Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
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Many of the functions of the Countryside Agency such as the distribution of funding for
environmental and tourism initiatives were subsumed into the Regional Development Agencies
(RDAs), which were given an enhanced role in rural economic and social development, although
some argued that rural affairs generally still received a low profile compared to urban affairs
(Donaldson et al, 2006). This process was a largely successful attempt to ensure that regional
policies were designed and implemented by policy-makers located within the regions
concerned, rather than at national level.
The lack of cohesion between the public and private sector was partially addressed by creating
the Tourism Alliance, a grouping of trade associations within UK tourism and hospitality, with
the backing of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (which includes tourism as part of
its responsibilities) and the Confederation of British Industry. The Alliance represents the views
of the private sector at government level and works with government on key issues. For
instance, in 2016 and 2017 it produced reports analyzing the possible impacts on tourism of
Britain’s withdrawal from the EU in 2019 and identifying policies that the government should
adopt to ensure the continued success of the sector afterwards.
A policy introduced in 2011 to try and stimulate growth in tourism after the 2008 global
recession invested considerable sums in promoting Britain during and after the Olympics,
aiming to increase arrivals by an additional 4 million after 2012 (Kennell and Chaperon, 2013).
It appears that this effort has paid off, in that arrivals increased from29.3 million in 2012 to 34.4
million in 2015.
To alleviate the 2014 and 2015-16 floods, the government put funding packages in place (£2
million in 2014 to boost spending on overseas and domestic promotion and £10 million to
support businesses recovery, £2 million in 2016 to repair infrastructure in the Lake District
National Park and £1 million for a PR campaign to encourage British families to spend their
holidays in the north of England). As part of the same effort, VisitEngland created a flood-risk
toolkit designed to help individual businesses. The damage to the main railway line to Cornwall
was repaired swiftly, in time for the main tourism season, having been prioritised by
Government emergency spending.
As in other countries, the UK tourism sector has turned to the domestic market in times of
weaker demand from overseas. According to a 2016 report, domestic tourism is in a healthy
position, with 56 million holidays of at least one night taken within the UK by residents, and UK-
based vacations no longer considered less desirable than overseas ones (Mintel, 2016).
5.2.4. Critical Success Factors in Resilience of Tourism in the UK
The strength of international tourism to the UK can be attributed to the following factors:
 The high number of repeat visits. In 2015 some 77% of arrivals were repeat visits; such
people are likely to be more confident about visiting a country they already know.
 The high percentage of VFR and business tourism. London is the world’s leading
financial hub and the UK industry is highly globalized, which means that almost a