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18
Tour Operators and
Destination Safety
Nevenka Cavlek
Learning Objectives
■
To discuss the importance of tour operators in international tourism develop-
ment.
■
To be able to explain the behavior of tour operators towards destinations in a
time of crisis.
■
To identify the role and significance of tour operators in the recovery of des-
tinations affected by a crisis on the international tourism market.
■
To be able to describe the role of tour operators in creating an image of a
tourism destination in the minds of both their potential clients and individual
tourists.
■
To understand why the image created by tour operators may not always reflect
the real situation in the destination.
Introduction
1
Peace, safety, and security are the primary conditions for the normal tourism devel-
opment of a destination, region, or country and thus are the basic determinants of
its growth. Without them, destinations cannot successfully compete on the gener-
ating markets, even if they present in their marketing campaigns the most attrac-
tive and best quality natural and built attractions. Tourism contributes to peace as
much as it benefits from it (Savignac, 1994). According to Pizam (1999, p. 5),
every minute of every day a crime or a violent act occurs at a destination some-
where in the world. At the same time, it would be difficult to deny that many types
of safety risks coexist in everyone’s daily life and within tourism as well. However,
an important difference exists: people are rarely in a position to change their place
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of living, but nothing can force them to spend a holiday in a place that they per-
ceive as insecure. The basic requirement of contemporary demand is a higher qual-
ity of supply and services, and that quality has become the most important factor
in the existing climate and development of that demand. But usually not mentioned
are factors that are the conditio sine qua non—peace, safety, and security, now gen-
erally taken for granted. Any threats to the safety of tourists causes a decrease or
total absence of activity, not only in a particular destination, but also very often in
neighboring regions or countries as well. Consequently, since tourism is an impor-
tant contributor to national economies, host countries will find it necessary to take
substantial measures to bring the country hit by crisis back onto the market as
quickly as possible.
From 1950 to 1998 the number of international tourist arrivals in the world
increased from 25 million to 635 million (WTO, 1999b), with an average annual
increase of 6.97%. Over the past 15 years, international tourism receipts have
grown 1.5 times faster than world GDP, with no signs of slowing down. In 1998
international tourism accounted for an estimated 8% of the world’s total earnings
and 37% of exports in the service sector (WTO, 1999a). According to data from
the International Monetary Fund, in 1998 international tourism receipts and pas-
senger transport amounted to more than US$504 billion, putting it ahead of all
other categories of international trade (automotive products, chemicals, food,
petroleum and other fuels, computer and office equipment, textiles and clothing,
telecommunications equipment, mining products, iron and steel, etc.).
This rapid development of international tourism can partly be explained by the
tremendous surge in international air traffic and the favorable package holidays
promoted nationally and internationally. Indeed, tour operators represent one of the
most powerful and influential entities in the tourism industry. They have a strong
influence on international flows from main generating markets to various destina-
tions. According to World Tourism Organization estimates, tour operators nowa-
days have a share of about 25% in the total international tourism market. This
means that in 2000 tour operators organized at least 175 million international
tourism trips. Therefore, the success of many destinations depends on whether for-
eign tour operators include them in their programs.
Crises have become an integral part of business activity, and tourism is no
exception. Probably no other industry in the world can suffer more from crisis than
tourism (Leaf, 1995). This can happen in many different forms, including natural
disasters, human-caused disasters, and catastrophes caused by human or technical
error. All disasters can turn tourism flows away from impacted destinations, but
war, terrorism, or political instability has a much greater psychologically negative
effect on potential tourists when planning their vacations. This applies not only to
the time of crisis, but also to the period following it. In the case of human-caused
disasters, usually three phases of crisis can be distinguished: the period of pre-dis-
aster (with clear signals of a possible outbreak of a crisis), the period of real crisis,
and the period of post-crisis—that is, the period up to the full recovery of tourism
in the receiving county. All three phases (periods) can be marked as
tourism crisis
cycles
during which the appeal of a particular receiving country suffers. The neg-
ative effects of human-caused crises at destinations have been described and ana-
lyzed by many (Bar-On, 1996; Bloom, 1996; Gartner and Shen, 1992; Leslie,
1999; Mansfeld, 1999; Pizam and Mansfeld, 1996; Radnic and Ivandic, 1999;
Sönmez, 1998; Sönmez, Apostolopoulos, and Tarlow, 1999), with Pizam (1999)
Tourism Security and Safety: From Theory to Practice
336
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developing a comprehensive typology of acts of crimes and violence at destina-
tions.
The risks that lie within tourism are not only related to the individual tourist and
the host society, but also to the company that organizes the trip, namely tour oper-
ators (Steene, 1999). They play a very important role in creating the image of des-
tinations and can significantly influence international flows toward a country hit
by safety and security risks. This chapter examines the behavior of tour operators
toward destinations in a time of crisis and analyzes their significance in the recov-
ery of impacted destinations on the international market. Special consideration is
given to the case of Croatia.
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