Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Learning Objectives
■
To define different types of business crises that will affect tourism operations.
■
To analyze terrorism as a malevolent crisis and its impact on global tourism.
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To examine the impact of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the hotel
industry in Washington, DC.
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To understand crisis-management planning and coordination by the hotel
industry in Washington, DC.
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To study how to launch an effective recovery marketing campaign after a
major crisis.
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To assess tourism recovery by evaluating hotel performance.
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To understand the response and recovery process for managing a terrorism crisis.
Introduction
1
This chapter reviews studies on terrorist attacks on the tourism industry worldwide
and examines crisis management for handling business crises caused by terrorist
attacks. It analyzes the calamitous impact caused by the September 11, 2001, ter-
rorist attacks, focusing on the human and financial effects on the hospitality indus-
try in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, and discusses the recovery efforts
exerted by the local hospitality industry.
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It first identifies terrorism as one form of malevolent crisis for business opera-
tions and discusses the negative impact of terrorism on hospitality operations by
an extensive literature review of this subject. It then focuses on crisis-management
practices that can effectively handle such a malevolent crisis. As one of the two
September 11 terrorist attack targets, Washington, DC, is used as a case to illus-
trate how the local hospitality industry worked closely with other tourism partners
to manage the unprecedented crisis and effectively developed recovery strategies
to bring the city’s hospitality business back to normalcy. The lessons and experi-
ence gained from managing this crisis can serve as recommendations for the hos-
pitality industry in other destinations to prepare for and handle similar crises
should they occur in the future.
Based on the review of the response and recovery efforts by the hotel managers
in the Washington, DC, area, this study suggests a model for responding to and
recovering from a malevolent crisis. At the heart of this model are two key recom-
mendations: (a) crisis preparation and management expertise should be added to
the qualifications of hotel managers at different levels; and (b) local clusters of
hotels, brands, and stakeholders affected by a crisis should coordinate their efforts
in a local manner to optimize the speed and completeness of the initial response
and shorten the recovery time. A thoughtful and well-planned response, individu-
ally and collectively, will best mitigate the damage of crises by terrorist attack.