses to become more cautious about the
effects of disasters and furthermore enhance the safety measures for keeping the tourists safe and
healthy. Negative impacts were destruction of buildings, homes, loss of lives and even damaging
the nature and places where the tourists should visit. Few major recommendations that could be
considered for resolving the issues had been development of a crisis management plan, initiatives
taken by Australian Government and making the police department and local business ready to
provide helping hand in case of emergencies.
Table of Content

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s
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of impacts..........................................................................................................................4
Recommendations to solve the issues..............................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report is prepared to analyse the different types of issues that may be faced within the
tourism and hospitality industry in Australia. The report will discuss the major issues that can be
faced by the tourism and hospitality industry due to national disasters and changes in climatic
conditions. With the changes in climatic conditions, the weather might become unpredictable and
there could be increased chances of natural disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, floods,
earthquakes, etc. The effects of these natural calamities are immense and it can devastate the
tourism and hospitality industry largely. Because of the natural occurrences of these disasters
with little no early warnings, the travel reservations may be cancelled and the trip can be
cancelled, which can create loss for the tourism business in Australia (Goeldner and Ritchie
2012). The topic will also discuss about the various approaches for preventing these negative
impacts that may be resulted due to the natural disasters.
Analysis of impacts
Positive impacts
There are not much positive effects that may be created due to the issues caused by
natural disasters. One of the major issues faced due to natural disasters’ occurrence could be the
destruction of infrastructure and many tourist destinations. Due to the destruction of many tourist
destinations, an entire transformation might be possible, which could form an entirely new
environment with the growth of new plants, trees and improvement of nature. Though most of
the issues tend to bring negative impacts, still it would allow the tourism and hospitality
businesses to develop and implement new policies for improving the safety procedures and

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ensuring that the issues could not bring negative impacts on the industry during emergency in the
future (Korstanje and Clayton 2012).
Negative impacts
The negative impacts created by natural disasters are immense for the Australian tourism
and hospitality sector and these included negative mindset and getting afraid to visit the places,
more spending by Government and physical damages to the area, which could make the tourists
and visitors prone to risks. Due to the damages caused to the entire location, houses and
infrastructures, millions of Australian dollars might be spent for rebuilding the entire location
and again make it favorable for the tourists to visit. The income level decreases for the local
people because of lack of tourists visiting the place and this may further result in business
decline. Due to natural disasters like floods, droughts, earthquakes and wildfires, natural habitat
could be affected along with deteriorating the fertility of the entire place (Lamanna, Williams
and Childers 2012). There could be climatic conditions’ changes and changes in weather
conditions too, which might even make it unfavorable for the tourists to visit certain places,
furthermore declining the tourism and hospitality business in Australia. There was occurrence of
cyclones in Queensland, Australia and huge bushfire that destroyed the dry lands and even took
the lives of many people. Due to this, the Australian tourism and hospitality industry faced
severe drops in tourism rates (Machado 2012).
Recommendations to solve the issues
The Government of Australia has been committed to the maximization of economic
contribution of tourism and hospitality industry and even promoted environmental responsibility
principles for fostering the growth of the industry and ensured sustainable development too. It is

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mainly recommended for maintain a stable economy of Australia and make sure that the
Australian tourism and hospitality industry can bring positive impact on the growth in economy
of the country too (Rishi and Gaur 2012). The Australian Government has also undertaken
initiatives for protecting the natural environment and preserved the natural resources for making
the tourism industry thrive and achieve long term success in business too.
The issues could be sometimes considered as positive aspects because the Australian
Government had brought major changes by spending a huge amount of money to reconstruct the
houses, buildings and places and even created more employment opportunities, furthermore
enhance the management of business. The tourism companies must make early predictions for
determining the issues that might emerge due to the natural disasters and undertake necessary
approaches for improving the level of safety for the tourists visiting the disaster prone areas
(Rittichainuwat 2013). After the natural disasters occurred, the media could create publicity of
the place and in that case, the companies within the tourism industry could grab these
opportunities by providing tour packages at cheap packages for fulfilling the demands and
preferences of the tourists.
There should be a proper crisis management plan for restoring the tourism industry after
the occurrence of natural disasters. It totally depends on the capability of the country to bounce
back and make sure that the crisis situations are managed properly from the security and public
relations perspective. The Government with proper collaboration with the tourism and hospitality
companies must develop policies and procedures for creating situations and improve the level of
security to ensure seamless travel and accommodation facilities for the tourists (Testa and Sipe
2012). It is also recommended to improve the framework within which the tourism company
operates, develop innovative solutions for enhancing the level of security, and even predict the

