Intergrating Crises Management In Strategic Planning Process In International Travel Industry

INTERGRATING CRISES MANAGEMENT IN STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS IN INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL INDUSTRY

INTRODUCTION

In the last six to seven years the international travel industry has seen a lot of incidents, which have affected the business a lot. “The travel industry, although not unique in its vulnerability, is nevertheless highly exposed to risks and prone to crises as the result of external events. External shocks, such as wars, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, pollution, adverse publicity and accidents, can have a dramatic and speedy effect upon levels of business in the travel industry. The external shocks can quickly develop into crises and indeed can be and should be viewed as a central concern of competent managers in the industry.” Evans, N. and Elphick, S. (2005). The purpose of this article is to understand that how can we strategically plan the travel industry’s business with the help of Crises Management. So, that we can minimizes the risk in the travel industry and ensure the safety of the travelers as well. The International Travel industry is very vast and prone to many risks like, the most common these days being Terrorism. Since 2000, there has been a lot of terrorism attack allover the world. “The bungled attempts to repeat the attack of 7/7 on London’s transport system resulted in no loss of life, but caused widespread panic and disruption in the capital.” These attacks have given a lot of negative advertisements for the tourist destination and hampering the travel industry the most. “ A number of authors, including Ryan(1993),Sonmez(1998),Sonmez et al.(1999),Pizam and Mansfeld(1996), and Pizam and Smith(2001), have researched the link between terrorism and tourism and conclude that targeting tourist clearly helps terrorist in achieving their objective by disrupting the industry and assuring publicity.” Sonmez et al., 1999 cited in Evans, N. and Elphick,S.(2005). The most recently the terrorist attacks which have rocked the international travel industry, where like the September 11 attack in US, the attack in Bali at the night club killing around 180, which took place in 2002 October, then the London Underground bomb blast in 2006, then the Glasgow airport attack. All of these terrorist attacks have really made a huge impact on the international travel industry. “The Tourism industry emergency response group has estimated that the 7 July bombings could cut visitors spending by 2 %( orÐ'Ј300m) this year, with London bearing half the losses.” Frewin, A. (2005). This can be seen from the table below which has been taken from Evans, N. and Elphick, S. (2005).

Continent Percentage Change

Africa ( -1.4%)

Americas (-20%)

East Asia/Pacific (-4%)

Europe (-6.5%)

Middle East (-20%)

South Asia (-24%)

These figures are of International tourist arrivals in 2001 compared with 2000. In the table above it can be seen very evidently, that there has been a fall in most of the parts of the world. Like in the South Asia it is up to 24% and the least fall of international travelers is still 1.4% in Africa. The terrorist attacks and other disaster happen without any prior notice or alarm. The manager in the international hospitality and tourism industry must now learn to live with these attacks or should adopt Crises management in the planning process of the hospitality and tourism industry. The article will help the international manager in the hospitality and tourism industry to understand the importance of Crises management and as to how to adopt it, making there work more future focused. So, that when the Crises hits the international travel industry the managers know how to maintain the business, with minimizing the risk and ensuring the safety of their guest.

Crises Management

Crises management is a way which is adopted by organizations, governments and world bodies for dealing with the disasters mainly which is man made. According to Mitroff,I.I. and Anagus,G. (2001) “In contrast to the disciplines of emergency and management, which deal primarily with natural disasters, the field of CM(crises management) deals mainly with man-made or human-caused crises, such as computer hacking, environmental contamination, executive kidnapping, fraud, product tampering, sexual harassment, and workplace violence. Unlike natural disasters, human-caused crises are not inevitable for their occurrence.” According to Heath 1998, Cited in Evans, N. and Elphick, S. (2005) that the aims of Crisis Management are:

1. To Plan and provide for possible crisis

2. To reduce or mitigate the impact of a crisis by improving the response management вЂ" the Crisis;

3. To swiftly and effectively determine the damage caused by the crisis вЂ" The post Crisis stage

There have been a number of authors which have tried to categorize the crises management. So, that it can help the organization or industry to understand and use the crises management methods in the appropriate business crises situations. “In a very broadly based interpretation of what constitutes a crisis identifies nine types of business crises: crises in public perception, sudden market shifts, product failure, top-management succession; finances, industrial relations, hostile takeovers, adverse international events, and regulation and deregulation.” Evans, N. and Elphick, S. (2005). This classification of crises situation is basically done with taking owners or the stakeholders in consideration. This is just a basis to judge that weather the crises is internal or external and is it intentional