Tourism Risk Management - Sustainable Tourism Online

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this guide is to provide tourism industry members in Asia, the Pacific and beyond with
an authoritative guide to risk management. Importantly, the generic risk management process has
been adapted to the specific needs of tourism. The guide provides a practical framework within which
tourism destinations can identify, analyse, evaluate, treat, monitor and review risks in the tourism
context. Although the tourism risk management process has been developed for destinations, the
same principles also apply to a tourism business or organization and can easily be adapted for their
purposes.
Throughout this guide there are two fundamental roles for tourism in risk management: the first of
these is as a partner with government and community agencies in the development of multi-agency,
coordinated disaster management plans, systems, procedures and processes which include the
needs of tourism; the second is to develop plans and procedures appropriate to a destination and to
the specific roles and responsibilities of an organization, to train personnel to those plans, and to
conduct regular tests of plans, procedures and personnel with subsequent amendment and update.
Although the tourism industry is not responsible for the development or implementation of community
disaster management plans and arrangements, the guide recommends that destinations and tourism
operators should, when possible, participate in disaster planning and management activities through
appropriate local, regional or national committees. Such participation enables the importance of
tourism to be drawn to the attention of disaster management agencies and promotes the need for
appropriate measures to be established to protect visitors in times of crisis. Case studies of
Hurricane Katrina and the Bali Bombings demonstrate how a community disaster can affect
confidence in tourism and interfere with its ability to continue normal operations.
While each tourist destination is unique and will have different issues to deal with, there are key
areas of risk management which are common across destinations. The most obvious is a dramatic
drop in visitor numbers in which the impact is felt across a whole economy. While this guide presents
case studies of recent events which have had a significant impact on tourism, the focus is on
solutions rather than merely documenting past difficulties. The guide also provides checklists which
will assist destinations and tourism businesses to adopt current risk management processes.
This guide draws on best practice from a range of sources within and outside the APEC group.
Current knowledge and practical application are the objectives of the project, so that peak bodies
(UNWTO, PATA, etc) can use material from this report for training and education programs.
Recognizing the critical role of national governments in supporting and protecting tourist destinations,
the guide also seeks to offer an authoritative guide that can be endorsed by governments.
Chapter Summaries
In order to demonstrate the importance of tourism, Chapter 1 begins with an overview of the need to
protect tourism, focusing particularly on the economic significance of the tourism industry to all
economies. Selected case studies reinforce the value of tourism by showing the economic losses
associated with adverse events.
Having established the importance of tourism for generating income, creating and sustaining jobs,
encouraging foreign investment and facilitating trade opportunities, Chapter 2 then considers the key
elements of crises and disasters and their effects upon tourism businesses/organizations and
destinations and identifies the role of the tourism industry in risk management. The chapter provides
a practical framework within which tourism destinations and businesses/organizations can identify,
analyse, evaluate, treat, monitor and review risks and identifies the critical role of tourism operators in
Tourism Risk Management – An Authoritative Guide to Managing Crises in Tourism 1