Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
61
The Avian influenza outbreak in Southeast Asia in 2003-4 resulted in only one death in Malaysia
but caused considerable losses to tourism (McLeod et al, 2005). During the 2004 tsunami the
Maldives suffered significant infrastructural damage, with 19 out of 87 resorts closed due to
damage, but according to Carlsen and Hughes (2008), media coverage exaggerated the extent of the
damage. As already discussed, Jordan benefits from a stable government yet is affected by political
turmoil in the region: it experienced a 41% drop in arrivals over the 5-year period 2010-2015 -
from 8.2 million in 2010 to 4.8 million in 2015 (Liu et al, 2016). As Laws and Prideaux (2005, p.3)
note, “a crisis that has a local or regional origin [can] have impacts that reach far beyond the
geographic boundaries of the local area or the region”. For instance the Gulf War in 1990-91 had
adverse effects on the tourism industry of Southeast Asia, as visitors from Europe were concerned
about flying long-haul and, in particular, about overflying the Middle East (Hitchcock et al, 1993).
The impacts on tourismof the developments from2010 inMENA region have been reasonablywell
researched. Prior to 2010, tourism was the largest employer and contributor to foreign exchange
in four MENA countries - Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt - andmade a significant contribution
in other countries in the region, e.g. Syria. In the immediate aftermath of the events of late 2010 /
early 2011, the effect on tourism was dramatic. Arrivals to Egypt declined from 13.7 million in
2009-10 to 7.9 million in 2013-14 (Mansfield and Winckler, 2015), and a further 5% decline was
reported in 2014-15 (UNWTO, 2016). Tunisia experienced the most dramatic fall in arrivals, with a
decline of 12%between 2010 and 2014 and a further 25.2% in 2015 (see also case study in Section
4.3). It has been noted by Mansfield and Winckler (2015) that whereas countries in the MENA
region recovered rather quickly from one-off events such as the killing of tourists in Luxor, Egypt,
in 1997, the 2010-11 events are taking longer to recover from because of the duration and
geographical spread of the crisis.
In Sierra Leone after the Ebola outbreak (2013-16), 80% of tourism and hospitality employees lost
their jobs, with knock-on effects on the multiplier effect as well as for government revenues and
businesses along the supply chain (Kongoley, 2015). But although the countries principally affected
by the outbreak - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - accounted for under 1% of international
arrivals to Sub-Saharan African countries, concern about the disease impacted on countries
thousands of miles away which had no cases. A poll of 500 inbound tour operators in Africa found
that half of them had experienced cancellations due to the virus by the end of 2014 (Travelmole,
2014) and research for this report indicated that the effects continued to be felt for at least two
years afterwards (Gambia and South Africa case studies, Section 4). This tendency is sometimes
because of poor geographical understanding by keymarkets, and has sometimes been exacerbated
by overly dramatic or inaccurate reporting by the media, as discussed in Section 1.
3.3. Response Strategies and Actions: During and Post Crises
The consequences of crises such as those listed in Section 3.1 include:
 Heightened perception of risk and consequent erosion of customer confidence
 Physical damage to tourism infrastructure (in some cases)
 Decisions by consumers to cancel or postpone their trips