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future checkpoints and border controls to improve the efficiency of data analysis. Proper
management of e-visas, regional visa agreements and expanding of the traveling programs must
be done as well to reducing the chances of risks and issues that might emerge during the
collaborative and cross border approaches (Walters and Mair 2012).
A crisis management plan could be effective as well for the recognition of crisis
situations and manage rebuilding after the crisis, furthermore would help in restoring a positive
image of the company and prevent the reduction in tourist arrivals to certain locations. Health
and safety measures should be considered for providing necessary solutions and maintain the
safety of tourists in case of emerge situations. Multi faceted pre-emergency plans could be vital
for determining the tourists’ requirements and find shelters for the visitors. Police department
must be present during the formation of disaster plan for preventing any crimes that might be
caused after the disaster. The law enforcement agencies should be contact as well for and proper
communication should be established because often the police department might not be
accustomed with the ideas of managing the special needs of people within the tourism sector
(Wang and Ritchie 2012). Proper telephone networks and internet services should be enabled for
contacting emerge departments during any crisis while the names, telephone numbers and email
addresses should be considered as well for making the tourists receive follow up calls. To
recover from a natural disaster and manage business successfully again is a daunting task and it
requires not only the Government help and support but also the local businesses. This would
allow the food stores and medicine shops to supply the basic things that are needed for treating
the tourists who could be in the verge of risks just after the natural disaster (Mair, Ritchie and
Walters 2016).

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References
Goeldner, C.R. and Ritchie, J.B., 2012. Tourism: principles, practices, philosophies (No. Ed.
12). John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Korstanje, M.E. and Clayton, A., 2012. Tourism and terrorism: conflicts and
commonalities. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 4(1), pp.8-25.
Lamanna, Z., Williams, K.H. and Childers, C., 2012. An assessment of resilience: Disaster
management and recovery for greater New Orleans’ hotels. Journal of Human Resources in
Hospitality & Tourism, 11(3), pp.210-224.
Machado, L.P., 2012. The consequences of natural disasters in touristic destinations: The case of
Madeira Island–Portugal. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 12(1), pp.50-56.
Mair, J., Ritchie, B.W. and Walters, G., 2016. Towards a research agenda for post-disaster and
post-crisis recovery strategies for tourist destinations: a narrative review. Current Issues in
Tourism, 19(1), pp.1-26.
Rishi, M. and Gaur, S.S., 2012. Emerging sales and marketing challenges in the global
hospitality industry: A thematic analysis of customer reviews from the world's top two tourist
destinations. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 4(2), pp.131-149.
Rittichainuwat, B.N., 2013. Tourists' and tourism suppliers' perceptions toward crisis
management on tsunami. Tourism Management, 34, pp.112-121.
Testa, M.R. and Sipe, L., 2012. Service-leadership competencies for hospitality and tourism
management. International journal of hospitality management, 31(3), pp.648-658.

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Walters, G. and Mair, J., 2012. The effectiveness of post-disaster recovery marketing messages
—The case of the 2009 Australian bushfires. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 29(1),
pp.87-103.
Wang, J. and Ritchie, B.W., 2012. Understanding accommodation managers’ crisis planning
intention: An application of the theory of planned behaviour. Tourism Management, 33(5),
pp.1057-1067.