Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

8
Recovering from SARS:
The Case of Toronto 
Tourism
Geoffrey Wall
Learning Objectives
■
To suggest that the tourism industry is operating in a turbulent environment and
must expect to have to respond to a diversity of extreme events.
■
To illustrate the importance of the media in conveying information about extreme
events.
■
To demonstrate that perceptions of risk, even where little risk may occur, have far-
reaching consequences for tourism.
■
To indicate the range of responses made by one city to address the negative conse-
quences of an adverse situation on its tourism industry.
■
To stimulate thought about the roles of the public and private sectors in risk man-
agement for the tourism industry.
Introduction
The tourism industry is operating in a turbulent environment in which both global
and local events have major consequences for economic success. Whether they be
wars, political crises, terrorist activities (real or imagined), natural disasters, health
emergencies, or other extreme events, they all have swift and usually negative
repercussions for those involved in tourism. Of course, this is nothing new. What
is novel is that, fueled by the speed and reach of communications, information, in
both words and pictures, is disseminated almost instantaneously throughout the
world. As a result, the rapidity of the onset of the consequences of even distant
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events is virtually immediate, leaving little time to put effective damage-control
initiatives in place, and the magnitude of the repercussions of the events is exag-
gerated. Fortunately, there is evidence that tourism can rebound fairly quickly once
the threatening situation has passed. However, in the meantime, a great deal of
damage occurs, economic dislocation of destinations and businesses takes place,
costs of responding to the crisis increase at a time when income is curtailed, the
market is soured, misinformation and incomplete information abound, uncertainty
prevails, and recriminations occur at a time when calm and measured responses are
called for and a cohesive set of responses is required.
It is also novel that the events that individually appeared to be unusual and
extreme are being seen as examples of a class of “unexpected” damaging events
that are less surprising in the increasingly turbulent environment in which we find
ourselves. In fact the grouping of natural disasters, wars, terrorist events, chemical
spills, epidemics, and other such undesirable phenomena into a class of cata-
strophic events requiring forethought, planning, and management, while not new,
is now widely recognized as being appropriate. While differing in detail, such phe-
nomena have in common the destruction of lives and property, to different degrees
and at different speeds, but often on a massive scale. Recognition of the similari-
ties and differences between such damaging occurrences is at the root of an impor-
tant new research and policy direction for it changes the focus from discrete,
unique events that are unmanageable, to a recognition that these are rare but recur-
ring phenomena that may be planned for and whose adverse consequences, if not
avoided, may be mitigated.
In a turbulent environment, one strategy that merits consideration is risk man-
agement. Risks cannot be eliminated but they can be reduced. However, it is
important to consider who should bear the risks—and the answer will vary from
place to place and with the nature of the risks. In the Western world and increas-
ingly elsewhere, the tourism industry is dominated by the private sector but it oper-
ates in an environment that is also managed by the public sector. What risks should
be assumed by the private sector and what is the responsibility of governments for
risk mitigation in an increasingly turbulent environment?
The availability of accurate and timely information is necessary to inform deci-
sion makers, but such information is not easily acquired in times of stress. It has
been said before that “perception is reality”—tourists respond to what they per-
ceive the situation to be and this may or may not mirror reality depending in large