Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
63
3.3.3. Response Post-Crisis – Short Term
Again, by learning from experiences elsewhere, some countries have been able to mitigate the
impact of crisis incidents on their tourism industry. Hajibaba et al (2016) report that after the
beach shootings in Tunisia in 2015, local hotels and tour operators attempted to reassure the
market by accepting cancellations free of charge, offering an upgrade to better accommodation,
or offering a holiday elsewhere. Targeting domestic and regional tourists to keep businesses
active in the absence of foreign tourists has been a strategy pursued by a number of countries in
the post-crisis period. This has been particularly successful in the GCC countries (as opposed to
the non-oil Arab states) where domestic incomes are high (Mansfield andWinckler, 2015), while
some MENA destinations have turned to fellowMuslim countries to fill the gap left by traditional
markets, for instance an intensive week-long promotion of Abu Dhabi and its expanded offerings
in the Saudi Arabian market (Avraham, 2015).
Where atrocities have been perpetrated by one political grouping against another, the
government can help to restore confidence by working to ensure that revenge attacks do not
take place. After the Bali bombings in 2002, politicians and opinion leaders called for restraint
and used Bali’s network of village councils to adopt cultural and religious strategies such as
inter-religious worship to help defuse the tension (Hitchcock and Putra, 2005). Similar
techniques have been employed in Britain and other European countries.
A good example of rapid recovery after a crisis is Malaysia, which rebounded extremely quickly
after two airline catastrophes in 2014. There was no dip in arrivals at all that year, with an overall
growth of 67% - the 3rd highest in Southeast Asia (UNWTO, 2015). The reasons for the swift
recovery were twofold. In the first place, measures such as increased airline security helped to
restore tourists’ confidence. Secondly, the government and private sector worked together to
increase marketing efforts. Double-digit growth was experienced in the Spanish market, where
Malaysia raised its profile by sponsoring the Sevilla football club, and regional markets were also
targeted by introducing more flights from Indonesia and Vietnam. (Lim, 2017).
3.3.4. Response Post-Crisis – Longer Term
As discussed in Section 2, in the longer term countries or destinations may need to re-position
themselves through appealing to different markets or developing different products to create a
more resilient tourism system after a crisis. For example, Ghaderi et al (2012) report that the
state authorities in Penang (Malaysia) tried to foster cultural and heritage tourism in the
aftermath of the 2004 tsunami because of damage to some of the island’s beaches and coastal
tourism infrastructure, while Tunisia began to promote health and spa tourism after the
developments from 2010 (Mansfield and Winckler, 2015). To some extent these moves should
be carried out in any case, since the market is continually expanding and becoming more
sophisticated. Government backing for events such as festivals and high-profile sports
tournaments which can showcase the destination as well as attracting large numbers of visitors
is also important: for instance the Maldives began hosting a world-qualifying surf event on an
annual basis as part of its effort to recover from the 2004 tsunami (Carlsen, 2006).