Search results

Crisis management has developed as an established field of scholarly research in tourism over the last three decades. More recently, the concept of resilience has emerged within this body of literature as a longer-term planning process. However, important knowledge gaps remain, especially with regards to the strategic responses of small tourism businesses in destinations prone to repeated crises.

This chapter reviews the literature related to crisis management and resilience in tourism.

Key knowledge gaps are outlined and discussed in the context of tourism research related to crisis management and resilience, with a specific emphasis on research related to small tourism businesses.

Although crisis management and resilience are fields of research that continue to generate a considerable amount of scholarly enquiry in tourism, particularly with studies related to the impacts of terrorism on tourism destinations and, more recently, the short- and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, there is very little research related to the role of small tourism businesses in this context, in spite of their key role in the tourism system of destinations around the world.

Cameroon’s contemporary legislative and institutional frameworks for disaster risk management (DRM) encapsulate the concept of Civil Protection (CP). Diverse disaster risk profile and high incidence/frequency of co-occurring natural and human-induced hazards are intimately linked to increasing vulnerability and fragile economy, transforming hazards into emergencies, crises and disasters, with dire livelihood consequences. To curb growing disaster risks, the Cameroon government instituted basic legislative and institutional frameworks for DRM, through top-down hierarchical, and ex post decision-making processes. Existing frameworks combine multi-hazard, multi-stakeholder and multidisciplinary/agency approaches. Inertia, limited foresight and proactiveness, innovation capacity and limited stakeholder involvement have rendered DRM ineffective. Existing DRM instruments are vague and not explicit. DRM lags behind a rapidly evolving disaster risk profile, and implementation is scattered across ministries/agencies, rendering cross-sectoral cooperation and coordination difficult. Although Cameroon is a signatory to many international disaster risk reduction (DRR)/DRM frameworks, and frequently participates in international DRR/DRM events, implementation of international agreements leaves much to be desired. The Directorate of Civil Protection – Cameroon’s sole legislative DRM institution is marred by bureaucracy, centralisation and insufficient power to perform. There is an urgent need to overhaul existing legislation and institutional frameworks for effective DRM in Cameroon.

The leisure industry is colossally impacted by varied types of crisis. Assessing the volatility; an attempt is made towards disaster planning and a response system. This chapter indicates an all-inclusive integrated approach to deal with disasters and narrates conceptual and latest factual findings in the space of disaster management. An efficient and self-equipped attraction demands a competent and efficient disaster management system in place.

This chapter devises measures to deal with the capacity of a destination during pandemic and proposes recovering strategies for the leisure business. Destination governance and disaster management techniques are well explored in the proposed chapter.

An imperative study of this nature will determine the role of cultural perceptions of varied risk and threats in a pandemic scenario. Innovative practices of disaster governance and Post-disaster recovery strategies are crucial mechanisms for the sustenance of tourism and hospitality sector.

The conceptual ideas and outcomes obtained in this chapter helps policy makers not only to find new strategies to placate the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the organic image of tourist destinations but also assists in accelerating the recovery timeframe just after the pandemic.

Crisis management (CM) has gained prominence in the last decades, as the complex global business environment has forced executives to pay attention to practices that may safeguard organizations against potential crises. However, despite the fact that various scholars point to the need for autonomy and delegation of authority when responding to crises, it appears that the overarching rationale in the crisis literature is geared toward a centralized approach. This suggests that preventive actions and response to crises lie mainly with the leader of the organization and with designated crises teams. It is also apparent that this literature places too much weight on contingency plans and classification schemes. Although behavioral factors have been discussed by some authors as a fundamental element in dealing with crises, it is not clear how to develop these traits. It is our contention then that these conventional perspectives, although valuable to CM, are insufficient to deal with the uncertainty that characterizes global business today where firms must be prepared for the unexpected. We discuss the limitations of this traditional approach and argue for a combination of central control with decentralized execution when responding to unexpected crises situations. This enables management to better comprehend the complexity embedded in any crisis and allows adaptive practices to emerge throughout the organization. An analysis of two cases paired with empirical field studies support our proposition.

Purpose: This chapter analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic has been managed and strategies put in place to rejuvenate the tourism industry in Uganda.

Methodology: This chapter adopts an integrated approach involving questionnaire survey and rapid situational analysis of documents to synthesize information on management of past disease outbreaks, COVID-19 and their impacts on tourism.

Findings: Uganda's tourism industry is vulnerable and has been exposed to past disease outbreaks such as Ebola and Marburg with varying effects on its image and performance. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the industry has drawn lessons from the previous responses and management experiences to cope with the effects of the pandemic.

