Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:

Recovery from Crisis

in the OIC Member Countries

Where crises affect tourism, these will generally link tourism-related public and private sector

stakeholders with other civil defence and community response groups, enabling tourism to be

integrated with the existing system of DRR (Becken and Hughey, 2013). However, as noted in

Section 1, all too often the national-level crisis or disaster management unit and the NTO/TB work

independently of each other, especially where tourism is not a government priority, even though

the biggest casualty of the crisis has in many cases been the tourism sector (Upadhya, 2014).

Morakabati et al (2017) also note that there is often a disconnect between the public sector agencies

responsible for emergency management and tourism interests, due to the lack of formal

communication and recognition of responsibilities, even to the extent of working on opposing

agendas during an incident. The underlying reason for this is often that governments will focus on

the magnitude of an emergency in order to maximise international support in recovery and

reconstruction, while the tourism sector will want to focus on maintaining business continuity by

ensuring that operations proceed as normal in unaffected areas of the country and on the

restoration of services in the affected area.

The limited integration of tourism within overall DRR strategies was noted by Laws and Prideaux

in 2005 and commented on further by Becken and Hughey (2013), who contend that tourism

should be integrated within DRR strategies due to:

Tourists’ particular vulnerability because of their mobility, unfamiliarity with local

environments and language barriers;

Tourism’s extensive use of infrastructure such as airports, roads, water and sewage

systems;

The erosion of the destination’s image and consequent economic losses resulting from

disruption;

The potential of tourismbusinesses for providing expertise and equipment to help address

an emergency situation.

Because of these factors, the UNWTO also encourages the increased integration of tourism within

overall DRR planning. It recommends that countries “develop a national policy on tourism safety

commensurate with the prevention of visitor risks” and that they form national tourism councils

with executive committees responsible for riskmanagement in key areas, according to the needs of

each destination. In the May 2017 progress report to the Executive Council on the UNWTO’s 2016-

17 Priorities and Management Vision, the Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, stressed that: “building

resilience within the sector requires a realignment and full integration of tourism systems within

the national and local disaster risk and emergency management structure. It further requires this

responsibility to be shared amongst all relevant stakeholders at the local, national and international

levels.”

2.2.

Key Organisations and Roles in Tourism Crisis Management

Most governments establish specialist departments or agencies to develop, administer and

promote their tourism sectors at national, regional and local level. At national level there is

normally a National Tourism Administration (NTA), usually a Ministry (or department within a