Tourism Crisis Management Toolkit: Analysis of Global Crises

This assignment, titled "Tourism Crisis Management Toolkit," delves into the complexities of crisis management within the global tourism industry. The student begins by defining the concept of a crisis through triangulation, drawing upon multiple sources to create a working definition. The assignment then analyzes the impact of various crises, such as hurricanes and health epidemics, on tourism in specific destinations like the Caribbean and West Africa, examining pre- and post-crisis arrival figures. Furthermore, the student assesses potential tourism crises, focusing on water scarcity, and discusses its global implications, including a case study of Mauritius. The assignment concludes with an analysis of risk management strategies, identifying potential risks and hazards facing the Icelandic tourism industry, evaluating their likelihood and severity, and justifying the most significant threat: overtourism.

Tourism Crisis Management Toolkit.
Global Crises
Hall’s (2010) review of tourism crises begins with the impact of the 2007
financial crisis. Following on from this Hall (ibid) goes on to recount a
number of well-known global crises that have had lasting impacts on
international tourism. These impacts range from increased airport security
to the development of new forms of niche tourism. At the same time,
global tourism has evolved in terms of tourism flows and activities with
once popular destinations struggling to rejuvenate and ‘new’ destinations
increasing visitor numbers seemingly overnight.
UNWTO (2019) estimates that worldwide international tourist
arrivals increased 6% to 1.4 billion in 2018. In relative terms, the
Middle East (+10%), Africa (+7%), Asia and the Pacific and Europe
(both at +6%) led growth in 2018. Arrivals to the Americas were
below the world average (+3%). This growth has put
increasing pressures on destinations to develop their tourism
industries even further, creating in some regions an
overdependence on tourism. Shocks, that are the result of a range
of crises, can create a turbulent and unstable tourism environment,
making tourism activity and flows difficult to manage and
exceptionally difficult to predict.
Crises have wide ranging ramifications for tourism stakeholders.The
impacts on these organisations vary considerably depending on the type
of crisis, the severity of the crisis and the way in which the organisation
has planned for, and responded to the crisis.
Thequestions that form this assessment toolkit are designed for you to
critically examine the effectiveness of crisis management plans within
tourism and within the context of a global turbulent environment.
Useful Sources

UNWTO library / WEF Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Indices /WTTC
economic tools / Holiday Confidence Index / Skift /
MDRS – for academic sources / CAPA
Setting the Crisis Scene.

1: Definition. The word crisis comes from the Greek “krisis” meaning
differentiation or decision (Glaesser, 2003). Tourism crises can be identified as
‘wildcard (events)’ – high impact, low probability (Cooper, C & Hall M, 2019),
therefore they are events that require important and immediate decisions to be
made.
Triangulation is the use of more than one method of research to add depth to
data and analysis, contributing to greater confidence in findings (Bryman, Bell, &
Teevan, 2009).
Using the triangulation diagram below, research definitions of “crisis” from three
different sources. When this has been done, create your own working definition.
(100 words).
Journal:
Year:
Author:
Definition:
Textbook:
Year:
Author:
Definition:
Other source:
Year:
Author:
Definition:
Your Working Definition:

