Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
17
1. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: Risk and Crisis Management
Risk and Crisis management is an integral component of overall tourism and hospitality
management. It is (or should be) practised at destination level by public sector agencies and
communities as well as by larger commercial organisations (at destination level) and by individual
businesses.
Before establishing a framework which explains and guides the stages of anticipating, responding
to and recovering from events that negatively impact on tourism operations, the key terms will be
defined. The remainder of this sectionwill cover the principal concepts involved in themanagement
of risks and crises in the tourism sector, including the tourism resilience cycle and business
resilience, different types of crisis which can affect tourism and their impacts, and the principles of
crisis communications including the role of media and travel advisories.
1.1. Crisis and Disaster
Crises are periods of intense uncertainty characterized by unpredictability and loss of control over
key functions of systems (Moreira, 2007). Generally, a crisis affecting the tourism sector manifests
as an event or set of circumstances which compromise or damage the market potential and
reputation of a tourism business or an entire region (PATA, 2011). Some authors (e.g. Faulkner,
2001; Moreira, 2007) distinguish between a ‘crisis’ and a ‘disaster’, with the key differences being
that crises tend to be more predictable, caused by anthropogenic action, evidencing an observable
build-up, and of longer duration; while disasters tend to be more sudden, less predictable, caused
by natural forces, and generally shorter in duration. Disasters are likely to give rise to emergencies,
in other words rapidly evolving incidents requiring an immediate response.
In this report the term ‘crisis’ will be used to cover both crises and disasters, although the term
‘disaster’ will also be used when it is utilized by our sources and for natural events. In each case
(whether a natural disaster or anthropogenic crisis), the events demand policies, decisions and
counter-measures to limit the extent and duration of the negative consequences (UNWTO, 2011).
In terms of predictability and avoidance, there are two broad categories of tourism-related crisis:
those beyond the control of managers (either in the public or private sector), and those resulting
from a failure of management to put in place contingency measures to deal with predictable risks.
Category 1: Outside management control
Crises outside management control include natural disasters, epidemics, and sudden global
economic events.