Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
40
destinations in the majority of cases. This is because of the convenience of a ‘one-stop shop’; the
purchasing power of large tour operators, which reduce costs for the consumer; and security, so
that in the event of a crisis or business failure of the company concerned the consumer has some
financial protection, e.g. British travellers are protected through the Association of British Travel
Agents (ABTA) and the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL).
All travel and tourism operators are responsible for the safety and satisfactory experiences of their
clients in the destination. For this reason, international transport organisations and tour operating
organisations have established protocols and procedures in the event of emergencies, for instance
the ‘Emergency Response Handbook’ produced by IATA (the International Air Transport
Association), and the UK Federation of Tour Operators’ code of practice for land transport in the
destinations featured by members.
In the event of a crisis occurring in a destination, stakeholders such as outbound tour operators and
airlines generally adopt a conservative response and evacuate their customers as rapidly as
possible. This is partly because operating to a destination against the official advice of their home
government invalidates a company’s insurance cover, and partly because they seek to avoid any
risk to their customers – primarily because of the risk of damage to their reputation as a safe
operator. Inmost cases international tour operators will offer their clients an alternative holiday in
a different destination. In some cases the DMO of the affected destination may be able to
demonstrate that there are attractive, secure alternatives elsewhere in the country – especially if
financial inducements are provided, as discussed in Section 6. In this case tour operators may
consider these options, but will not wish to contravene the travel advisory warnings of their own
government.
2.3. Tourism Crisis Responses: Strategies and Actions
As discussed in Section 1, destinations hit by events that inhibit their normal tourism operations
are faced with a range of tasks with different time frames: the Pre-crisis, Prodromal, Emergency,
Intermediate, Recovery and Resolution phases. The need and strategy for rapid and honest
communications has been covered above, and in this section the additional key actions which
should be taken in each of the six phases are highlighted, illustrated with actions from real-world
situations. The examples are chosen to complement the eight case studies detailed in Sections 4 and
5.
2.3.1. Pre-crisis
It is vitally important that policies, procedures and plans of action to prepare for and mitigate the
effects of a crisis are made - yet a recent study by Granville et al (2016) found that destinations did
not prepare adequately for crises, with implications for response and recovery. An example of
different recovery speeds between destinations that preempt (rather than react to) a crisis is a
comparison between the public transport bombings in London in 2005 and the nightclub attacks in
Bali, Indonesia, in 2002. The recovery effort following the Bali bombings was devised after the
attack took place, which led to a slow and laborious revival of tourist confidence and associated
revenues. In contrast, security response to the London attacks was quick and decisive, because