2: Crisis Link. The tourism industry recognizes that a variety of risks to health and safety exist anywhere people travel
(UNWTO 2018). Hazards include, but are not limited to hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, tsunamis, and floods; health risks
such as SARS, pandemic fluand localized disease outbreaks; as well as human actions such as technological and industrial
failures, accidents, terrorism and political unrest.
Complete the table below. You may choose different crises to those given if you so wish. (300 words).
Destination, Crisis
Initial Research Source.
Arrivals &
Departures figures:
Discuss the Link Between the Crisis and Tourism within the Destination.
The Caribbean.
Hurricane Crisis.
https://tinyurl.com/
y2amuja8
WTTC (2018)
Pre-Crisis Arrival
Figures:
Post-Crisis Arrivals
Figures:
Environmental crises: the Caribbean Islands receive quite a lot of its revenues
from the tourism department. However, the Caribbean islands have faced a
plethora of problems due to the deadly hurricanes that devastated the whole
island and its tourism ecosystem to a certain extent. Nevertheless, until
September, no such major economic impact actually occurred. However, at the
end of the year, the demand for tourism declined by 4% compared to the
functioning year 2016. Tourism in 2017 at Caribbean gradually declined. 14
countries declined in their tourism visit to Caribbean Islands. The volume slightly
declined in October and November (-0.4% to -0.1% respectively). The Caribbean
Islands, which have always been the paradise of the beach lovers, have shown
deadly figures that compels the world to believe that it has got significantly
impacted by the cyclones and the remedial process of the Caribbean Islands are
sceptical and obscure.
Sierra Leone,
Guinea & Liberia
Ebola Crisis
https://tinyurl.com/
y2w2vbov
WTTC (2018
Pre-Crisis Arrivals
Figures:
Post-Crisis
Arrivals Figures:
Health crises: the health crises that began like an epidemic in the West Africa has
made the tourism department of West Africa come to a standstill. The Ebola
epidemic, which rose in December 2013 and stayed for two and a half years,
affected more than 30,000 people. Tourist arrivals declined at Sierra Leone from
2013 to 2014 by sharp 50%. The rest of the West Africa (excluding Nigeria) saw a
sharp decline of 7.7% of their growth in tourism. The longevity of the Ebola has
subsequent effect on the GDP of Sierra Leone where it showed that the 10 year
average growth rate of GDP of 7.8% decreased to 4.6% in the year 2014. The
Ebola health crises had a significant impact on the economy of already poverty

stricken West Africa by making the condition even worst.

3. Risk Scanning. Before a crisis transforms into a crisis, it exists as a risk,
something that has the potential to happen in the future. Each year The World
Economic Forum produce their Global Risk Report of the most impactful potential
risks facing the world. The results of this year’s study can be found below:
Choose a potential crisis from the table above and answer the following
questions:(400 words).
Your understanding of the potential tourism crises chosen:
I have chosen “water crises” as the potential tourism crisis from the respective
figure provided hereafter. Water crisis is a reality in today’s over-industrialized
and urbanized world (Mat, Ooi and Hooy 2014). Resources in today’s Earth are
scarce and already exhausted. Water crisis is one of the most common
problems arising from resource scarcity which is also fuelled by global warming
and climate change. However, it cannot be denied that water is an essential
factor in tourism. A proper water supply of a country makes the tourists
assured of their needs and comfort. Water crisis in a particular country
worsens the possibility of tourists entering into that particular country as water
is a basic necessity. There is a competition for water resources that plays
between the tourism sector and domestic population in many developed and
developing countries. Even though it has been proved that tourists waste a
significant amount of water, it cannot be denied that tourism also falls apart in
a country when it is grappled by water scarcity. The impact of water scarcity in
hotels, hospitality industries and tourism sector poses issues regarding the
availability of water.
Discuss why this potential tourism crisis could impact upon the growth of
tourism either globally, or within a specific destination:
A tourist will always be conscious about his/her health, hygiene and sanitation

in the alien country he/she is visiting. However, with minimum amount of
water, tourists may face unnecessary harassment regarding their daily habit of
bathing, sanitizing and utilizing toilet. Water crisis is a global problem. Tourists
across the globe face similar distress in the countries they visit that have water
scarcity. Therefore, tourism forums should take the “water crisis” in tourism
seriously since tourism provides the reason and also effects of water scarcity in
countries.
Identify one destination that has experienced this crisis and discuss the impact
this crisis had on tourism in the destination:
Mauritius is a country which is facing a significant magnitude of water scarcity
by the tourism industry. On the other hand, the tourism industry in the
respective country is also suffering due to water scarcity. Therefore, it is a
multidimensional issue which is needed to be attended. Mauritius had taken up
an ambitious plan of attracting almost two millions of tourists which has
resulted in over-exploitation of natural resources, including water. Mauritius
has been facing a prolonged drought problem during the dry season of the
country, which is ironically, the tourist season (Teeluck, Pudaruth and Kishnah
2013). Over-extraction of ground water has lowered the water table. Pollution
from the sea water intrusion has also added to the problems. However, the
government of Mauritius has taken up certain sustainability projects for the
upcoming years to tackle the problem of water scarcity, such as Project
Rainfall, The Water Resource Bill that has been passed in the governing bodies
of Mauritius is about tackling the problem of Non Revenue Water.

Managing Tourism Crises.

