Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
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6.4. Private Sector Responses and Resilience
While governments need to provide the overall framework and leadership in any successful
tourism system, individual tourism, hospitality and leisure enterprises are the primary interface
with the customer and, as such, must have contingency plans in place for dealingwith emergencies.
The crisis management plan must be devised at a time when managers and other staff have time
for reflecting on possible crises which can occur and how these can be dealt with (i.e. it should be
worked on outside the peak season). In contrast to the public sector, individual enterprises must
also plan for site-specific risks such as a fire on the premises or accidents affecting individual
tourists. The phases of crisis risk planning by the private sector follow the same pattern as with the
public sector: these are covered below.
6.4.1. Pre-crisis Contingency Planning
It is essential that future-proofing for possible risks becomes part of the organisational culture of
the tourism enterprise. A crisis may be sudden, as in the case of a natural disaster such as an
earthquake or tsunami, or it may develop much more slowly, as often with a political crisis. Core
features of a business’s ability to adapt in either circumstance are that:
 A senior staff member must be designated to lead on the plan and be responsible for
updating it on a regular basis.
 Specific roles and responsibilities in responding to and managing a crisis must be
allocated.
 Regular checks and training must take place to ensure that all staff are aware (a) of the
types of crisis that might occur and (b) of their responsibilities in the event of each type
of crisis.
 Good relations with local journalists should be maintained.
 Standards (in respect of, for example, environmental and food preparation practices)
should be integrated and monitored.
 A spirit of shared community feeling should be created and maintained with past and
potential customers; this builds up a store of emotional and social capital which can be
drawn upon in the event of a crisis. Social media is an excellent way of operationalising
this.
It is impossible to create a generic plan which will cover all crises in all countries, since the
circumstances of each are very different. However, the lead government tourism agency will work
with businesses and trade associations to prepare these plans, using a process of scenario-planning
to assess the potential risks facing each country (or destination), prioritizing the risks based on how
likely they are to eventuate, and deciding on strategies and actions to take if the risks turn into
actual crises.