Crisis Management in Tourism Destination

Natural disasters are a prime example of this. Although meteorologist have concluded that certain weather conditions can lead to various extreme storms, such as tornados or hurricanes, there is a limit to what we can do with that information. For example, the conditions required to make a tornado are common knowledge, when spring warm fronts and winter cold fronts meet they create the perfect atmosphere for a twister. With this knowledge and the capability to know when and where cold/warm front are going to be coming from, meteorologist are able to send out tornado watch and warnings to the affected communities. However, it is nearly impossible to discern if those winds will combine in the right way to make a funnel or if that funnel will touch down. Furthermore, if the tornado does manage to touch down they are unable to tell what its exact path of destruction it will be. The tornado that ripped through Joplin Missouri in 2011 is a prime example that we cannot always predict when a storm will strike, and the extent of the damage it will cause when it does. Although scientist continue to make strides in these fields, we will never be able to know exactly what is coming because various fields of study such as weather are not an exact science, and there are far too many possible factors to

Natural disasters affect thousands of lives each year, and have the potential to drastically alter a country/state and its people. Because of the destructive force Mother Nature can bring about, it is imperative to have mitigation plans set up in populated areas to protect people and reduce the structural damage to buildings, houses, etc. There are some mitigation plans, however, that have been unsuccessful, resulting in catastrophic disasters. Best examples of these are the Connecticut Flood of 1955 and Hurricane Katrina. Even though these are two different types of natural disasters; the level of destruction, preparedness, mitigation strategies, and the overall aftermaths had profound and lasting changes on the areas inflicted, mainly Connecticut and Louisiana.

A natural disaster is never planned, how were they supposed to know about the earthquake? The rockslide? Blizzard? Tsunami? The survivors never actually planned on it happening, despite as many precautions they may have taken. “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami is a perfect example of this, the main character lost his best friend to a wave that was completely unexpected. Even despite their precautions, as stated in paragraph 23, the main character telling his best friend, “The minute we get any wind, though, we’re going straight back home.” Regardless of these canniness, both of the characters were gravely affected by the unforeseen wave. Other cases that involve people being trapped, or hurt by a choice that they made, most victims will clarify that they did what they thought was best for survival. They did what they thought would keep them from dying, to somehow last long enough for an escape or

Natural disasters are the catastrophes cause by “Mother Nature”, which is often difficult to forecast or manage (Morrison, et al 2014). Examples of

Disasters, whether natural or manmade, can happen anytime and anywhere, without warning. An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, fire, or hazardous material spill or even an act of terrorism can happen

Globally the tourism and hospitality industry is undergoing and evolving the radical changes. From the past experiences are now advancing at greater pace through faster development of skills and knowledge developed to create and adapt innovation in several ways. Therefore, it is important to have greater understanding of current issues and knowledge in order to cope with future challenges effectively.

Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).

From an environmental perspective, it is apparent that the world is starting to realise that increases in tourism are having a negative impact on the environment. This is due to increases in energy consumption, which in turn heightens the effects of global warming (Neto, 2002). There are many controls that governments are trying to put into place, such as flight rationing (Liverpool Business School, 2009). However, it can be argued that these have not really begun to have a significant effect on tourism, as they are still insufficient to dampen demand. It may become a problem in future years, as the number of controls is likely to increase. Perhaps the largest environmental factor would be natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina (Cashell, 2005) and the tsunami that hit Asia in December 2004 (Birkland, 2006). These will impact negatively on people’s confidence in visiting places that have been hit severely by such disasters.

The following literature is suggesting that how a tourist destination can be analyzed with the help of Butler's Tourism Life Cycle Model. Butler (1980) introduced the concept of the model which clarifies and extends earlier work by, for example, Cristaller (1963), Noronha (1976) and Stansfield (1978). In doing so, Butler clearly links the development cycle of tourism destinations to that of products in the product life cycle model. This is one the best used management framework to know the evolution in a tourism destination as described by Baum (1998), the original Butler's model included:

Natural disasters are anything from floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, or anything else nature could develop that causes massive amounts of damage, or cause a large losses of life. Such events are not anything caused because of human beings, but only by the actions of atmospheric conditions, or due to the changes of continental drifts that these disasters occur. Technology has come a long way since the early days before the industrial revolution where predictions can be made and warnings can be issued. This helps reduce the amount of possible loss of lives that would occur in 21st century. However, that is not what happened during Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 Hurricane.

Policy and planning directly related, despite being completely different types of processes, they both confront the same issues, that being the overall future development of a destination. This essay reflects on policy and planning in the tourism industry. Beginning with the purpose of tourism policy, underlining why policy and planning is important, how it is utilized, and finally the benefits to tourism development. Utilizing examples from Kenya, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Croatia to further illustrate why tourism policies and planning are necessary in destinations.

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

Natural disaster is a sudden and terrific event in nature (such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, heat waves,typhoon) that usually results in serious damage and a huge amount of deaths.

Due to the fact that building a tourist destination requires lots of resources, especially the soft and hard infrastructure of a destination which are relatively important to a destination in terms of its attractiveness to tourist, proper tourism planning had to be done beforehand in order to deliver such infrastructures. Especially iconic buildings which required a certain amount of time in order to be completed, usually required large amount of planning in order to assure the infrastructures are to be completed in time in order to fit into the timeline of the project and whole master plan. It is therefore crucial in delivering the infrastructure in the stipulated timeline of the destination in order to accommodate to the tourist.

Planning and development are both extremely important factors within the tourism industry and can have both positive and negative effects on the environment, local communities and tourist destinations. “Destination planning aims to limit the negative impacts of cultural tourism upon the history and lifestyles of the local community. An understanding of sustainable tourist development allows for the development of culture without loss of its authentic identity” (Maidment. T. 2012). This statement discusses the importance of planning to avoid having any negative impacts on environments and communities. Because the effects of tourism are so severe to destinations, many natural and cultural resources have been destroyed, therefore tourism planning is vital to preserve and maintain these places for future generations.