Tourism Crisis Management

Tourism Crisis Management

Tourism crisis
 Threaten the normal operation and conduct of tourism-related business
 *research more

Why the need for crisis management in destination management?
 Tourism and tourists have become increasingly subjected to risks, crises and disasters
Faulkner (2001) observes that tourism destinations in every corner of the globe face the virtual certainty of experiencing a disaster of one form or another at some point in their history.

- Crisis affect the entire destination (multiplier effect)

External forces (beyond your control):

 Political factors – riots
 Terrorism
 Personal safety (disease)
 Economic factors
 Environmental/natural disasters

Examples of crisis:
- Terrorism-related
- Economic-related
- Environment-related

PR team in a crisis
• According to Batchelor (2003), the PR team needs to be contacted early in a crisis
• This is to ensure that the PR team is considering:
1) The implications of the crisis, and
2) A Media-handling plan

E.g. media can be very gossipy, media got wide connection (able to source out a lot of things), prevent the wrong flow of information

Media attention in a crisis
 As the tourism business relies on public confidence, resource have to be devoted (in a crisis) to maintain that confidence (Batchelor (2003))
 The more the tourism business is in the public eye, the more attention you will get from the media

Sources of information for the media:
Physical evidence of the crisis (including eye witnesses)
Emergency services
Staff members
Archive reports of similar crises
PR team outputs (your weapon)
*When there is crisis, it is very important to inform the public.
*It is not wise to wait till things become very serious before breaking the news.
*Do not cover things, it is always best to be forthcoming on it and honest

Similar Essays