4. Risk Management. Effective risk management can prevent a risk from
becoming a crisis. Poor understanding and management of risk can lead to a
crisis situation, Comcec (2017).
Risk management involves assessing the probability of negative events that may
lead to the tourism sector being unable to operate normally.The Pacific Area
Tourism Association (PATA 2011) created a table identifying the six functions of
risk management:
Function. Description.
1. Identify Identify risks or hazards before they become realities.
2. Analyse Evaluate the probabilities, time-frames and potential
impacts of each risk and then classify and prioritise them.
3. Plan Formulate contingency action plans for mitigating the
potential impact of each risk.
4. Track Monitor likely effectiveness of plans by reviewing risks.
5. Control Revise plans according to data from the monitoring stage.
6. Communicate Ensure stakeholder buy-in and support.
A) Focussing on Functions 1 & 2, identify a minimum of three risks or hazards
facing theIcelandic tourism industry.
B) Analyse the potential impacts of each risk orhazard.
C) Grade them from most likely to least likely
D) Grade them from most severe to least severe (in terms of tourism impact).
E) Finally, justify your thoughts of either the most likely ormost severe, risk
or hazard facing the Icelandic tourism industry.(A-E: 450 words).
A) Potential risks or hazards facing the Icelandic Tourism Industry:
The Iceland Tourism Industry has been facing the issue of “overtourism” which
is a pressing problem as it is the major cause of depletion of flora and fauna of
the country. Overtourism, which is also considered as excessive people visiting
the same area at the same time, has become a problem. The population of
Iceland is 335,000 but the tourists who visit Iceland are more than that of the
total population of the country. Overcrowding of tourists is a threat to the
ecosystem of the country. The tourism industry of Iceland needs to be more
sustainable and eco- friendly in its approach. Irresponsible tourism is the key
risk factor the tourism industry of Iceland is facing (Jóhannesson 2015).
B) Potential impacts of risks & hazard facing the Icelandic Tourism Industry:

Operational risks of the Iceland tourism industry, which is mainly the “risk of
natural disaster” such as extremely unpredictable weather, the unstoppable
and continuous Icebergs which makes the climate extremely bitter cold, which
often leads to health concerns among the tourists. Therefore, environmental
risks play a great role in defining the risk factors associated with the tourism
department of Iceland (URAL 2015). The problem lies at the lack of proper
information and training of the tourists and potential tourists who visit Iceland
without having a proper knowledge about its rugged terrain and extremely
unpredictable and harsh weather. Other risks include irresponsible tourism,
which includes mismanagement of the tourists and their activities, over
urbanization (building of excessive tourist resorts, hotels, lodges and
restaurants for the sake of tourism) that has impacted negatively in the
sustainability parameters of Iceland tourism (Holden 2016).
C) Likelihood of Risk / Hazard.
(1: High to 3: Low).
D) Potential Severity of Risk /
Hazard. (1: High to 3:
Low).
1. Environmental risks or hazards:
High
2. Risk associated with
overtourism: High
3.Non- sustainable tourism and risks
associated with it : Low
1. Non sustainable tourism and
less eco-tourism: High
2. Overcrowding and over-
urbanization: high
3. Wastage and scarcity of natural
resources: low
E) Justification of Most Likely or Most SevereRisk / Hazard:
The most likely risk/ hazard of tourism industry of Iceland is the hazard
associated with over-tourism. Iceland is a cold country with extreme climate
and rugged terrain with a minimal population of only 300,000. In such a
country, over-blooming of tourism has led to a plethora of potential threats to
the flora, fauna and biodiversity of the country Overtourism, which is also
considered as excessive people visiting the same area at the same time, has
become a problem. The population of Iceland is 335,000 but the tourists who
visit Iceland are more than that of the total population of the country.
Overcrowding of tourists is a threat to the ecosystem of the country. The
tourism industry of Iceland needs to be more sustainable and eco- friendly in
its approach. Irresponsible tourism is the key risk factor the tourism industry of

Iceland is facing.
1.
5: Response. “Tourism’s opportunities and growth potential is enormous if the
world avoids major crises. There are several obvious major crises that could
hugely disrupt the industry. One is runaway climate change that is causing havoc
in a lot of tourist destinations, a second is conflict that ends up making tourism
frightening and blocked in many places, and a third is epidemic diseases that
make it frightening to travel.” Sachs, J (2017).
Therefore, the management of these crises are of paramount importance.

