Chapter 1 Introduction

Abstract

Tourism has always been impacted by crises and disasters, and no tourism destination is exempt (Beirman, 2006). Tourism is particularly susceptible to natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes and bushfires amongst others), which can cause sudden and immediate damage and destruction to destinations and their infrastructure, as well as longer terms issues with reduced visitor arrivals, leading to knock-on employment problems (Huang et al., 2008). However, there are other types of man-made crises that can also affect the tourism industry, including the actual or perceived threat of terrorism or political instability within a destination. Additionally, while some crises may affect entire destinations, others are more specific, affecting only particular industry sectors or organisations. Finally, not all challenges for destination marketers arise suddenly. Many destinations struggle to attract tourists because they are perceived to be unattractive for some reason, perhaps as a result of the long-running presence of heavy industry. The common thread linking these various crises, disasters and challenges is the unfortunate effect that they have on the reputation and image of the destination or organisation involved. Faulkner (2001: 136) defined a disaster as “a situation where an enterprise or a destination is confronted with sudden unpredictable catastrophic changes over which it has little control”. A crisis, on the other hand, is considered to be “a situation where the root cause of an event is, to some extent, self-inflicted through such problems as inept management structures and practices or a failure to adapt to change” (Faulkner 2001, p.136).
However, while there is an academic distinction between the term ‘crisis’ and ‘disaster’, they are often used interchangeably and in this book, both terms will be used.