Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Necessary Actions of Destination Countries
With an increase in different types of crises in the world, there is a growing num-
ber of case studies with examples of crisis management strategies. Tourism theo-
reticians analyzing these cases try to make a framework for crisis management
(Barton, 1994; Drabek, 1994, 1995; Ioannides and Apostolopoulos, 1999;
Mansfeld, 1999; Pizam and Mansfeld, 1996; Radnic and Ivandic, 1999; Santana,
1999; Sönmez, Apostolopoulos, and Tarlow, 1999; Sönmez, Backman and Allen,
1994; Steene, 1999). The researchers point out that a tourism crisis must be con-
trolled, and this can be done successfully through comprehensive crisis manage-
ment. Therefore, the main task of the receiving country hit by some kind of crisis
is to take all necessary steps to handle the crisis in the best possible way. But,
although tourism is vulnerable to catastrophe, the risk is not fully recognized by
those within it (Drabek, 1995, p. 14). The industry within the country can manage
the crisis efficiently only by being prepared to take some actions in advance.
Planning is an essential element of control. Without it, an organization is at the
mercy of events (Barton, 1994). However, emergency planning specifically for
tourism has only lately become an area of research and has not been widely dis-
cussed and theoretically developed. Therefore, most literature is based on case
studies that illustrate actions usually taken by hotels when the crisis has occurred.
Interestingly enough, the best studies until now have been made by academics who
are not primarily involved in the tourism field, such as Drabek (1994, 1995, 2000),
a sociologist. The recovery of this industry from a crisis is far more complicated
than for others. As proven in practice and stressed by Sönmez, Apostolopoulos, and
Tarlow (1999, p. 15), although tourism is quite adept at using established market-
ing principles, setbacks due to negative occurrences call for something more than
traditional efforts. The industry must conduct recovery marketing that is integrated
fully with crisis management activities. Its complexity requires a proactive role
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from all tourism officials in the public and private management of marketing activ-
ities. Very strong partnership and coordinated work among the government,
national tourism organizations, foreign tour operators, local travel organizers, and
local hospitality officials is essential. Each needs to participate to an important
degree in order to secure the fulfillment of several important actions. These
include successful rebuilding of the destination image, overcoming any adverse
publicity resulting from the crisis, short-term restoration and long-term recon-
struction of the damaged tourism facilities and infrastructure, and effective
management of media coverage (Drabek, 2000).
The very fact that so many parties need to be involved in handling the crisis in
a proper way requires intergovernmental and public-private partnership and har-
monized and coordinated actions among them. This means that the ministry of
tourism is not the only government body that needs to undertake measures to over-
come the problem. Its policies and actions have to be supported by necessary
measures taken by the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministries of transport,
culture, economic affairs, and the like. The government actions form the ground-
work on which national tourism organizations, tour operators, and local hospitality
officials will continue to build. Therefore, it is essential to establish a governmental
agency to handle public relation activities coordinated with the public and private
sectors within the industry.
In times of crisis, local government bodies do not always act quickly enough,
but journalists do. Using the fact that people are more interested in negative than
positive news, and that they have an appetite for spectacular events, journalists
sometimes exaggerate some incidents that happen to tourists abroad. Repeated
negative news in the media creates a negative image of a particular destination,
consequently causing the image of tourists toward this destination to change. Most
scholars would agree that a destination image is a key factor that influences
tourists’ buying behavior. Gunn (1972) was among the first to examine the image
formation process and made a distinction between the component parts of its
“induced” and “organic level.” Induced images are created from the strategic pro-
motion by a destination and/or businesses (mostly national tourism organizations
and tour operators). They tend to create images in the mind of potential tourists by
producing and distributing promotional materials through different channels of
distribution or even directly to selected individuals. Organic images, on the other
hand, are not created directly by the organizations that depend on the tourism
development of a particular destination, but are created by mass media like the tel-
evision, newspapers, films, and other ostensibly unbiased sources of information.