During the module we have studied response strategies in an attempt to manage
crisis situations. Below, identify one crisis that has impacted upon a specific
tourism stakeholder.Discuss the crisis response strategy of the stakeholder and
then discuss what the best practice response strategy would be for the
stakeholder when responding to the crisis based on research. (400 words).
Crisis: Terrorism and terrorist attack in Sri Lanka
Impacted stakeholder: the Sri Lankan government, the citizens and public of
Sri Lanka, the visitors, ambassadors, businessmen, travellers, journalists and
delegators of Sri Lanka.
Stakeholder response strategy: In 2019, last year, during the time of Easter
Sunday in April, Sri Lanka witnessed the most devastating and dehumanizing
activity on her land where suicide bombers came and blew off the churches
and hotels in the Capital of the country, Colombo. An Islamic fundamentalist
group operating in Sri Lanka, known as Tawheet Jamaath had declared the
responsibility for the deadly terror attack that claimed more than 4000 of lives.
Three Churches and three luxury hotels of Sri Lanka were attacked that killed
more than 250 people, including 45 children. The respective terror attack is
considered to be one of the deadly terror attacks ever witnessed by any Asian
or South Asian country till date (Nishla and Rinosa 2019). However, the response
strategy taken up by the stakeholders (government and capitalists) of the
country is provided hereafter.
1. The Sri Lankan government has taken up the duty and responsibility of
re-establishing security, coordination of intelligence and political
stability. The display of audacity by the terrorists and ruthlessly
brutalizing the people in the high profile luxury hotels and churches has
made the government of Sri Lanka dumbstruck at their incompetency. In
order to tackle and handle the damage already done and make sure no
such incidents happen ever again, the security forces of the country
have been restructured and political instability has been visited time
again (Nishla and Rinosa 2019).
2. Immediate after the attack, the Sri Lankan travel and tourism industry
took up primary remedial and rehabilitative activities by rolling out its
emergency response protocol. Well trained teams of rescuers, medical
practitioners and caregivers were deployed at the affected hotels and
churches to make sure people affected by the attack received utmost
and premium care (Ural 2016).

Best practice crisis response strategy: The best crisis response strategy carried
out by the tourism industry of Sri Lanka was that of locating the insured
travellers and working with clients to bring them to safety, or if unfortunate, to
repatriate mortal remains of the insured travellers. A travellers’ support group
known as Travel Assist has worked relentlessly to rescue the insured travellers
policyholder tourists by making the families and the victims get direct contact
with each other via phone calls and e-mails, and also contacting their
embassies and travel insurance providers. Through such crisis response
strategy, the tourism department of Sri Lanka was able to tackle the already
done damage so that people suffered less.
Crisis Recovery and Tourism Resilience.

6: Recovery. In early 2019, Lonely Planet named Sri Lanka as its #1 Destination
for 2019, a potential boost for tourism in the country. On April 21st 2019, seven
suicide bombers struck a number of churches and three luxury hotels within the
country. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks which
killed more than 250 people, including 45 foreigners mainly from China, India,
the US and the UK.
Faulkner, (2001) created a Crisis Management Framework consisting of six key
stages with principal strategies and actions. This can be seen below:

In April 2018, 29 airlines were serving Sri Lanka offering 300 flights a week.
However, following the Easter attacks, the connectivity was reduced to 239
flights a week, which amounts to a loss of … 8,000 [seats] per week,” Jayaratne,
J (2019). As an attempted recovery strategy, the Sri Lankan Government has
announced that it will reduce the price of aviation fuel, ground handling and
embarcation fees for six months at Colombo airport, to encourage airlines to
reinstate schedules, increase the number of flights and lower ticket prices.
As an alternative to this form of crisis recovery strategy, the WTO (1998) created
a phase model of a tourism crisis where media coverage was the form of
recovery utilised. This can be seen below:
Identify and critically evaluate a crisis recovery strategy utilised by a tourism
stakeholder in the last five years. (400 words).
Crisis: Ebola was a deadly viral disease that took birth and circulated
throughout West Africa infecting and killing more than 300,000 people. After
the ebola epidemic, West African tourism economy came into a complete
standstill. Ebola, which is a deadly disease, affected all the parts of West Africa
(except Nigeria) devastating quarter of the continent of its economy and

