Tourism Risk Management - Sustainable Tourism Online

CHAPTER 2: RISK MANAGEMENT FOR TOURISM CRISES AND
DISASTERS
Aim of this Chapter
The aim of this chapter is to provide background on the formal government disaster management
processes for communities and to identify and examine issues of risk management which are
relevant to the tourism industry and tourism operators.
In this manual, risk management is concerned with identifying and analysing the risks (the chance of
something happening) to an organization or community and deciding what can or should be done to
address these risks. An official definition of risk management is: ‘the culture, processes and
structures that are directed towards realizing potential opportunities whilst managing adverse effects’
(Australian Standards Association/New Zealand Standards Association, 1995).
Risk management in the tourism context refers to the planning and implementation of processes
directed towards managing the adverse effects of crises and disasters on tourism. It also addresses
tourism’s potential opportunities for the improvement in systems and procedures. This chapter
addresses risk management for tourism destinations and individual tourism businesses and
organizations.
Introduction
The Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre in Bangkok defines disaster as: ‘the serious disruption of
the functioning of society causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses which
exceed the ability of the affected communities to cope using their own resources’. In Carter’s manual
for disaster managers funded by the Asian Development Bank, disaster is defined as: ‘an event;
natural or man-made, sudden or progressive, which impacts with such severity that the affected
community has to respond by taking exceptional measures’ (Carter, 1992). The World Health
Organization’s definition of disaster is: ‘any occurrence that causes damage, economic disruption,
loss of human life and deterioration in health and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant an
extraordinary response from outside the affected area or community’.
The common thread in these and other definitions of disaster is that there is disruption to the
community which is of such magnitude that responding organizations, infrastructure and resources
are overwhelmed, and there is an inability to return to normal without external assistance.
For disaster management purposes, an appropriate and practical definition is one which recognizes
the severity of the effects of a disaster, its impact upon a community, and the required level of
response. In the Australian Emergency Management Glossary (EMA, 2006) disaster is defined as: ‘a
serious disruption to community life which threatens or causes death or injury in that community
and/or damage to property which is beyond the day-to-day capacity of the prescribed statutory
authorities and which requires special mobilization and organization of resources other than those
normally available to those authorities’.
Regardless of the definition used, it is important to realize that disasters are different in kind and in
scope from day-to-day emergency incidents. Disasters are not simply bigger events; they have a
significant impact upon people and their infrastructure and community resources; they inevitably
overwhelm the capacity of the community and the resources and facilities available for management
of the immediate response, and they produce long-term problems of restoration and rehabilitation.
Disasters are not over when the flood waters have receded, when the injured have been treated, or
the bodies cleared away. The community has to be put back together: and the community includes
the people, their infrastructure, and resources.
16 Tourism Risk Management – An Authoritative Guide to Managing Crises in Tourism