Such images consequently tend to be more influential. Still, in both cases, decision
processes in choosing a particular holiday are based on tourists’ mental images of
a destination. Therefore, poor control of relations with the media during a crisis
and afterward can severely damage the long-term viability of the industry, just as
skillful relations can greatly enhance it. To minimize effects of bad publicity on the
tourism of a receiving country hit by crisis it is necessary to coordinate all activi-
ties with the Ministry of Tourism, National Tourist Organizations, foreign tour oper-
ators, local travel organizers, airline companies (national and international), hoteliers,
and other related organizations; to give the media accurate information about the cri-
sis, because credibility is critical to this process; to inform the media about the steps
taken in the country to solve the problem; to make use of media interest in the
country to broadcast positive facts; to invite journalists to the destination to show
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them the real situation (McGuckin and Demick, 2000, p. 339); to work closely
with tour operators and give them all the support they need to keep the destination
in their program; to organize study trips to the country for tour operators and travel
agents (sales staff); and to promote the destination in target markets, so that it stays
present in the minds of potential tourists.
Although not all tourism experts will agree with the last recommendation, since
they might find marketing campaigns during severe and ongoing security crises to
be a waste of resources (Mansfeld, 1999, p. 35), the practice in the case of Croatia
or Northern Ireland proved the opposite.
One could argue that the local tour operators and hospitality groups of receiv-
ing countries may be more willing to put tourists at risk than foreign counterparts.
It might also be more difficult for foreign tour operators to evaluate accurately and
to understand the real conditions in the respective destinations, and to use that
understanding to enable them to restore the flow of tourists as soon as possible
without putting their clients at risk. Although this might be true to some extent, it
should be remembered that local tour operators and hospitality groups cannot
change the destination image sufficiently well by themselves. Potential clients rely
heavily on organic images that are created independent of local officials.
Nevertheless, when it comes to induced images, clients again will trust their own
compatriot tour operators more than site-based tour operators or hospitality offi-
cials of a receiving country. Therefore, the successful rebuilding of the destination
image should first start with organic images, because this is the foundation on
which induced images can be created with the help of foreign tour operators. Once
they return to the country, the local counterparts can really begin to restore their
business too.
Although nobody can be prepared for every conceivable type of crisis, every
company should have some general procedures in place to effectively deal with
various situations. However, many industries, especially in less developed parts of
the world, usually do not see why they should invest in something that they might
never need. This corresponds to Drabek’s (1994) research documenting the reasons
for many companies not having written plans. Therefore, according to him, a com-
munity partnership comprising local emergency managers and tourism representa-
tives should be set up to stimulate greater awareness of current vulnerability and
to encourage the implementation of a preparedness plan (1995, p. 16). Experience
shows that crises have become a part of daily lives, and neglecting this fact can cost
the company much more than the cost of establishing an action plan to handle a
general crisis. That is why more and more companies do realize the necessity of
having a crisis management plan prepared in advance. The necessary steps for
every tourism organization can include activating a crisis management team made
up of parties directly and indirectly involved with the crisis; following a prepared
manual with necessary steps for certain situations and appointing persons with
defined tasks and responsibilities; defining new working relationships needed in
the event of a crisis; creating up-to-date lists of all important media (foreign and
local press); drawing up a list of important people in the tourism business (tour
operators, leading travel agents, credit-card companies, major hotel chains); and
organizing internal exercises for the staff after the crisis to train them how to better
handle a similar crisis in the future (based on Leaf, 1995).
The whole industry should be aware that the successful crisis management
actually depends on constant education—not only internal education, as practiced
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by tourism companies that have experienced a crisis, but even more, long-term
educational activities in receiving countries. Indeed, Drabek suggests (1995,
p. 16) that educational initiatives should be implemented to ensure that university
curricula in tourism and hospitality administration include more emphasis on dis-
aster management, including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
This suggestion might also be extended to other levels in addition to university
education.