infrastructure (Poletto et al. 2014).
Impacted Tourism Stakeholder: The stakeholders who got impacted due to the
Ebola epidemic were the government of West Africa, the locals, residents and
tourists, doctors, medical practitioners and journalists.
Stakeholder Crisis Recovery Strategy: the best crisis recovery strategies that
were brought about by the West African governments were the “prevention of
outbreak of the Ebola disease” and “caring for the survivors”. The “prevention
of the outbreak of the disease” was materialized by appointing well qualified
medical practitioners, doctors and healthcare workers who had taken up the
responsibility to immunize the complete population of all the countries affected
by the deadly virus. Mass immunization has resulted in lesser chances of
catching or circulation of the Ebola virus to a certain extent. With the help of
nationally coordinated public health initiatives, such as mass vaccination,
immunization, providing medicines and treatment to the infected patients at
low cost, vaccination catch up campaigns, and mass awareness campaigns
against religious or cultural superstitious beliefs of vaccination and
immunization, the crisis recovery strategy has been well implemented and
executed in the Ebola affected zones of West Africa (Leach 2015).

7: Resilience. The tourism industry is vulnerable to the impacts of major crises
and disasters due it its system complexity (Ritchie, 2004; Mair and Ritchie,
2014).
Prayag, G (2018) believes that while tourism researchers are devoting much
attention to crisis management, it is perhaps now the opportune time to question
the relationship between crisis management and tourism industry resilience.
Critically discuss the resilience of the Tourism industry in relation to crises. (450
words).
Tourism industry has been more resilient than ever to crisis, according to the
trends of the twenty first century tourism and travel sector. The average time
taken by the tourism sectors and industries for recovery has drastically
decreased from 26 months in 2001 to 10 months in 2018, where the industry
has become more well- equipped to handle any kind of casualty than ever in
the history of travel and tourism in the world, according to the latest research
conducted by The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and Global
Rescue. Crisis related to travel and tourism varies from place to place,
according to the geopolitical position of the respective countries and is often
multidimensional and multifaceted in nature (Filimonau and De Coteau 2019). The
four crisis situations that have been analyzed by the respective research wings
were: terrorism, disease, political instability and natural disaster. However,
among the categorized crisis situation, “political instability” was considered to
be the most vulnerable and sensitive issue that the tourism departments of
different countries faced and it is the most important problem for which the
different countries take maximum time for their resilience. However, over the
decades, the recovery time period taken up by the industry has fallen
significantly, according to the researches carried out by the respective
organizations. Tourism industry has understood and comprehended the fact
that being prepared not only helps the industry to cope with any kind of
challenge or danger they face, but also enhances the goodwill and reputation
of the industry as a whole.

Reference list:
Filimonau, V. and De Coteau, D., 2019. Tourism resilience in the context of integrated
destination and disaster management (DM2). International Journal of Tourism Research.
Holden, A., 2016. Environment and tourism. Routledge.
Jóhannesson, G.T., 2015. A fish called tourism: Emergent realities of tourism policy in
Iceland. Tourism encounters and controversies: Ontological politics of tourism development,
pp.181-200.

Leach, M., 2015. The Ebola Crisis and Post‐2015 Development. Journal of International
Development, 27(6), pp.816-834.
Mat Som, A.P., Ooi, C.A. and Hooy, C.W., 2014. Crisis typologies and tourism demand.
Anatolia, 25(2), pp.302-304.
Nishla, M.N.F. and Rinosa, K., 2019. Safety and security in tourism: a strategic approach for
tourism industry of Sri Lanka to recover from Easter Sunday attack.
Poletto, C., Gomes, M.F., y Piontti, A.P., Rossi, L., Bioglio, L., Chao, D.L., Longini, I.M.,
Halloran, M.E., Colizza, V. and Vespignani, A., 2014. Assessing the impact of travel
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surveillance: bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles= European communicable
disease bulletin, 19(42).
Teeluck, S., Pudaruth, S. and Kishnah, S., 2013. How Green is Mauritius?. International
Journal of Computer Applications, 975, p.8887.
URAL, M., 2015. IMPORTANCE OF RISK MANAGEMENT FOR THE
SUSTAINABILITY OF TOURISM. Balikesir University Journal of Social Sciences
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