Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
110
images of slaughtered animals being burned, thus creating downwards pressure on demand
from domestic and international consumers.
The situation mainly affected leisure tourism in rural areas, while business tourism, VFR and
visits to cities were unaffected: in fact, some commentators note that urban businesses benefited
from the displaced leisure activity and spend. Within 2 months of the outbreak it was estimated
that rural tourism revenues were reduced by 75% and that many small businesses such as
guesthouses, country pubs and and craft producers faced bankruptcy (Financial Management,
2001). Domestically, 5.43 million consumers were found to have changed their travel plans as a
result of the outbreak, and at least 120,000 took holidays abroad instead of in the UK (Leslie and
Black, 2005). High profile events were cancelled, with a knock-on effect along the supply chain
of accommodation and catering providers and rural retailing. Overall, it is estimated that
spending in tourism was reduced by between £2.7 and £3.2 billion as a result of the epidemic
(Blake et al, 2003).
While the impacts on individual businesses were major and in some cases devastating,
especially since no financial compensation of the magnitude offered to farms was available, the
effect on the rural tourism system generally was the most significant consequence. Up to that
point, tourism had been perceived as an ‘add on’ to agriculture. Now, the government and other
observers recognised that farmers had been increasingly diversifying not just into the
traditional guesthouse offer but into a huge range of other activities, from craft-scale clothing
manufacture through the production of small-scale beer and specialized high-value foods to the
creation of adventure parks and festivals. It was found that by 2001, tourism contributed four
times as much to the national economy as agriculture, and provided 7% of jobs as opposed to
1.5% in agriculture (CMSC, 2001).
There were regional differences in how the industry was affected. Parts of the north-west of
England – especially the iconic Lake District National Park – were particularly severely hit, but
a survey carried out in Scotland in the year after the outbreak revealed that only 15% of
businesses ascribed the downturn in arrivals to FMD, while 26% cited the threat of terrorism
(given that the 9/11 attack happened later in 2001). Meanwhile, 7% blamed the downturn on
the poor weather that year (Leslie and Black, 2005).
It is noteworthy that an earlier outbreak of FMD, in 1967-68, had far less serious impacts. This
was because rural tourism at that time was not as well developed and the government’s
response was less extreme, while the role of the media was said to be more ‘passive’, in other
words giving more low-key accounts of what was happening rather than the sensationalised
accounts of the 2001 crisis – especially by journalists reporting for foreign media outlets (Bater
and Bowen, 2004).
Other crisis events which have affected UK tourism are:
 The political and social conflict affecting Northern Ireland from 1969-98 (known as ‘the
Troubles’). Although no estimate of the specific impact on tourism exists, the overall
effect of the conflict on GDP in Northern Ireland is estimated at a reduction of 15-20%