آشوب، بحران ها و بلایای طبیعی : یک رویکرد استراتژیک به مدیریت بحران در صنعت گردشگری

This paper outlines and discusses a strategic and holistic approach to crisis management for the tourism industry. It notes the growing importance of crisis and disaster management for the tourism industry before exploring the definitions and nature of crises and disasters. The paper then proposes a strategic approach to their management from proactive pre-crisis planning through strategic implementation and finally evaluation and feedback. A discussion of crisis and disaster management literature and studies conducted in the tourism field are also introduced. It notes that although crises and disasters cannot be stopped their impacts can be limited by both public and private sector managers. The paper concludes that the understanding and subsequent management of such incidents can be vastly improved through the extension and application of crisis and disaster management theory and concepts from other disciplines, coupled with the development of specific tourism crisis management research and frameworks.

Faulkner (2001) notes an increasing number of disasters and crises which affect the tourism industry, ranging from natural to human influenced incidents. In recent years the global tourism industry has experienced many crises and disasters including terrorist attacks, political instability, economic recession, biosecurity threats and natural disasters. Lee and Harrald (1999, p. 184) state that “natural disasters can disrupt the supply and distribution chains for even the best prepared businesses…service businesses are increasingly vulnerable to electrical, communication and other critical infrastructure failures.” This vulnerability can also be exposed through human induced behaviour most evident by September 11, 2001 and the Bali Bomb Attack, which dramatically impacted upon the tourism and travel industry. Faulkner (2001) argues that there is a lack of research on crisis or disaster phenomena in the tourism industry, on the impacts of such events on both the industry and specific organisations, and the responses of the tourism industry to such incidents. This lack of interest and research is somewhat surprising considering that crisis management, disaster recovery and organisational continuity are important competencies for managers in both the public and private sector (Lee & Harrald, 1999, p. 184). This paper aims to address these deficiencies and explore crisis and disaster management for the tourism industry by considering a strategic and holistic approach to crisis and disaster management. However, the article also notes the difficulty in responding to chaotic situations, which are often unpredictable and difficult to control. Nevertheless, this article stresses that chaos and change are an important part of public and private sector management which should be embraced and considered in modern tourism management. The paper begins by defining crises and disasters to improve our understanding of these phenomena before outlining the desire for management control over these incidents. The paper then suggests that a strategic approach to crisis management can be beneficial and proposes such an approach for the tourism and travel industry. The paper outlines key aspects of a strategic and holistic approach drawing on the crisis management literature and previous research in the tourism field. Finally the paper discusses future research avenues which could contribute to better understanding, planning and management of crises and disasters in an increasingly complex and disaster prone world.

This paper has outlined the importance of understanding crises and disasters for the tourism industry because the industry is highly susceptible to change and crises/disasters. However, a small but growing body of research on crisis and disaster management has been conducted in the tourism industry. This may be due, in part, to the chaotic and complex nature of these incidents and an inability by some managers and researchers to understand such phenomena. However, an analysis of the nature of crises and disasters can provide insights for how these may be managed. This is particularly important in the context of a fragmented industry such as tourism which is often impacted by external factors. A strategic, holistic and proactive approach to crisis management in the tourism industry is required through: • developing proactive scanning and planning; • implementing strategies when crises or disasters occur; and, • evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies to ensure continual refinement of crisis management strategies. Flexibility and continual monitoring is required by organisations and destinations to design and implement effective strategies to deal with chaos and change. As noted previously in this paper organisations should take a holistic approach to managing crises and may have to reconfigure their management structure, consider aspects related to resource allocation and organisational culture, all which may influence the effectiveness of crisis management. Furthermore, there is a need for co-operation between a wide number of stakeholders both internal and external to the organisation to effectively plan and manage crises and disasters. Leadership is required to provide direction to the industry in times of crisis and to bring stakeholders together at an organisational and destination level for integrated crisis/disaster management. In particular, spokespeople are needed to effectively deal with the media particularly for tourism crises or disasters. Future research and the development of theoretical or conceptual frameworks are required on crisis and disaster management generally, but particularly focussing on the tourism industry. In particular, there is a need for researchers to move beyond simplistic prescriptive models which may provide check lists or information on what managers should do before, during or after crises toward descriptive models which develop and/or test models, concepts or theories related to crisis management to examine why crises were managed (in)effectively in the tourism industry. Theories or concepts from other discipline areas could shed further light on crisis management for the tourism industry are illustrated in Table 2 along with research fields which are related to crisis and disaster management in tourism. There is also a need for research following different paradigmatic positions to improve our understanding of crisis and disaster management in the tourism industry, including: • chaos and complexity theory applied to crises and disasters; • positivistic approaches to quantify levels of preparedness and reactions of the industry to crises and disasters and help predict incidents through computer stimulation modelling; • phenomenological approaches to explore attitudes and opinions of managers in the public and private sector towards crisis and disaster management; and, •case study approaches are needed to test models and concepts surrounding crisis management in the tourism industry. These research approaches should provide additional insights into crises and disasters helping the tourism industry to understand chaos and change. This will hopefully allow the industry to embrace these incidents as an everyday part of life and begin to plan and manage them in a strategic and holistic way, potentially reducing their impacts on business and society. As crises and disasters increase this will be a key skill for both tourism managers and planners in both the public and private sector.