Research Limitations: The main limitation in this chapter is the low response rate due to stringent lockdown conditions and limited access to respondents and official documents.

Practical Implications: This chapter recommends the need to mainstream strategies for crisis management into the tourism policy and development planning frameworks.

Originality/Value: This chapter provides a robust approach to analyze tourism industry's response, recovery and sustainability after disease outbreaks, pandemics and related crises in future.

This chapter examines the role that strategic marketing plans play throughout the process of destination recovery post terrorist attack for the purpose of encouraging the return of tourists. It investigates the impact that strategic marketing plans have as a part of crisis management applying a mixed-method approach which utilises survey data examining future industry leaders to quantify perspectives regarding the relationship between terrorism, tourism and destination marketing. Furthermore, this chapter reviews destination marketing techniques employed by international locations to determine recovery strategies utilising marketing plans. Bali, Paris, Northern Ireland, New York, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey were selected as case studies because they have been the focus of significant research studies to date (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC): BBC News, 2019; Ferreira, Graciano, Leal, & Costa, 2019) which have primarily focused on the relationship between terrorism and tourism regarding the collapse of the tourism industry. A survey was issued to gain perspectives regarding the relationship between terrorism, tourism and destination marketing. Second, case study analysis was conducted to examine both successful and unsuccessful destination recovery strategies. Results indicate that destinations that utilised strategic marketing as a part of crisis management frameworks experienced the return of tourists and recovered. This research contributed to the development of an inclusive, universal crisis management framework encompassing strategic marketing plans as a tool for recovery.

The prevalence of crises is a real phenomenon that demands proper planning and implementation of measures to preempt and curb its consequences on both national economies and business operations. Crisis is one of the concepts that cannot be overlooked, pervasive in nature, and does not necessarily denote negativity. Crisis is no longer an unusual, arbitrary, or minor characteristic of today's business environment. As far as the business environment continues to be volatile and unpredictable, it is unlikely that business organizations would be free from crises. Crises are noted to be a vital part of a business context and can serve as an avenue for positive change and creativity if the right tools and techniques are employed to properly manage them. On the other hand, crises can jeopardize the continued existence of the organization and obstruct the achievement of its goals. Thus, the debilitating ramifications of crises on business growth, survival and overall success calls for adoption of sustainable crisis management approaches in this new business world order that is framed by Industry 5.0, digitalization, and green business practices. The primary purpose of this article is to establish how modern crisis management methods could lead to sustainable organizational development. The current study departs from existing studies in the literature by systematically presenting methods to anticipate, solve, and transform business crises into advantage. The chapter also throws light on how organizations should manage business crises that may well be accelerated by Industry 5.0 and its components; digitalization and sustainable development.

This chapter studies crisis communication within the backdrop of tourism social media. The Scandinavian airline SAS is chosen as a case study due to the recognition of the airline’s social media presence during the 2010 ash cloud crisis. The study relies on netnographic and content analysis methods to examine Facebook postings throughout the life-cycle stages of the crisis as well as an interview with a social media representative at the airline. The social mediated crisis communication model is applied to situational crisis communication theory, and the findings show that social media provide a beneficial channel during a crisis. However, it is necessary for organizations to recognize stakeholders’ needs during a crisis as social media presence alone does not ensure success.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge negative impact on the world’s hotel industry from the beginning of 2020. As a result of the pandemic, the majority of hotels around the world have decided to close temporarily. It examines the challenges faced by hotel managers and the strategies used to survive.

This research can motivate hotel companies around the world to better understand pandemic situations and develop effective anti-pandemic policies. Based on online in-depth interviews with 25 hotel managers, the findings shed light on the various challenges to hotels.

Findings have shown that the hotel industry has been able to adapt their business for the short term with post-COVID-19 strategies still having limitations. To survive the duration of the pandemic hotels have adopted strategies: reducing employees, promotions and discounts and changing the market segment, as well as levels of maintenance of hygiene and cleanliness. The hotel industry can implement opportunities toward change through government support, crisis management, cooperation with travel agencies and technology.

The current research is to determine the impact of COVID-19 and the adaptive strategies on the hotel sector in the Siem Reap province by the following objectives: (1) To analyse the impacts of COVID-19 in the hotel sector, (2) To identify adaptive strategies in dealing with COVID-19 in the hotel sector and (3) To explore post-COVID-19 strategies of the hotel sector after the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative method was employed in the research online and in-depth interviews were conducted with the owner and general manager.

The study suggests that hotels focus more on survival strategies for the short term, so the topic for future research could be to investigate details of strategies after the COVID-19 pandemic in order to research what the hotels' strategic solutions will be and how they will manage the operation after the COVID-19 pandemic for long-term strategies.