Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
109
Table 5.2: International Visitor Arrivals and Foreign Exchange Earnings - UK
Year Arrivals (million) Receipts (US$ million)
2000 25.2 19.4
2001 22.8 16.3
2002 24.2 17.6
2003 24.7 22.8
2004 27.8 28.2
2005 28.0 30.7
2006 30.6 33.7
2007 30.7 38.6
2008 30.1 36.0
2009 28.2 30.0
2010 28.3 32.4
2011 29.3 35.1
2012 29.3 36.6
2013 31.1 41.0
2014 32.6 46.5
2015 34.4 45.5
Source: UNWTO
5.2.2. Crises Affecting the UK Tourism Industry
The UK tourism industry is so large that one-off stress events appear to have little impact on
tourism arrivals overall, as can be seen from Table 5.2: for instance, the London bomb attacks in
July 2005 which killed 52 people appear to have caused a lower rate of increase that year, but
by the following year the trend had continued upwards (albeit slowly, due to the global financial
crisis). Longer-lasting stress events clearly do have an impact, as can be seen from the lower
arrivals in 2001 compared to 2000; this was due to an outbreak of a highly contagious disease
amongst farm animals (Foot and Mouth Disease), which is the only nationwide crisis to have
occurred in the recent history of UK tourism to which known impacts can be attributed. Because
of this, it will be discussed in some detail.
In February 2001 it was announced that the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) virus had been
detected amongst agricultural livestock. A major cull of livestock was ordered. Harmful as the
impacts on agriculture were, the impacts on the rural tourism industry were far more
devastating. From the start of the crisis the public was advised to avoid leisure travel to and
around the countryside, especially contact with farms. Use of off-road public rights-of-way was
prohibited, many rural attractions were closed, and land owned by organisations such as the
Forestry Commission and National Trust was closed to the public. Some of the worst affected
areas were Britain’s national parks. “In effect, the government’s response … was to place the
entire British countryside under quarantine” (Sharpley and Craven, 2001). The media portrayed
all of the British countryside as being ‘closed for business’ (Leslie and Black, 2005) and showed